I went to the Almquist Family Winery to a trade show, "Seattle Made Food + Beverage Connection", by invitation of Yelp. I'm basing my star rating on the winery itself, particularly as a venue for events like this one. But I'm including quite a bit about the trade show here too, because that gives a feel for what kind of work the winery had to do to host the event.
My first impression was the parking situation. They have a private lot, but it's not very large. There's some street parking, but it was pretty busy too. The office park just to the west is available in evenings, but I arrived during business hours so that wasn't an option. I ended up parking on Etruria Street in the middle of the long block between Warren and Queen Anne Avenue. It was an easy walk in good shoes and good weather, but it would have been a drag in rain.
As part of checking in, I received two drink tickets for the winery's wine. (A few exhibitors had drinks too.) I looked at the three wines Almquist had out for the event: a chardonnay, a pinot noir rose (!), and a red blend of sangiovese and a grape I didn't know. Since I rarely like chardonnay and have had mixed results with red blends, I went for the total unknown. The pinot noir had a broader mix of flavors and scents than my sensory skills can sort out; it's a complex wine. I found it intermediate between dry and sweet, but my taste may have been thrown off by the foods I sampled. I liked it, but not enough to buy at the $20 show special price.
Later in the show, I returned to use my second ticket. I decided to try the red blend, but on a whim I asked for a taste. No problem! I liked it, but not as well as the pinot noir, so I got a second glass of that. Much praise for the friendly server.
So, how was the venue as a place for events? I'd say that other than the daytime parking situation, it's pretty good. The space that was open for this event included:
- the main floor room, with a squarish entry space at the west end (good for checking in), a long bar along much of the north side, a narrow space between the stairs up and the bar, and a broader space past the stairs;
- an enclosed patio room west of the entrance, somewhat longer than wide;
- an open-roof patio south of the enclosed patio; and
- an upstairs room that seemed a bit smaller than the main floor room.
Put together, that space comfortably housed the show's exhibitors, allowing uncrowded access to their displays.
The space looks like it would work well for a lot of types of events: office parties, wedding receptions, trade shows, and so forth. The web site describes the amount of space available, but it presents the information in an annoying slide show format; if I were planning an event I'd e-mail them and request a brochure instead of trying to take notes from the slide show.
So, that's my four-star impression.
The rest is a description of this specific event, to give an idea of how the space was used when I was there. I visited most of the exhibitors, but left a few out of my notes (such as the coffee vendors, since I'm not a coffee drinker, heresy though that may be in Seattle).
- Laguna Pasta had very tasty fresh pasta, dressed only with olive oil.
- Comfort Baking had yummy cookies.
- Honest Biscuits had several types of biscuits; I liked all but the non-gluten.
- Pike Seattle Brewing had a yummy "Kilt Lifter" barbecue sauce, rather than showing off their brews.
- Copper Works Distilling sampled a whiskey that smelled wonderful but seemed ordinary to my tastes.
- La Liath Bakery had something called the Earl Grey tea loaf, which I liked.
- 3 Howls Distillery had samples of their Backbeat Bourbon, which was so good that I bought some on the way home; although it cost about four times as much as my usual cheap stuff, it was still a bargain.
- nuflours sold non-gluten products that tasted a lot better than most non-gluten stuff; their rum sweet potato cake was particularly tasty.
- PCC Farmland Trust had samples of their Powers cabernet, which was pretty good but probably would have improved with age; they also had brochures about their farms, which I may want to visit.
- Unsweetened Tooth sampled a fudgy brownie with peanut butter mint mousse, made with no-calorie sweetener and tasted as good as regular sweets.
- Choice Organic Tea had samples of a very good Earl Grey.
- King Cacao had samples of several toasted cacao beans; they suggested Chocolopolis as a place to buy them.
- Villa Jerada had a variety of tasty Moroccan treats.
- The Kitchen Imp had spices, but I don't remember which I sampled.
Most exhibitors had booths that looked about five or six feet wide, maybe three feet of table depth, and space for their people behind. The place didn't look crowded, even with the twenty or more booths. read more