Corks and Coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Food and Wine Festival

Today we have a great look at the Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Food and Wine Festival which just began last weekend.

Lots of great food and drink for this growing event. Check out what you can expect to see at this years event.

Written by Steve and Jennifer Burant

Busch Gardens Tampa just started its 3rd rendition of their own Food & Wine Festival to compliment the already spectacular fall event at Epcot. In each year, they've slowly grown and improved their product, and this year did not disappoint. From the vast array of artwork and topiaries spread throughout the festival area, to the ever-evolving food and drink selection, they are clearly putting great time and effort into making this an event worth attending every year. And not only that, their sampler lanyards and ability to discount purchases with season passes surpasses what Epcot does with their event.

It's Food and Wine Time!!

Sampler Lanyard Obtained!

Snakes. Why'd it have to be giant topiary snakes?

This year they added a taco stand, a stand in which all the food items are "cooked" or "infused" with Coke products, new food items such as mango shrimp ceviche, venison meatloaf, vegetable aripas, Korean-style ribs (YUM!), among many other delicious food and dessert choices. They seem to focus more on a "Floridian" type menu as opposed to the world-tour Epcot provides, but it works for a place like BGT.

Bison slider with Sriracha ketchup and a Lucky Lucy Strawberry Blonde, a local Tampa Bay brew from Pair O' Dice Brewing

Mango shrimp ceviche, a new item for 2017 and smoked beef brisket on a spiced corn waffle.

Corks and Coasters!!

Short rib taco from a new stand, "Tasty Taqueria" and a mango margarita.

Another new food item, Korean Gochujang ribs. Delicions! And Rekorderlig Strawberry-Lime Cider, a wonderful Swedish brew that thankfully survived the vicious attack on Sweden. =)

My only qualm is that the variety of food didn't stack up to the variety of drinks. So next year, they could keep expanding the menu. The best thing I have to say is BGT has improved each successive year this event has taken place, and it's a more than acceptable replacement for the now-defunct Bands, Brews & BBQ events they used to have. They've grown the festival area from only Gwazi Park the first year, to a much wider area encompassing the midways from Sesame Street to Morocco. They also have local businesses who can come into the park and sell various arts and crafts, allowing them to get their name out there and grow.

Peacock decorated with forks and spoons

Rod Bender, a fantastic red ale from one of our favorite local breweries, 3 Daughters.

"Moving Topiaries"

Another new stand is the "Cooking with Coke" stand.

The stand features jerk chicken empanadas with Cherry Coke dipping sauce and a pulled pork slider with Cherry Coke BBQ. Yum!

Pan-seard hangar steak with chimichurri and roasted poblano hash. Also key lime berry parfait mousse with a churro.

When you've had too much to drink too early in the day

Octopus Topiary

Lady made up to look liek a statue who does interpretive dances and shoots water out of her fingers.

Played knock off Plinko, won Jen a peanut.

Banana's Foster Panna Cotta. OMG!!!

Ice Sculpting outside in Florida. Bold Strategy, Cotton.

Lots of great decorations around the park

All in all, Busch Gardens Tampa has far exceeded my own expectations from when they started this event in 2015, and I'm very excited to see what the coming years will bring for this event!

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Corks and Coasters at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay Food and Wine Festival

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