Wine for a Cause

Last Thursday I was lucky to be able to attend a cool event here in Atlanta courtesy of one of my closest friends, and I just had to share!

The Atlanta Wine Opener event is an annual gala put on to benefit the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Each year they feature some of the top restaurants in town, live music, a silent auction, and many fabulous wines to taste - all to benefit the Foundation's goal of funding research to find a cure for this difficult disease.

This year, the event was held at Mason Muher Fine Arts over by Sweetwater Brewery in Midtown/Buckhead. The huge, open floorplan made for easy navigation to the food and drink stations, and also allowed for easy viewing of the cool art on display. They were expecting 500 people to attend, and it definitely was packed out. A live flamenco guitarist kept the crowd lively while they perused the huge auction.



Our favorite item? This gorgeous lab puppy. Sigh. Look how precious with the pink collar!!



And the food, oh! The food! The featured restaurants were sampling some amazing bites. And by bites, I mean huge portions. We were amazed - I could have eaten a whole dinner's worth. Dantanna's was my favorite with massive slices of medium rare tenderloin, a horseradish sauce, and blue cheese mashed potatoes. Also fantastic were Crepe Revolution (a friend's husband owns this Smyrna gem!) and Fifth Group's pan beignets, yum! Those establishments launched themselves onto my to-do restaurant list with those tasty items.

At first glance, tickets to the event were a tad pricey at $75, but given the amount of food and wine available, it was actually a perfect price for a charitable event. If you ever get the chance to attend in the future, do! It was a swanky night on the town for a great cause.

Have you attended any events that you really enjoyed and thought were put on well for a good cause? What did they do right that made it such a success?