The seventh annual Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin Food & Wine Classic starts Friday evening and concludes Sunday with its first-ever Sunday Bubbles Brunch.
It’s no coincidence that the Epcot-region hotels hold their event in October — it’s smack dab in the middle of the theme park’s gargantuan International Food & Wine Festival. In 2010, the members of the hotels’ food and beverage division figured they might be able to lure some Epcot attendees over the pathway and past the Boardwalk if they offered their own mini wine and food festival featuring the various restaurants and food vendors from the two properties.
It not only worked but in the last several years has grown to be a major festival in its own right, with probably many of its attendees never setting foot inside Epcot. (It helps that the cost of admission to the Food & Wine Classic, $105 per person, is roughly the same as it costs to get into Epcot, but that fee gets you unlimited sips and samples all evening. Heck, you’ll even be able to see most of the Epcot fireworks from there.)
I’ll let you check out the menus at the official Food & Wine Classic website. Do keep in mind that many items are served only only Friday or Saturday to give guests attending both days more variety. I attended a media preview earlier in the week and I can tell you to seek out the Crispy Duck Bao. It’s pretty yummy. And the sweets from master pastry chef and two-time World Pastry Champion Laurent Branlard are always wonderful. (Just don’t ask him about his bicycle.)
Also, check out the video below that my friends at icFlorida put together.
The classic is Friday, Oct. 28, and Saturday, Oct. 29, from 5:30 to 9 p.m. There are some seminars that start at 4:30 p.m. each day, but most of those are likely sold out by now. The Sunday brunch will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Il Mulino Trattoria and is $75. You may reserve for that at 888-828-8850. Most of the event takes place on the causeway that connects the two properties. And the weather should be perfect this year.
The Swan & Dolphin hotels are at 1500 Epcot Resorts Blvd., Lake Buena Vista. You can’t miss them — one had large statues of swans on top and the other has large statues of carp.
