The road to SoBe, Pt. 8


The Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival is days away and Alexis Andrade is ready to hit the sand and work on-site. In her latest Blue & Gold Blog entry, she walks us through the past week-and-a-half on her road to “SoBe.”

Week of Feb. 22, 2010

With SoBe but days away, Alexis Andrade is putting the last-minute details in place before "SoBe" starts Feb. 25.

It’s difficult to imagine that SoBe is a few days away. It seems like just yesterday Kelly Murphy – about whom I told you last week – called to ask me to assist her and her team with one of the festival’s signature events: the BubbleQ.

A couple of weeks ago, Kelly and I had a meeting with Lee Schrager, the festival’s director, and several members of his management team. We reported all of the details regarding the BubbleQ, from the décor to the menu to which chefs will be attending. He seemed very pleased with our work and specifically, with our team’s organization.

The next day, we had a meeting with a local T-shirt company to design the shirts everyone working at the BubbleQ will wear and last Monday, I was greeted with a little surprise from Kelly.

I was driving to work when she called me and said, “Alexis, let’s be spontaneous and drive up to Orlando for the 2010 American Rental Association Convention.” I said I could go as long as I was back by Tuesday night, the night of my first midterm. So the two of us, along with Kelly’s niece, Simone Hazel, who owns Lunare Design Escape, drove up to Orlando that morning and attended the convention. It was so much fun! Not only did we run into a lot of familiar faces, we got to look around and get décor ideas and inspiration for the BubbleQ.

Things have been very busy around the office. Right now, we’re putting the last-minute details in place before the festival. It seems that every day chefs are calling to change their equipment and food orders. What this means is that I have to change all of the order forms. I did expect these changes and am anticipating additional changes to come our way until the first guest enters the tent. Even then, who knows what can happen, right? But that’s why I love what I do.

To read more blog entries from Panthers working on the 2010 South Beach Wine & Food Festival, click here.

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