Editor’s Note: Use Sobe Seafood Fest 2016 promo code PUG to save 20% on your ticket. This South Beach Seafood Festival 2016 discount code is valid for both GA and VIP tickets.
It is with much excitement that we gather our seafoodies and announce tickets are now on sale for the 4th annual South Beach Seafood Week kicking off Stone Crab Season in style! With three times the food, three times the bars, and only 1/3rd the wait, we are ready to host the ultimate seafood experience featuring luxury dining on the sands of South Beach.
The main event, South Beach Seafood Festival, will hit 7th & Ocean Drive on Saturday, October 22, 2016 from 12-7PM. New in 2016 is the Sun Down Beach Club, an after party exclusively for our VIP Hospitality Village guests extending from 7-11PM. This year’s event will be brought to you by the #1 selling chardonnay in the country for 24 years, Kendall Jackson, and presented by Jack Daniels, Breakthru Beverage, GOYA Foods, and Celebrity Cruises, and hosted by Coca-Cola.
Ahead of Saturday’s festival, there is loads of fun for the culinary inclined:
- Thursday night, October 20: An Evening at Joe’s Stone Crab, hosted by La Crema, where guests will enjoy a 5-course wine pairing dinner by Chef Andre Bienvenu and Jackson Family Winery while enjoying the freshest stone crab claws of the season.
- Friday, October 21: CHEF SHOWDOWN, brought to you by Matanzas Creek Winery, and presented by GOYA, Herradura, and Celebrity Cruises.
Friday night is the battle of all battles. The Chef Showdown hosts the best in Miami’s culinary scene at 9th & Ocean Drive in GOYA’s Culinary Pavilion. Twelve chefs will be paired head-to-head creating six different seafood battles throughout the night. Chefs from each battle will take the stage in the state-of-the-art showcase kitchens, where representatives from the media will judge the dishes in each showdown. The twist is that THE GUESTS are the ultimate deciding vote! Armed with six voting tokens, guests visit each battle tent where our restaurant’s sampling stations are paired side-by-side throughout the showdown village.
Guests get to enjoy both battle dishes, then award their token to the restaurant they like best, ultimately deciding the new CHAMPIONS of the CHEF SHOWDOWN. The reigning champions coming to defend their titles are Chef Andre & Tyler Bienvenue of Joe’s Stone Crab in Battle Lobster, Peter Vauthy of Red, the Steakhouse in Battle Surf ‘N Turf, Chef Dustin Atoigue of Mondrian South Beach in Battle Shrimp, Chef Xavier Torres of Drunken Dragon in Battle Tuna, and Chef Bernie Matz of Bodega South Beach in Battle Taco. The newest battle this year will be Battle Fish along with an all new bartender competition, hosted by Herradura, featuring the top bartenders in South Florida.
And the fun doesn’t stop there.
What do you get when you put Miami’s finest seafood restaurants on the sands of Sobe for one day only? There’s only one answer: It’s the Annual South Beach Seafood Festival! Saturday’s festival will feature pop up café’s from the likes of Joe’s Stone Crabs, Naked Taco, Red, the Steakhouse, CJs Crab Shack, Drunken Dragon, A Fish Called Avalon, Naiyara, Poseidon, Toro Toro, Trulucks, and more. Together, 17 restaurants will showcase an eating experience unlike any other, where the restaurants are serving you right on the sand – it’s four blocks of fun to be exact.
As guests stay cool with a glass of delicious Kendall Jackson Chardonnay or an ice cold Jack & Coke, they will enter into this year’s upgraded experience @SobeSeafoodFest ready for a good time. There are two types of Festival Tickets, and both General Admission and VIP include an all-day open bar available at any of the 30+ added bar locations.
General admission starts at only $35; this low price gives guests the opportunity to pick and choose which delicious restaurants to try – all of which are bringing their premium menu items at affordable prices between $5 – $10. This is not a tasting festival; this is an eating festival. Enjoy Stone Crabs, Lobster Waffle Cones, Steak & Lobster Skewers, Shrimp Tacos, Oysters, Shrimp Cocktail, Gyros, Crab Cakes, Grouper in a Bag, Lobster Mac ‘N Cheese and more. But please, don’t go home hungry!
Enjoy the all new JACK DANIEL’S BEACH CLUB featuring local DJs playing today’s hottest beats all day long as you lay out, courtesy of Boucher Brothers Management. Or put your toes in the sand with some KJ Avant corn hole boards and other life-size games at the all new beer garden. The Main Stage will be jamming all day long with live music from South Florida’s best bands, so you can dance the day away. If you’d like to learn a little something while you’re out there, step into the WHOLE FOODS DEMO ZONE, where the featured chefs and mixologists will take you to another level and make you the ultimate master seafood pairings chef.
There’s a little bit for everyone, including this year’s upgraded VIP HOSPITALITY VILLAGE. There are tons of NEW reasons why guests will splurge to be a VIP this year. Tickets will include $20 worth of food vouchers to use at participating festival restaurants, premiere sampling, private bars, entrance into GOYA’s Culinary Pavilion featuring all day private DJs, shade, lounges, MYO Bars from Jack Daniels, Herradura, and Finlandia, VIP swag, and the fun doesn’t stop there.
In VIP Hospitality Village, the upgraded experience will include sampling from GOYA, Celebrity Cruises, and Papa’s Raw Bar, while Jack Daniel’s will host a one of a kind “Jack Den” featuring unique tastings throughout the day. Event host, Kendall Jackson and La Crema, will have a one-of-a-kind sensory garden inspired by their famed “Farmer T”, where they will be transplanting their Sonoma garden tour onto the sand where guests can literally walk through a private experience sampling potted fruits and tasting the wines that are made from these fruits. The additional VIP benefit for 2016 will be the extended hours keeping the party going into the night. The festival grounds will close at 7pm, but the GOYA Culinary Pavilion inside VIP Hospitality Village with the featured DJs and bars will stay open until 11PM, so guests can dance the night away.
Join us and help support the community! The South Beach Seafood Week event benefits Community Initiatives Foundation in support of the annual EAT SMART Campaign to fight against childhood hunger, childhood obesity, and assisting the community to find the perfect balance through nutritional awareness & individual development in Miami Dade County.
For more information, and to purchase tickets for any of the 2016 South Beach Seafood Festival events, please visit sobeseafoodfest.com or follow us @SobeSeafoodFest on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Check out our #SobeSeafood!