This is fun because it's Downtown. I really enjoy how it's like a farmers market and it's outside…read more There's parking nearby that's free but there's also I think paid Parking at the convention or the bowling convention center. We got the Beer pass which works the whole time you are at the festival for both days or three days. I'm not really sure but we've only went for two days and it's cool because you got to keep the cup and keep trying beers from all the vendors it's pretty affordable if you drink for the both days or if you even drink for that one day, it's cool to hear about all the different beers around and I feel like most of the vendors take credit card as well when we bought that cup to try the beers they took Cards as well. The music playing in the background is cool and very festive. This event is a lot of fun and something to do in Reno especially for those that like beer, the barbecue is just a bonus. And the music is a lot of fun too. I feel like this is an opening event for the summertime or outdoor events. This is right around when Reno gets pretty warm.

Always a fun time at BBQ Blues and Brews. This year (2025) they actually had more than 1 BBQ stand…read more Got to try some new beverages that I normally would not try. SurfSide had some nice lemonade and half lemonade half ice tea alcoholic beverages that were pretty tasty. Sierra Nevada Pils beer was alsoight and refreshing. Looking forward to next year.

2018. Part 2 Two…read moreweeks really meant dividing the review into two parts. Over the weekend I stopped in at one of my most favorite places- SÜP, for their RBW special trio of soups and a mini loaf of bread for $10. They have participated all seven years. I get this to go, and it becomes lunch for three days. Always delicious. Not on Monday, I finally got to Moo Dang. I am such a wimp when it comes to spicy, but I still enjoy Asian foods. The RBW special was Drunken Noodles (zero spice for me) and a Big Chang Beer for $10. The noodles still had fabulous flavor and the beer I sent to another table- cheers. Wednesday was continuing the RBW dine with friends. Erica and went to Zozo's for their over the top $30 RBW special. So many choices !!! Probably the best bargain during the event. Appetizer, soup or salad, main, and dessert all for $30. Oh, and don't forget their very addictive basket of garlic bread. Yep, easily two meals here. See separate Zozo's review for all the food. So indecisive and running out of time. Thursday I ran up to Skyline Kitchen and Vine. $30 for an adult beverage, appetizer, main and dessert. Craving a burger, I did the 8 oz Kobe Burger, topped with caramelized onions, white cheddar, and a steak sauce aioli. Check restaurant review for full food description. Another busy Friday, but Claudy came up from Carson to try the RBW $10 lunch special at Chihuahua's on South Virginia across from the Lexus dealer. Plenty of food for the price. Chips and salsa arrived first. Then platter of a beef enchilada and a chili Relleno with beans and rice. The meal was good, but nothing wowed me. And the food chilled off rather quickly. That didn't matter because the waitress took my plate before I was all thru. Claudy and I ordered each of the desserts. Both were very sweet. The place wasn't packed during lunch, but I did feel rushed. Saturday!! Oh no RBW is over. The fabulous finale is always the Chef Showdown. This year 6 chefs who participated in RBW sliced, diced and sautéed against each other for bragging rights of the best in Reno. They an hour to create a vegetarian plate using butternut squash, couscous, turmeric and pomegranate. Mmm the aromas that filled the air. The best part is you get to walk around all the kitchens and see how they cook and ask questions. Brett Moseley won best use of ingredients and Joe Bell won best plating and overall WINNER. Congrats to everyone!!! Now after two weeks of having so many fabulous food specials with lots of friends- I'm off to the gym. See you next year. Or in any locally owned restaurant. Remember- Break the Chain, Reno has fabulous food.

This year was the 7th Annual Reno Bites Restaurant Week, however for me, it was my very first…read moreparticipating in it. It was two weeks of absolute fun as my room mates and I made an effort to visit as many restaurants as we possibly could. I already made separate reviews for all the places we dined at for the Reno Bites Restaurant Week, but just in case you missed it, we visited: Liberty Food and Wine Exchange, Chihuahua's Cantina and Grill, Skyline Kitchen and Vine, Sierra St. Kitchen, Moo Dang, Shore Room, and lastly Fin and Filet. Of course, I would have loved to try them all out, but there's only so much we could visit with work and what not. I love food and I love to eat. Whether it's breakfast, lunch, dinner, or dessert, I love them all. Not to mention there are countless restaurants and new ones keep popping up. With Reno Bites Restaurant Week, there are those selected and highlighted restaurants advertising their specials for those two weeks, making it very appealing to want to try them out. I, personally, was able to dine at many restaurants that I always wanted to try out, but never got the chance to. It was not just the food, but the experience as a whole. For those selected restaurants, it was great exposure and they were able to showcase a little taste of what they were about. And for us, it was fun and delicious experience. Unfortunately, we missed the Chef Showdown because we were out of town for the weekend. But, there's always next year and many years to come. Overall, this being my first ever Reno Bites, I have to say I loved every minute of it. Prices were very affordable and the foods were all so tasty. Sad to think we'll have to wait a whole year until the next one rolls around, but when it does finally come, I'll be ready!

Grounds are well maintained and easy to navigate. Stage is centered and sound quality was spot on…read more I enjoyed that they had multiple bartenders and a specific line for specific drinks. I was surprised and honestly loved the venue. Great place!

The venue is nice and clean. Rental chairs are a neat addition. The grass is nice and soft. The…read morecanned beer selection was a bit lacking. However the local beers on tap were decent and priced reasonably at $13 per. Coors Light was the same cost as a Revision IPA. Lol. The biggest issue with the event we attended, Brighter Daze is the location of the sound booth. It is dead center, huge and located where the crowd wants to be. Sitting anywhere in the grass rewards you with a wonderful view of the back of the sound booth. The stage is not visible. We can see the top 3rd of the screen behind the stage. Without the sound shack, there would be many great photos of the wonderful festival grounds leading up to the stage and the fans. That photo does not exist. Move this monstrosity to the back, a side, or remove the shanty town looking roof and walls so the paying fans can see through the booth. Oh, the bathrooms were plenty and clean.

RISE and enjoy a Taste and Toast of summer…read more The Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality was the benefactor of this event at the Atlantis. All of the proceeds from the evening supports locals by providing meals, distributing clothing and toiletries, providing emergency housing vouchers to aide families from losing their homes, and help homeless seek emergency shelter. Often some of the area charity events have familiar participants. But I was glad to see tonight had some new and creative faces, and many fantastic summer bites. Along with delicious morsels, came ingenious presentations. The Grove's miniature campsite with s'mores, and nachos in a tin can. Gaslamp had shrimp at the beach. And Bistro 7's grilled corn bruschetta was amazing. Not even opened yet, but The Jesse was serving. I enjoyed Fin & Filet, Twisted Fork, Sierra Street Kitchen, Dorinda's Chocolates, Rue Bourbon, and The Grill too. As well as helping a great local charity, you got to talk to some fantastic local restauranteurs. I'm sorry, did I only talk about the food? The wine.....was awesome and plentiful. Saw some old favorites and discovered some new vineyards I hadn't tried yet. Thanks to those who contributed all the fabulous raffle and silent auction items. You made it hard to bid, and even more difficult not to buy an entire roll of raffle tickets. And finally, all the friends I ran into. Nice to see everyone.

We started off the Summer right toasting with libations & wine, tasting fabulous Chef creations by…read moreBistro 7, Thunderbird Lodge, Indian Kabab, The Men's Club, Beaujolais Bistro, The Grove, Fin & Filet, The Gas Lamp, the Atlantis and Dorinda's Chocolates (I think I'm forgetting a few) - all while benefitting R.I.S.E. The Reno Initiative for Shelter and Equality or RISE. is nonprofit based in Reno that was founded to "cultivate a greater sense of dignity and humility by providing equal access to shelter, knowledge and opportunity." Volunteering and other support opportunities can be found at renoinitiative.org. Everyone including us at this wonderful event were having an excellent time as we moved around the ballroom. Silent auction items were placed in the middle of the room from golf clubs, mini-vacations, fabulous bottles of wine, exquisite pieces of jewelry and of course the wheel barrel of wine and beer that you could purchase a raffle ticket to possibly take the entire contents home. We bid on several different silent auction items and purchased several raffle tickets but alas we were outbid still knowing our money went to a very worthy cause. The libations, wine and food circled the outsides of the room and throughout the night we were entertained by the DJ playing popular tunes for everyone to dance too. We saw several attendees dancing the night away to the Electric Slide including some fellow Yelpers. Great night for a great cause, thankful we could attend and support this evening via Yelp - thank you to Yelp, Michael T. and R.I.S.E. and all the numerous sponsors, vendors and local restaurants that came out too!

I have never been to this festival before, but some of my friends told me about it and recommended…read moreit to me, so I decided to come by and check it out. When I first showed up I was quite surprise to see that it looked very similar to the Rib Cookoff, a yearly event that I go to every year! Lots of the streets closed off from traffic for foot walk, with several stands of shops, food, drinks and more! A live band performance, and people everywhere! I got food from one of the stands, Meatballs and Polenta. I got meatballs and garlic bread. The meatballs were really good but the garlic bread got very hard by the time I started to eat it. Pretty fun. Fun little event for sure! Definitely go check it out if you enjoy Italian food whenever you're in the area!

Although the weather wasn't perfect, this event was busy. We ended up going once to shop the booths…read moreand see all the neat stuff people make and sell. We went another time to eat when the food vendors were less busy. The artichoke/italian sausage was amazing. The mushroom ravioli was tasty, we found some pastries with cinnamon and sugar but I can't remember what they were called. There was a wine walk (we didn't partake in) but there were lots of wines to taste. Thanks to the Eldorado for this 12th straight year that I have attended.

WHAT DID WE JUST WATCH?…read more Only the wackiest, zaniest, wildest and craziest event in all of Northern Nevada! I can't believe after living here for like 20 years. I still haven't wrote a review about this amazing event! It has been my favorite since discovering it after I arrived in 2008 because it is the most ridiculous idea I've ever come across and one that you can add your own fund to very easily! The first year I went, I remember being with my wife and her friends and we had fun playing a game where we'd bet on which shoot would have the fastest camel ostrich, or zebra or emu depend, depending upon the race being run. The person with the most points at the end of the event would be responsible for the first round of drinks! The jockeys are all event sponsors or local celebrities and media and the animals are wholly unpredictable, so there's no scale and it's all for Fine and it's unbelievable to cheer on your favorite animal in the race and hope that they do or don't throw your jockey right off! This year I took my kids and my parents who were visiting from Florida and the events really evolved a bit with a much wider selection, food and drink, as well as vendors too. We enjoyed a hand dipped corn dog as well as one that was dusted and blue Takis yuck but my kids liked it, and I was pumped to find Tahoe creamery. There was some really delicious ice cream too. You definitely get what you pay for when it comes to seating. Pro tip if you want to be in the shade, definitely get yourself the premium covered seating because the bleachers are totally exposed and sometimes the weather is cool while others really hot and we lucked out with a beautiful afternoon. Now the real racket here are the camel rides. Just be prepared because your kids are gonna want to get on one and maybe you too and that's gonna set you back 20 bucks a head. Also, my one regret is that I missed out on the merch! The merch here is fantastic and has been ever since Liquid Blue events took it over, which is why it sells out so make sure to check that out first and get yourself outfitted before what you want disappears! If you've never been, this is one you cannot miss as a resident of Northern Nevada!

Camel and ostrich racing? Who would have thought, although this year was Virginia City's 66th…read moreannual! We were entertained for two hours with camel, ostrich, emu, zebra and duck racing with audience participated games in between. Tickets at the door ($30 per adult) were slightly more than if pre-purchased online. VIP and the upgraded shaded area were sold out so we had no choice but to get the bleachers, which was ok because it was high 70s with a breeze. Can't imagine getting through that if it was hotter though! VIP was under a tent, but it didn't look like they had a great view (round tables set up on a square, flat area) unless you were seated in the front by the racetrack. They had food vendors set up with the biggest corndogs I've ever seen, shaved ice, beer, cheesesteak, ice cream etc. It was nice that none of the lines were super long. Port-a potties were in decent shape. At least the ones we visited. $15 for Fairground parking, or there was a free shuttle that ran from C Street downtown. Saw lots of people just doing the short walk in and out.

This is the kick-off for what will be a monthly event in conjunction with the Wine Walk on the…read morethird Saturday from now until October. It is sponsored by the TMCC Alumni association with the proceeds going to support first generation TMCC students. This was a really nice event and really kept to the theme of local arts and crafts. There are booths with jewelry, pottery, hand crafted glassware, photography, visual arts, health and beauty items as well as wine snobs paraphernalia. There was live music which adds to the festival atmosphere. The items for sale were of nice quality and really ranged in price. I think it would be a great place to buy unique items that are not available at every other street fair around. Not a tie-die t-shirt or funky sunglasses to be found here. This is really a nice quality Arts and Crafts event.

I believe this was at least my tenth year in attending this crazy festival…read more You can't begin to call yourself a true adventurous foodie if you never do the festival at least once in your life. Every year on a Saturday (except covid, damn it) rain or shine the old mining town of Virginia City, NV hosts the Rocky Mountain Oyster Fry during the St Patrick's Day celebration. Contestants are all giving the same beef balls or testicles and are challenged with creating a unique dish to share with festival goers. This year's set up was a bit different. The main stage, beer tent and ticket pick up was in the Old National Hotel parking lot. The vendor tents were set up on C Street from that intersection to Sutton. 2024 was a perfect year. A beautiful 60 degree sunny day brought out about 1000 attendees. I highly recommend pre-buying tickets online around mid February so you don't miss out. All Ball or Sample Ball tickets can be bought. Along with Leprechaun Crawl passes. They can also be purchased as a package for a discount. For the last several years my friends and I have been making this an event weekend. Arriving in VC Friday morning to enjoy the town on a quiet level. And to be able to walk in at 9:30 am and pick up our tickets. Stroll the vendors while they are prepping. Then at 10 am start the sampling. The purchase day of line was almost two blocks long by 10:30. we were able to take our time and enjoy each bite without waiting in any lines over 10 minutes. 2024 had a few usual suspects and some newbies- Cajones Caliente - jalapeno poppers, their usual Nut Up or Shut Up - egg rolls, their usual but seemed like the recipe was different Ball Bangers- bangers and mash. Huge kudos to this group for creating mini bangers and serving them with mashed potatoes and gravy to about a 1000 people. Cafe Del Rio- local restaurant, slow braised smoky taco with citrus slaw was delicious. Mustang Ranch- Texas Testes Chile Verde, was quite good Hey D's Nuts- tamales de testes aka nut sacks. Dry, could have used the above chili verde and been a winner Dolls and Balls- corned bull hash, great flavors, I like mine a bit crispier. Hillbilly Chili- deep fried meatballs with Irish drizzle. Very well done, double coated for great crunch, well seasoned, and the green drizzle was delightful. A top three for my group. Men Welding Fire- repeated testicle tacos. Disappointing, I wasn't thrilled this year or last. Cold shell, lettuce, cheese and salsa on hot unflavorful meat. Team Holy Balls- BBQ balls in pasta wrapped in bacon. These guys were my choice and the festival winner. Testicle sausage stuffed in a manicotti shell wrapped in bacon and grilled. See that picture below. How could you go wrong. Kastration Kreation- deep fried sausage with jalapeno. Great flavor and bites of crispiness. You are given one golden ticket. This is dropped in the bucket of your favor team. At the end of the day they are tallied for crowd favorite. Official judges started at 10 am, we kept bumping into them. Teams are judged on presentation, taste and originality. At noon you can take a ball break and enjoy the St Patty's Day Parade on the south end of C Street.

What an uplifting experience filled with wonderful friends and family. The oyster this year were…read moreserved in numerous innovative ways, it was a challenge to judge who was the best. All of the vendors were exceptionally nice and kind. There were abundance of personality and warm welcoming smiles. There was so much time and effort that went into crafting the delectable balls. There really wasn't a disappointing aspect. I'm eagerly looking forward to next year.