“The inaugural Manhattan Beach Food & Wine, Southern California’s newest world-class Culinary Festival, is coming to Manhattan Village the evenings of Friday, October 11th and Saturday, October 12th. The Festival features an all-star lineup of 50 of the Best Chefs in North America!”
The Event Host Chef is Neal Fraser of Redbird and Vibiana in Downtown Los Angeles. The local culinary ambassadors are Chef David LeFevre of Fishing with Dynamite, MB Post, The Arthur J and AttaGirl, and Sherry Yard of Bakery by the Yard.
“Set against the stunning coastal backdrop of one of America’s most beautiful cities, Manhattan Beach Food & Wine promises to be a spectacular two-night strolling culinary extravaganza with an Opening Night Celebration on Friday, October 11, 2024, and Grand Tasting on Saturday, October 12, 2024. Each evening will bring together the industry’s top tastemakers and culinary and beverage connoisseurs to celebrate an all-star lineup of 25 of the best chefs and restaurants, illustrious wineries, premier spirits, handcrafted cocktails, craft breweries, curated selection of non-alcoholic beverages, live entertainment, and much more.” The charitable beneficiary is the Careers through Culinary Arts Program (C-CAP.)
“Manhattan Beach Food & Wine will be held at Manhattan Village in a 40,000-square-foot outdoor space located at the end of the Veterans Parkway Greenbelt Path. This beautifully landscaped trail runs through Manhattan Beach to Hermosa Beach, allowing guests to walk or bike to this year’s event with ease. Manhattan Village will also be offering complimentary parking and guests are encouraged to use rideshare services.”
Founder Shelby Russell joins us with all the delectable details.
This is your captain speaking, I'm Arna yetan, captain of Holland America Line, Emma's Mastam. You're listening to the so-called restaurant show on AM-830KLAA. And welcome back, it is the SoCal restaurant show, and happily we're presented every Saturday morning from 10am until 12 noon. Right here on AM-830KLAA, the home of Angels Baseball 2024, and you can also catch us on the AM-830 Angels app. I'm Andy Harris, the executive producer and co-host of the show, happy to be here. We are presented each and every week by Melissa's World Variety Produce and West Coast Prime Meats. We're going down to Manhattan Beach in the South Bay because there is an exciting new food festival that is going to be happening there in October called Manhattan Beach Food and Wine. And the founder and ringmaster is a gentleman by the name of Shelby Russell, who's very experienced in festival organization and has grand plans for this event, which we love to hear. And with that as background, it is a pleasure to welcome Shelby Russell to the SoCal restaurant show. Shelby, good morning and welcome. Good morning, Andy. Thanks for having me on the show. Well, Shelby, this is a real exciting opportunity because you were nice enough at the end of July to invite me to your announcement press conference for the inaugural Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival. You had three very prominent host chefs that were there greeting the attendees and also announced this lineup of chefs that you have over two days. And Shelby, you definitely got my attention. So first of all, if you could mention who the official host chef for Manhattan Beach Food and Wine is? Absolutely. We're just absolutely thrilled with the lineup of chefs that we have. And our host chef is Chef Neil Frazier, who many of your audience might know, is a chef and owner of Red Bird and Baby Hana in downtown Los Angeles. And he's just, he's a fantastic chef, but he's also an amazing person. And he's been great to work with on this event. In Shelby, we're actually going to be talking to Chef Neil in our next segment after we finish with you. And what I think a lot of our listeners don't know, Shelby, and you as a resident of Manhattan Beach, do know. Neil has been very involved in consulting at a very high level for a couple of pretty high profile restaurants in Manhattan Beach that are part of the Zisless Empire, which if you live in Manhattan Beach, you know the name Zisless. Absolutely. So Neil was a part of the opening of the Strand House, which was 13 years ago. And so he designed the menu and was a consultant for the Strand House. And then Bruco Social just reopened. And Neil was recently at the consultant there on their menu and helping them reopen the Bruco Social. In Shelby, from what I understand, it's an elevated menu. It's a lot more than just a brew pub now. Absolutely. I mean, the menu there is fantastic. They've rebranded it. They've re-energized this. The food's fantastic. It's been open for a couple months now. So it's a really amazing place. And I think they're fortunate that Neil was there to help them relaunch that restaurant. No doubt about it. And you know, a wonderful attraction of the Strand House, Shelby. Usually when a restaurant has a wonderful ocean view, the food tends to be mediocre. And the great thing about the Strand House is they have maintained the reputation for fine dining since when Neil did the original menu. So a lot of exciting things happening in Manhattan Beach that I think some of our listeners might not be aware of. Shelby, let's back up a little bit. I did pull the curtain back and mention you're a resident of Manhattan Beach. But where did this idea for this very grand Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival come from? Because you're going to give us some of the details in a moment. But you know, let's start with the backstory. Sure. Sounds good. Well, just a quick background. I've spent 20 plus years at a sports and entertainment company called AEG, where I worked on every type of event you can imagine. And it was a great experience. And then I was from there, I was the president and publisher of Los Angeles magazine for a couple of years. And we did a lot of lifestyle events, so food, wine, spirit type events. And so I've been involved in a lot of events. And it's been always my goal to do a world-class culinary festival. And when I looked at the landscape, there's really some prestigious, notable festivals nationally. And when I looked at Manhattan Beach as a community, it's just an amazing community. It's obviously a very beautiful setting. But more importantly, it has an unbelievable food scene. So it's a food lovers paradise. There's some great restaurants, great chefs. And so it just makes sense, like, to do something, you know, very special and meaningful in Manhattan Beach. The community has been very supportive. And so that's, you know, that's a little bit of a background on how this kind of started. And you've divided into the event. It's a Friday evening and a Saturday. And I'll let you give the dates in a moment. But Friday night, you call the opening night celebration. Saturday, you call the grand tasting. Give us some more of the tidbit Shelby, if you will. Sure. So both evenings, they're strolling festivals. So obviously, when you have a ticket, you can, you know, you're trying to taste some different chefs. There'll be winery, spirits, cocktails, breweries. On the opening night, again, we have an amazing lineup of chefs on opening night. We'll have Dominique Crann and Tonya Lefasso, Jet Pila, Naisha Errington, Elizabeth Faulkner, and many more. Wow. It's an all-star lineup of chefs. And then the second evening, so the difference between the two evenings is really the chefs that are headlining. And on the second evening, we have Chris Cosentino. We have Aaron Sanchez. We have Lord Maynard Lara, who you may know is nominated by James Beard as the best chef in California for 2024 and many others. So we're very excited about the lineup. So the lineup will be different. We'll have some amazing chefs on both nights, but it'll be an evening event outdoor. It'll be beautiful. And the, you know, it's in Manhattan Village, which we have an unbelievable venue for the event. So it should be fun for everyone. Now, very quickly, you mentioned and moved on the name of one of our few California three-star Michelin chefs from San Francisco, that being Dominique Crann. Now, Shelby, there is a very unknown but important connection between chef Dominique and Manhattan Beach. Can you share that little secret with our listeners? I mean, obviously, she just won a Michelin three-star again, about a month ago. But, you know, most people don't know that she actually got her start in Manhattan Beach. So she started her career at the Manhattan Beach Country Club. And so she's very excited to be a part of this and come back to where it all started for her career. So we're excited to have her and certainly, you know, great to have her back in the Manhattan Beach community. You bet. Now, a couple other Manhattan Beach chefs that we want to give credit to because you certainly mentioned the national superstars. But the fine dining chef that really is synonymous with Manhattan Beach is David LeFavor. Tell us about David. Yeah, David's been an integral part of this event. And, you know, he's just, he's a South Bay, you know, icon. He has the Manhattan Beach coast along with fishing with dynamite and the Arthur J. And he's soon to open Attigirl in Hermosa Beach. And he's just, he's an incredible chef. All those restaurants are amazing experiences and amazing food. And we're just grateful that David is a big part of this event. And he'll actually be at both nights. So Friday, October 11th, opening night, and Saturday, October 12th on the Grand Chasing. And Shelby, we should let our listeners know that David, in addition to being a very talented chef and quite a credentialed restaurateur, he's also a genuinely nice guy, which at that level sometimes doesn't always happen. So acknowledgments where acknowledgments are appropriate. Then another local superstar chef you have, who is a multi James Beard Foundation award winner and started out on the pastry arts, but really is an all-around chef is Sherry Yard. And she actually lives in Manhattan Beach. She does. So she's obviously the legendary pastry chef. She's worked with Wolfgang Puck for a year. She has a, she has bakery by the yard now. And she's lived in Manhattan Beach for over 18 years. And she, you know, when you get to know Sherry, she is very passionate and cares about the community and cares about the businesses in Manhattan Beach. And she's just such a great person really, you know, kind of has her heart in the right place and wants, you know, the local businesses to do well. And so, you know, we're taking some of her inspiration for this event and hopefully doing some great things. But she's, she's a great person to have a far the event, just a great person overall. And just that cares more about the community than anyone I know. Here, here. Now, Shelby, we've teased our audience enough. Remind us of the dates and how do we get tickets? Yeah. So the dates are Friday, October 11, which is the opening night celebration. And then Saturday, October 12th is the grand tasting. Tickets are available at Manhattan Beach food and wine.com. So it's spelled out A and B, so Manhattan Beach food and wine.com. And then literally in our final moment, there's a serious charitable beneficiary for this event. Sherry, art has been part of this event or part supporting this charity for many years, as well as Neil Frazier. Just quickly mention Seacap, if you will. Seacap, yeah. Seacap is an unbelievable organization. So we're excited to be partnered with them in a Stanford career through culinary arts program. And what they do, they go into school and they provide education, mentorship, and scholarships for teens that are looking to pursue careers in the restaurant industry. So it's a great organization. It's very supported by all of the chefs. Most of the chefs you talked to have done something with this organization to help support them. But a great part of this partnership is we're going to actually have roughly 50 of the C-TAP students at Manhattan Beach food and wine. And they'll be mentored by the professional chefs throughout the event. So it'll be a great mentorship experience for the students. But we're, you know, it's just a great organization. It helps foster the next generation of chefs and brings good, you know, just good, good new culinary chef to the restaurant industry. Shelby, great idea. Ladies and gentlemen, it is coming up the Manhattan Beach Food and Wine Festival in Manhattan Beach, October 11th and October 12th. We've been speaking with the founder Shelby Russell, and you'll be hearing more about this on the show. You are listening to the SoCal restaurant show. When you return, we're continuing our conversation about Manhattan Beach food and wine with host chef Neil Frazier. We're proudly presented by Melissa's World Friday produce and West Coast prime needs. Don't wonder far. [MUSIC PLAYING]
