Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar + Trattoria celebrates the fall season with a Fall Harvest Wine Dinner on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 7 p.m.
In partnership with Gregory Van Hoesen of City Beautiful Beverage in Orlando, Chef Phil McDonald and Chef Zach Keaton of Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar in Seaside will serve a seasonal, four-course wood-fired harvest dinner with winemaker and special guest Joe Swick of Swick Wines in Willamette Valley, Oregon, that will showcase his all-natural wines.
This Fall Harvest Dinner with Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar is Swick’s first culinary event in Florida.
“We are thrilled to host a fall harvest dinner at Pizza Bar,” says Chef Phil McDonald of Bud & Alley’s Pizza Bar + Trattoria. “Swick Wines is producing some of the best raw wines and pinot noir in the country right now. Not surprisingly, sustainable and organic farming gets us excited at Pizza Bar, and it’s a philosophy we’re happy to carry over in the wines that we offer.”
“Many of the wines Swick offers contains zero sulfur added,” McDonald adds. “This will be a wine dinner that is going to be more cerebral and interesting than what is traditionally offered locally.”
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Swick is a fifth-generation Oregonian whose family’s roots are based in Eastern Oregon and the Columbia Gorge area. He became passionate about wine while working in the wine department of his local organic specialty food store. After meeting some Willamette Valley winemakers on the job, Joe worked his first harvest as a cellar assistant at Owen Roe in 2003.
Over the next 10 years, Swick worked more than 15 harvests across many of the world’s great winemaking regions, including Portugal, Italy, New Zealand, Tasmania and California. Yearning to make wine in the Pacific Northwest under his own name, he returned to the Willamette Valley to start his own label with the 2013 vintage.
Swick was first introduced to biodynamic farming in New Zealand’s Central Otago; after journeying throughout France and meeting such producers as Julien Labet (Jura), Yvon Métras (Beaujolais), and Nicolas Gonin (Isère), he gradually embraced natural winemaking. Through his experiences and travels, he concluded that wine should be made simply and authentically; have nothing added or subtracted; and most importantly, express place and vintage. As a result, he sources from certified organic or organically farmed vineyards where possible; eschews sulfur at bottling whenever possible; and neither filters or fines his wines at bottling. In his words: “I like the real deal.”
Joe Swick
Tickets to the Fall Harvest Wine Dinner are $100 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and includes an aperitif and passed hors d’oeuvres followed by a four-course wood-fired themed dinner from Chef Phil McDonald and Chef Zach Keaton with four flights of wine. Reservations are required and can by made by calling (850) 231-3113.
Bud & Alley’s owner and founder Dave Rauschkolb says hosting a Fall Harvest dinner in partnership with Swick Wines is a natural. “The
Pizza Bar was inspired by the cucina’s of Naples, Italy,” he says. “This event is reflective of what we are all about at all of our Bud & Alley’s restaurants — keeping it simple, seasonal and delicious. The fact that we are exploring and serving new natural wines is just a continuation of our 32-year culinary culture.”
Bud & Alley’s, South Walton’s longest established restaurant, pioneered the farm- and sea-to-table movement in Seaside and along 30A. Its devotion to serving dishes with the freshest possible ingredients extends to the The Pizza Bar.