The four-day South Beach Wine & Food Festival, culminating Sunday with a brunch honoring British chef Jamie Oliver and a second day of Grand Tasting excess under oceanside tents at Lummus Park, may seem like one more celeb-filled, alcohol-fueled excuse to party for a town that patented the form.
And certainly, partying is the point for most of the 30,000-plus attending the 50-some events, wine glasses dangling from straps around their necks and faces getting redder with each pour.
But go backstage at the Grand Tasting Village, pay attention to the chatter on the fringes of the marquee events, hang out at the late-night VIP schmooze fests and it becomes clear that a lot of folks are here to do business.
In its seventh year, the festival has emerged as the Sundance of the food and wine industry. Just like the film crowd knows to go to Park City, Utah, players in the culinary world know they'd better be in South Beach.
'EVERYBODY' IS HERE
''I absolutely compare this festival to Sundance,'' says Jon Rosen, senior vice president of the William Morris Agency, in town from New York to handle clients Giada de Laurentiis, Rachael Ray and Bobby Flay.
``Everybody is down here. Target. KitchenAid. The Food Network itself. There is a lot of cross-pollination that happens. Maybe deals don't actually get done here. But sometimes I run into somebody at the Grand Tasting Village and we talk right there on the beach. Or we agree to meet back in New York.''
Will Schwalbe, until three weeks ago the editor-in-chief at Hyperion Books, met emerging barbecue star Adam Perry Lang at the BubbleQ a couple of years ago. They got to talking, and Schwalbe was impressed.
' `You know,' you say, 'Are you doing a book? Why not? That's crazy. You should.' And then a little later, you sign him. If I hadn't been here for the festival, I would have missed that deal.'' (Lang's so-far-untitled book is due out next year.)
Schwalbe, who left Hyperion to start his own Web-based media company, put in a full night Friday, perhaps scouting future deals. He went from a private Food Network cocktail party at the Sagamore to the BubbleQ at the Delano, then Emeril's poolside Sugar Shack at the Raleigh and finally a late-night, super-VIP cocktail party for New York star chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten in the Raleigh's penthouse.
THE `EDGE'
Watch closely and you can tell who's here on business. They're typically engaged in sideline chatter, steering clear of crowded food and beverage lines. Indulging is not what they're about.
''If you're in the industry, being here feels essential,'' Schwalbe says. ``It gives you the inside edge. It reminds me of when I was a kid and my parents had parties. . . . I'd be upstairs in my room hearing the noise and hating that I was missing something big.
``If you are in the industry and you stay in New York this week, you're like that kid stuck in your bedroom hearing all that noise coming from down there and feeling completely left out.''
CHANCE MEETINGS
As the festival has grown, so has the deal-making atmosphere, says founder and director Lee Brian Schrager.
``A first it was just a place to come sample great foods and wines and see some personalities. But now I get more and more e-mails. `We're launching such-and-such product line and we'd like to talk to Bobby Flay's people, or whoever, when we're down there. How do we get to them?'
``A lot of book publishers are here, talent agencies, TV producers, you name it. Everybody is looking to hook up with somebody.''
Sometimes the hookups just happen. Jennifer Behar, who started Jennifer's Homemade in her Coral Gables kitchen, said Martha Stewart stopped by her table at last year's festival. Stewart sampled the biscotti and flatbreads, and a few months later invited her onto The Martha Stewart Show.
''I got into Whole Foods after that,'' Behar said. ``That's not the only reason I got into Whole Foods, but it was definitely a selling point. You never know who's going to be here or what might happen.''
Schrager laid the foundation for another deal when he introduced Katie Lee Joel, wife of singer Billy, to Paula Deen at the 2006 festival. It was an instant love connection, and Deen later agreed to write the forward to Joel's first cookbook, due out in May.
''I can't tell you that Rachael Ray got her endorsement deal with Fury Knives at the festival,'' says Schrager. ``But I can tell you that I got an e-mail from Fury asking me to put them in touch with her people.
``I know that [South Beach Diet creator] Arthur Agetston is having a drink with Jamie Oliver this weekend in the Loews Hotel lobby. Who knows what could come out of that?''
Hanging out in the green room at the Grand Tasting Village Saturday afternoon, a glass of chardonnay in his hand, Oliver allowed that he had gotten a fair bit of work done at the festival.
''It's a huge industry, with a lot of busy people in it,'' he said. ``It's great to have one weekend where you can all meet up by the beach, have some fun, but also talk shop.''
