๐ท๐We headed to GrapeFest ("one of the Top 10 Wine Festivals in the USA", "the largest in the southwest", and "the premier Texas wine experience" according to its website, and to be fair, I think it checked all those boxes) on the last hot week in September. It literally cooled down to 80℉ the day we came back home. Annoying. ๐ Despite the heat, we still managed to have a fun time. And because of the heat, we got to do some additional [indoor] stuff around town while we were there!
GrapeFest is held along Main Street in downtown Grapevine, TX. We stayed in the Vin hotel, which was walking distance to the festival. The hotel is wine themed, so we were greeted with a complementary glass of white. The front desk receptionist (I think her name was Jayden) was super bubbly & friendly. When she found out we were from Oklahoma, she told us she studied meteorology at OU. I'm glad she switched to a career in hospitality; her personality would be wasted in a science lab. She gave us tokens for free drinks at the restaurant (Bacchus), which we used later in the evening.
We didn't do much at the hotel except for a quick meal at the food hall (Harvest Hall). I got eggrolls and Wes got pizza. The eggrolls had lump crab stuffing. ๐ฆ I was worried it would be fake "krab" but luckily, it wasn't. There was a photo of the food stall's owner along with a little bio about them and how they created their concept next to each stall, which I thought was really neat.
Okay now onto GrapeFest proper...
๐ทIt was hot (almost 100℉, on asphalt, with no shade) ๐-- can we give the sun emoji a frowny face? LOL That was Wes's main gripe about it, well that and there weren't a lot of tasting options. More on that later.
๐ทThere are random historic landmarks all over downtown, like log cabins and old hearses. I thought the cabins were super interesting. ๐I wanted to see the inside of the vintage railroad station and train, but it wasn't open because, I think, they were preparing it for rides later in the day.
๐ทThere were lots of interesting vendors and yummy food trucks all along the street, but we skipped them and chose to duck into the actual shops with air conditioning. (I did end up looking at a couple of the vendors later in the evening.)
๐ทMy favorite shop was the RTown Gallery. The gallery mostly had contemporary pieces; I liked one of the artist's mixed media portrait collages. ๐จ The prices were the most reasonable I've ever seen at a gallery! I almost bought a little trinket tray for $20 but was too scared it would get broken in my backpack (since I would have to toss it in there along with everything else for the rest of our day out).
๐ทWe wanted to do the People's Choice tasting/voting, but it was in a stuffy tent and timed. For $32, you could get a commentative glass and 90 minutes to walk around the tent to sample all the wine you could handle. Pretty good deal! I don't drink fast enough to have been able to try all the wineries I would have liked. And, we both would NOT have enjoyed ourselves in the humid tent๐ก, so we passed.
๐ทWe also wanted to take the vintage train ride in the evening, but tickets were sold out by the time we got there. We'll know next time to buy them plenty in advance. On that trip, we would have gotten 2 glasses of wine, a charcuterie appetizer, and a romantic & scenic ride for ~$100.
๐ทI make it sound like the only thing we did was shop, but we weren't actually interested in the boutiques-- even though I bought cheese balls, some perfume, lip balm, and a pair of pants ๐
-- but it was the only way to get respite from the heat, so we stopped in about every couple hundred feet.
๐ทThe only way to do the wine tastings was to either buy tickets for the scattered event tents (no thanks since they're outdoors) or go into the actual wineries along Main Street to purchase a tasting flight (cool idea, but that got really expensive really fast). We wanted to go into the top 3 rated wineries but ended up skipping Bingham Family Vineyards because there was no seating indoors and you probably know by now how we feel about sitting outside.
The first winery we tried was Messina Hof, one of the top rated and oldest wineries in Grapevine. I wanted to go in there because the building looked old-timey. LOL Wes got the red wine tasting and I got the Grapefest Features tasting. Each came with five pre-selected wines and a commemorative glass. ๐ท Wes's favorite was their GSM (blend of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvรจdre). Mine was Viognier: Private Reserve, then the GSM and Sagrantino Reserva tied for second, Off Dry Gewรผrztraminer: Artist Series in fourth, and Angel Riesling: Late Harvest in last. It was way too sweet. One of the wines, I think their GSM, won the People's Choice award a couple of years in a row. I took notes on all this so we could return to buy bottles on our way out of town, but then we completely forgot once we got in the car. And I haven't been able to find Messina Hof at any of the liquor shops here ๐ข
The second winery we tried was Red Dirt Cellars. We went for their 5-pour tasting and dinner. ๐It got lively in the evening! I think the Harvest Train returned and the tasting tents closed around 8:30pm so everyone streamed into the wineries to continue their night. There was a singer, an older soulful black gentleman, performing covers all night. ๐๐ ฃ He kept saying each song was his "last one" but he stayed about an hour after he started packing up his equipment. He had a good voice and knew how to work the audience, all while watching the football game on his phone! We got tickets and a slip of paper to use for each pour; we would review the menu and write down what we wanted next. I preferred Messina Hof's technique of assigning a pre-selected flight because I don't know anything about wine, which ones to choose, or how to order and pair them. My favorite wine was the Landon Pinot Grigio from Ozarks, MO, then Red Dirt Blend and Wildcatter Noir both from the Texas High Plains, Cune Cava Brut from Cavas, Spain in fourth, and lastly Red Dirt Sangria from the Texas High Plains. It was neat to try wines from different regions, but overall I enjoyed my wines at Messina Hof more. Wes got a bunch of different reds (or maybe he tossed a white in the mix) and liked them all.
Along with our fun times at GrapeFest, we spent a couple of days eating and shopping while we were in Texas. ๐ด I saw online that a giant new H-Mart opened in Dallas so that was our first stop. ๐ There was an arcade and lots of little shops, including a Fuzz Lab, in the H-Mart. I've been wanting to make a hairclip at Fuzz Lab but never had time during our previous Texas trips. This was my chance! Sadly, the employee explained that they take 4 days to properly dry before I can take it home, and it cost about 5x more than what I was expecting. So that's not happening. ๐ Browsing all of the Asian groceries is always a treat, but I enjoyed looking at the home goods & stationary shops more. ๐ Wes wanted to go to the Galleria mall while we were in Dallas (we also stayed a night at the swanky Westin hotel there). We walked around the entire mall but didn't really do much shopping. I think Wes is more into people watching and I prefer window shopping. The only store that we were both really looking forward to was UNI QLO. ๐
I can't pass up any chance to go yarn shopping so we went to two different local yarn stores on this trip.๐งถ The first was Fiberlady (who is a man!) He spins and dyes his own yarn. Most of it is a bamboo & cotton blend. I've never used bamboo yarn before so I picked out a skein to try. We were the only customers in his shop, so he had time to give us a tour of the back where he spins his yarn. This was the first time we've seen spinning & weaving machines. He had several that all did different things. He turned them on for us to show us the process, which was really interesting.
The other shop we went to was Denton Yarnworks. It is a finalist for "Best New Business" in Denton this year. The shop is a converted house that had a different type of yarn or project in each room -- amigurumi in one room then hand-dyed yarn in another! The shopkeeper was extremely friendly and welcoming. ๐ I told her about me & Lacey's crochet nights, and she invited us to her weekly craft night. I told her that I would LOVE something like that, but we live in Oklahoma. That's when she said she's a transplant, too. She moved to Texas from New Jersey and cannot wear any of her wool sweaters here. She's re-knitting them all in a lighter weight fiber. LOL
Now onto the best part of every vacation … the food!! ๐ We had delicious authentic handmade dumplings Hong Dumpling House for lunch. It's in the middle of an office park and not where you would think a restaurant would be, but they were busy! I got the spicy squid filling and Wes got kalbi beef. He wanted the kimchi ones but we came toward the end of lunch, and they were already sold out. I didn't see the sign saying you can get the dumplings fried for $1 extra until after we ordered.๐ฅ I would have gotten 3 of mine fried and the other 3 standard (steamed). Things to remember for next time!
We had dinner at North Italia๐ (I saw that they're going to open one by Penn Square Mall soon). It was pretty standard Italian food. Wes said his chicken parmesan was better than most places'. The best part of my dish was the crispy capers. The salt and herb topping on our bread was the star of the meal. ๐ฅ I plan to go to the Penn Square location when it opens just for the focaccia. LOL Our server was a little slow at getting our orders & bringing out food, but she was super nice.
Our original breakfast plans was to go to Breakfast Brothers one morning and then Park's Coffee Roastery the following morning. The DWF area is large and Breakfast Brothers was going to be waaaay out of our way. ๐ I learned that Park's Coffee Roastery stopped doing their tours & coffee tastings when I called to book one. So we had to change plans last minute. ☕We ended up at Ida Claire's again. We went for dinner on one of our previous Texas trips. We both loved the dinner menu and I especially liked the vibes & decor. Their breakfast is just as good as the dinner, and my lavender latte tasted so good in its antique teacup. The thick-cut bacon was amazing. All we have left now is to try their lunch menu!
The Buc-ee's in Denton was our last stop on our way out of Texas. We had breakfast downtown at Jupiter House. Its a bakery that specializes in bagels. I feel like there were a million different ones to choose from. I don't remember which one Wes got, maybe the bacon, egg & cheese, and I went with the salmon lox (my favorite). They used the flakey cooked salmon instead of the thinly sliced cured salmon, which made the bagel kind of meh. ๐ But, the veggie cream cheese saved the day! It had so much dill flavor. I wanted to walk around downtown Denton and go into a couple of antique and bookstores, but it was once again too hot to be walking around outside.
GrapeFest was a lot of fun, but I'm glad we planned other activities, too. The only thing I had on my list that we didn't get to was Blooming Colors Nursery & Landscaping. ๐ผI am becoming a plant lady and wanted a couple more for my collection. I plan to have a nice garden by next spring! ๐ฑ We've also been working on the backyard, and Wes wanted to look at some statuary options. But never fear, we will be back in the DFW area soon enough. The art museum in Fort Worth is getting the travelling Treasures of the Pharaoh exhibit (my wildest dreams come true!) and the Dallas art museum is getting a Pompeii exhibit (a topic Wes is interested in) next spring.
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