Oh Look, Another Food Fest for the Bourgeoisie

Brace yourselves, the Austin Food & Wine Festival is back, clogging up the shores of Lady Bird Lake from Nov. 1-3. Because heaven forbid we go one weekend without celebrating overpriced small plates.

They've packed the weekend with the usual suspects: James Beard Award nominees and Food & Wine's "Best New Chefs." Yawn. But Sunday's demo tent is where it's at, with not one but two chefs from the New York Times' 50 Best Restaurants list. Impressive, if you're into that kind of thing.

Kevin Gillespie of Nàdair in Atlanta and Ashleigh Shanti of Good Hot Fish in Asheville, N.C., will be gracing us with their presence. The Times drooled over Gillespie's "Scottish-Southern mash-up" and Shanti's "Southern fish camp meets Black Appalachian foodways." Whatever that means.

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Before them, we've got local golden boy Edgar Rico from Nixta Taqueria. Statesman ranks it Top 10, Food & Wine named him Best New Chef 2023, and Time put him on their 100 list last year. Great, more validation for Austin's skyrocketing rents.

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Capping off the afternoon is Courtney Storer, culinary producer for "The Bear." Let's hope her demo is as funny as the show and not as anxiety-inducing as, you know, real life.

The rest of the weekend is a who's who of foodie royalty. Highlights include Amanda Turner, Nicola Blaque, Levi Goode, and Ali Clem. The grand tasting events feature basically every chef in Austin with a restaurant you can't afford.

The festival kicks off with the Made in Texas VIP event at the Long Center. You know, for those who want to spend even more money.

Tickets are here. Sunday tickets are $195, Weekender packages are $275, and VIP packages are a cool $750. Capitalism at its finest, folks!