May 20th was a beautiful day in Beaverton. It was the kind of day where everyone seemed to be out for a walk, doing yard work, visiting the farmer’s market, or playing with the kids at a local park. The kind of day where the realization hits home that winter is truly over and spring is, for a week or two at least, giving way to summer. The kind of day that seems to pat us all on the back and congratulate us for making it through another cold and rainy winter/spring in Oregon. The kind of day that seems to be saying, “Go ahead! You deserve to go out and have that glass of wine! And not only that, but you deserve to enjoy some specially prepared food to go with it!”
For 350 people, a complete sell-out and doubling of last year’s attendance, the Old Town Beaverton Wine and Food Walk allowed them to fulfill the day’s wishes.
From See See Motor Coffee to Mattson Hellickson Dental to Syndicate Wine Bar (of course!), 10 different wineries poured samples at 10 other businesses throughout the downtown Beaverton district and a unique food pairing from local restaurants.
With the sun shining down on downtown Beaverton for the entirety of the Old Town Beaverton Wine and Food Walk, which ran from 3:00 PM to 7:00 PM, the 350 people who were lucky enough to get tickets for the event flowed through downtown, tasting their way through all of this event’s offerings.
Some consulted their maps and had a plan on how to most efficiently visit each location to ensure that they got the most for their money and were able to return their fully punched cards back to the check-in booth, where they could be entered into a raffle.
Some seemed to meander around the area, tasing some wine here, window shopping there – conversing, sitting, standing, and moving on to the next place when the winds of change blew them to their next destination.
Whether moving from one place to another with purpose and plan or following the meandering route, there was a felt sense of joviality from all, whether waiting in line for the next offering those finding a place to sit and converse with their friends; each conversation discussing what was just tasted or recommending a next tasting to one who hadn’t yet completed the circuit.
Like the varied approaches towards how best to visit all wine and food pairings, the opinions of which wine and food-wine pairings were the favorite brought no consensus from those asked. Some appreciated the offerings of the well-established winemakers at Willamette Valley Vineyards. Some favored the wines from the 4-year-old Parra Wine Company. While others still voted for the offerings of Cathedral Ridge, who were pouring their samples at the Westline Apartments.
Regardless of whether someone was resolute in their plan and appreciated Resolu Cellars’ wine the most or one who meandered through the event and most enjoyed the offerings of La Randonnee Wines and the flavors of Megabites’ food offering, there was a consensus that the event itself was very much appreciated and was another step towards exposing the beautiful community that is downtown Beaverton to more and more folks.
With the success of selling out this event and with the upcoming events in June (Boba Dash (on June 3rd) and Beaverton’s Pride Celebration (on June 25th), we look forward to continuing to find ways to draw people toward downtown Beaverton so that they, too can experience firsthand the amazing food, warming coffee, cold beer, locally-owned shops and, most importantly, the incredible individuals who have created these businesses and have helped build this community into what it is today.
So, with the closing of the second year of the Old Town Food and Wine Walk, we tip our glasses of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Port, to the BDA volunteers, the winemakers, the restaurants, the businesses, and, of course, to all who bought tickets for this event.
We thank you all deeply for helping make this event the incredible success that it was!
Cheers!
– Nathan Smith, Promotions Committee Volunteer