Since its inception 21 years ago, the NOLA W&F Experience has raised over $1 million dollars for local non-profit organizations in the Louisiana community. Once again Liz Goliwas Bodet and her sidekick Frances made sure the red carpet was rolled out to us for three fun filled days!

Starting with the “Royal Street Stroll” Thursday evening, May 23rd, the party was on.

Delicious food abounded non-stop from the likes of Rouses (delish olives, armadillo eggs and meats),  Hard Rock Cafe (awesome burger sliders), GW Fins (lobster dumplings), Antoine’s (LA crawfish and shrimp in garlic tomato sauce with cheese grits) and super duper Bourbon House ( BBQ shrimp poor boy)!!

Mixed in with all of this off-the-charts grub was over 30 killer wineries pouring wine to patrons like rivers.
Each block contained at least one musical variety featuring the likes of Washboard Chaz, Mary Lasseigne Trio, Leroy Jones,  Robin Barnes and Jay Ray and G.

Adding a neato touch to this year’s event was Food Truck favorites, Frencheese (pork and goat cheese sliders and Shellback Rum), La Cocinita (Roasted corn and cheese arepitas and Camarena Tequila),  Foodie Call ( Duck boudin balls and New Amersterdam Gin) and killer Ms.Linda the Ya-Ka-Mein Lady with New Amsterdam vodka!

Rounding out the  non-wine circuit was Stella Artois presented by Regions Bank. This kind of advanced thinking for folks wanting to enjoy the festive parade atmosphere was a great idea and by the massive mob that attended, it seemed to catch on quite well.

Friday and Saturday were totally off the charts when the Fest moved to the Convention Center. Being handsomely laid out, it was almost too easy to partake in over 75 chef’s exquisite tidbits and overwhelmed us. Just imagine that every one of these folks is presenting his or her’s “home run” to you and you can have as much as you like, which we tried our best to accomplish.

By the end of each day, I felt like a turtle on his back shell rolling around stuffed to my heart’s content.

Until you experience something like this event, it is really hard to convey how fantastic it really is! The endless amount of top notch wineries are way too many to list, but the Cabs I tasted were all most satisfying.

Wineries from all over the world neatly placed in “islands” of accessibility in the air-conditined comfort of the Convention Center ROCKED!  Live music was featured at the end of each day with Flowtribe on Friday and Nigel Hall Band on Saturday.

And if all that was not enough, the 7th Annual Louisiana Seafood Cook-Off was going on, as well! YIKES is about the only word I can use to describe how we felt after 3 days of having way too much fun.

In closing, there has always been a nice vibe between the cities of Houston and New Orleans-especially since H-Town reached out to Nawlins during Hurricane Katrina aftermath. Few cities make you feel so welcome like the great folks in New Orleans do.

Believe me, we know first hand and tip our hat to this well-planned and well-run festival. It is TRULY an “experience” in every sense of the word and don’t take our word for it. GO in 2014, why don’t ya?!

VISIT : NOWFE.COM for all the info you need and recipies galore to boot!!