Foodbuzz Festival: Part 1: Cocktail Party & Street Fare

Hello! I am still recovering from an incredible jam-packed weekend hosted by Foodbuzz – The First Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival . This weekend went by sooo fast – I feel like by the time I got there and was adjusting to the time change, it was already time to leave.

I stayed at the Wyndhym at Canterbury in San Francisco with Danica (+ her hubby), Ashley, Allison, Quinn, and Janetha – but not all in the same room! thanks to Danica, she is one of the sweetest and most generous people I have ever met. Barely ever having talked to Danica before, she offered her timeshare to us so we wouldn’t have to pay for the hotel in San Francisco. Danica and her husband, who was just as sweet and friendly, are also coming up on their first wedding anniversary this month! Congrats!

I was supposed meet Ashley at the airport to take a cab over to the hotel together, since her flight was scheduled to arrive an hour after mine, but it was cancelled due to “technical difficulties” and she didn’t arrive until 11 pm! I made my way over to the hotel and with the help of Allison, Quinn, and Danica – I checked into this amazing room, the hotel was BEAUTIFUL!!! It even had a little kitchen – perfect for food bloggers =)

Allison, Quinn, and I checked in with Foodbuzz at Hotel Vitale, where we picked up our name tags and amazing swag bags – which were filled with amazing goodies, including spatulas, espresso beans, a cappacino frother, a knork (!), olives, pesto, and sooo man other great things – I’ill post more pictures soon.

Afterwards, we went back to the hotel to get ready for Cocktail hour at Hotel Vitale. Danica’s husband, Jay, was nice enough to drive us all down to the hotel. arrived to this beautiful view.

I had a great time chatting and getting to know Danica in person – after spending some time adjusting our cameras, we mingled with some other bloggers and checked out the food/drink offerings.

I didn’t get anything to drink, but I think Danica tried one of their featured cocktails from the Skyy bar.

I got to meet some bloggers and then we headed off to dinner – San Francisco Street Food Fare.

First stop – Mission Minis…

adorable mini cupcakes in a variety of flavors, including Ruby Red Velvet, Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate, and Swiss Almond Coconut.

Kath, Danica, and I decided to share a few different flavors so we could try them all – they were amazzzzzing! My favorites were the Red Velvet and Pumpkin Spice.

Throughout the night, I also managed to try BOTH the vanilla bean and coffee organic ice-creams from Straus Family Creamery. I loved the vanilla bean specks in the vanilla flavor, but the coffee was my favorite.

Then, I came across tasty tacos from Tacolicious – I tried a couple bites of this braised beef taco, and believe me – its even better than it looks.

One of the really popular items of the night were these mini pies from Pie Truck. I tried part of this *hot fresh-out-of-the-oven* Steak and Gruyere pie, and oh my goodness was this delicious! They even have a blog too.

Another really popular item was this Porchetta Sandwich from Roli Roti – Gourmet Rotisserie, they had the longest line of all the places that night! It was obvious that Roli Roti really knows what they are doing when it comes to rotisserie and and making incredible sandwiches.

Another one of my favorites of the night was from an organic, vegan, and raw restaurant and caterer called Alive. I tried a bite of their lavender blueberry cheesecake – can you believe this is raw?!?!

Flaxseed flatbread with cashew cream, tomatoes, & avocado and the other with a raw marinara basil and olives – wish I could find something like this in a restaurant near me, I just loved how crispy, light, and flavorful there are

salad of red & golden beets – cooked perfectly! I even convinced Allison to try it, I think she changed her mind about beets =)

The most bizarre thing tried was a raw oyster! can you tell it wasn’t my favorite item of the night?? I still tried it with an open mind though!

best part of the night??? getting to meet other bloggers! Here I am with Danica, Janetha, and Brittany – everyone was so sweet and welcoming. Honestly, at first I was really nervous, but everyone was so nice and friendly – it really didn’t take much for me to come out of my shell, being the introvert that I am.

Thank you so much foodbuzz!