My SoBe, Pt. 7

In her final Blue & Gold Blog entry, Alexis Andrade shares with us what “SoBe” was like for her.

Alexis Andrade says, “Hearing the compliments at the events definitely made all the stress and hard work that went into ‘SoBe’ worthwhile.”

My experience with the Food Network South Beach Wine & Food Festival was overwhelming and unbelievable. Seeing all the work I put into this event over the past two months coming to life was an incredible feeling.

I arrived on the beach, on Feb. 23, two days before the first day of SoBe, to get the first look of how all our planning was coming together for both the Burger Bash and the BubbleQ, which were scheduled to take place in the same tent on back-to-back evenings. The tent used this year was completely different from the previous designs and it was remarkable. On the schedule that day was signage placement. We provided the sign company with Burger Bash chef booth locations in order to place and hang the necaessary materials.

Feb. 24 was a longer day. Dry goods, equipment, etc., were dropped off to the site, specifically to the individual chef stations. Unfortunately, it rained and that complicated the process. But it got done.

Feb. 25 was the day of Burger Bash. My main concern was to ensure that everything ordered from Panache had arrived and that the delivery personnel delivered the items where they were assigned to go. I also had to worry about organizing the chef stations in preparation for their arrival. The last couple of hours were very hectic. In the end though, it all came together and Burger Bash looked great.

I didn’t get much sleep after the Burger Bash load-out and pick-up from the night before. The next morning, we were back on site, where we knew there was a lot of work left to do because Burger Bash cleanup was not done. Not only did we have to load-in for BubbleQ, we had to clean out the Burger Bash chef stations and remove all remnants from the night before.

As the day progressed, we realized we were behind schedule. We tried our best to catch up, to get everything completed. What complicated the situation this year was that we had fewer people to help out. Lots of people were saying, “Oh no, we’re never going to finish. This is never going to come together.” But it did. It all came together. Everyone was so surprised.

All night we were congratulated for a job well done. We were told it was their favorite BubbleQ event ever. Hearing the compliments definitely made all the stress and hard work worthwhile.

After the event, we stayed on site to clean up and load out. By that Saturday afternoon, there was nothing left except the large white tent.