South Beach Wine & Food: Rachael Ray, Bobby Flay and 35 pig heads

Say you’re throwing a beach barbecue for 3,000 of your closest friends. If you’re going for over the top, as the South Beach Wine & Food Festival does, you’ll need 1,600 pounds of pork butt, 570 pounds of pork belly, 5,500 pork ribs, 2,090 pounds of beef brisket, 670 pounds of short ribs, 560 pounds of beef tenderloin, 2,500 lamb chops…

Pig heads? Just 35 will do. But don’t forget the ice. You’ll want to pick up six tons. Also, one ton of charcoal, 22 miles of plastic wrap, 9,000 moist towelettes. The shopping list goes on and on. But take it from festival organizers: In the end, no amount of food, no amount of drink will ever truly feel like enough once your rowdy bunch gets going.

“We went through 375 cases of Moet & Chandon even though this year we added wine and spirits, which is amazing, ” festival director Lee Schrager says of The Q, which kicked off the 11th annual weekend bacchanal Thursday night on the sand behind the Delano Hotel. Hosted by Emeril Lagasse and Guy Fieri, this new incarnation of the Bubble Q, a longtime festival favorite that had been champagne-centric until this year, proved the crowds are equal-opportunity quaffers.

Return to top