​SF Chefs. Food. Wine.
Event: Festival Opening Night 
Venue: A tent in Union Square
Better Than: Watching Hell's Kitchen from the sofa

Great idea: Bring together dozens of the Bay Area's top chefs, winemakers, and mixologists for a Dionysian dream date to spotlight San Francisco as the premier city of epicurean delights. Great causes: Feeding America, Meals on Wheels, the San Francisco Food Bank, and Project Open Hand, all standing to benefit from the inaugural four-day festival's pricey tickets. They range from $40 for late-night dessert and dancing (“Chocolate Enhancement”) to $250 for a “Gala Dinner” at Union Square's posh St. Francis (“American Culinary Pioneer Awards”). The essential question: Is it worth it?

At the SF Chefs. Food. Wine. opening ceremony last night, Mayor Gavin Newsom lauded our one-of-a-kind city as a food and drink nirvana where “people come from all over the world” to intoxicate their palates with the city's “diversity, innovation, … and entrepreneurial spirit.” Of course, he was right. There was no shortage of exotic enticements in the spacious tent's various booths, which featured sufficient bite-sized tasties and classy adult beverages to satisfy sophisticated and ravenous gluttons alike.