COOK EAT DRINK LIVE 2009
La. Venue / The Tunnel
608 West 28th Street
New York, NY 10001
Friday, November 6
6pm - 9pm
Saturday & Sunday November 7 & 8
2pm - 6pm

Starting at shortly before 6, the line begins to form on West 28th Street. When the men at the door allow, people begin pouring in, aimed squarely at the wine glasses, and then they proceed, some with the deliberate precision of a connoisseur, some with the hurried goal of getting as much wine as quickly as possible and then finding some pastries in the adjoining room.

Cook Eat Drink Live is a convention of sorts. Perhaps 30 vineyards from across the state travel here to showcase themselves to the City. Many, specifically those hailing from Long Island, are available in wine galleries citywide. Others, notably some smaller Finger Lakes vineyards, are not and stack their tasting tables with order forms and brochures. Supervineyard Robert Mondavi has an entire mini-room, complete with bistro tables. And RM was pouring samples twice the size of the other, smaller guys. Needless to say, their "tent" was jam-packed.

In the adjoining rooms are vodka and gin importers, whiskey and cordial importers, making cocktails and offering samples of their wares to anyone who wants to try. Bakeries, restaurants and chocolatiers showed up as well. Cakes and cookies, tofu and steak, butternut squash soup and Ethiopian chicken all made their appearances in sample-sized form.

Tickets were $65 or available through Groupon for $32. But it's all you can eat and no one gets carded.