FEAST 2017 RECAP!

What a freakin' weekend it's been!! 😱🙌🏻⚡️ Between running all around Portland, building our first apron tent installation and stuffing our cheeks with the best food we could get our hands on, our H&B team killed it at Feast this year. There were so many familiar faces that we got to hug and squeeze and it totally kind of felt like a big family affair. Check out some of our favorite moments from the festival! 

BA Test Kitchen Director Brad Leone, @ellenmariebennet & Adam Rapoport, BA Editor in Chief 

We hit the ground running Thursday night with Bon Appetit's Sandwich Invitational that our Apron Lady had the huge honor of judging. Tasked with devouring 30 sandwiches in two hours and picking a winner really isn't as easy as it looks! 

The next few days were jammed packed with so much amazing food, killer cocktails, kitchen adventures, pulling to the side of the road for a quick dance session and covering a tent in some H&B aprons. 

Ellen even threw on an apron and cooked in the kitchen along side some of the most badass chefs in the world -- Daniela Soto-Innes, Andy Ricker, Jose Chesa and Enrique Olvera at Chesa to Gabrielle Hamilton, Ashley Merriman and Jason French at Elder Hall! 

"It was the total highlight of the trip to throw on an apron and jump in the kitchen. Gabrielle really reminded me why I got into this crazy business in the first place. She’s here for the guests and no one else. It’s so old school and brings it back to the roots of why hospitality and restaurants started in the first place. She’s there to make the guest feel like the most important person and the rest is just frosting on the cake. It completely reinforced my innate desire for every H&B interaction to be the warmest, loveliest experience and it all comes back to hospitality. She [Gabrielle] eats, lives, breathes that motto and it’s really something to admire.” - Ellen, the Apron Boss 

HUGE shoutout to our entire Feast team that worked tirelessly to bring our apron tent to life at the main event of the festival, SMOKED. Pretty freaking cool when you imagine something for so long and when you bring it life, it just exceeds your expectations. 

AND what a perfect way to celebrate our launch at Williams Sonoma that happened the same week! It was so awesome to see our new beautiful aprons out in the wild and in action at WS' activation. Seeing new and old #apronsquad members rocking these designs was pretty much the cherry on top of the perfect PNW weekend adventure! 

 

Between all the hugs, snacks and festivities, we managed to sneak out to some of our favorite places to visit old friends and eat some of the best food the city has to offer. Even though Feast only comes once a year, these amazing restaurants are PDX destinations you cannot miss out on!! 

Han Oak: Not only is the food so good, the chef lives there! His house is the anex and the restaurant patio is their backyard. Maybe you’ll see their son playing on the patio!