"Swirl, Smell, Sip, Spit - Please taste responsibly"! is the slogan of last nights 2 annual Crave event put on by the Paso Wine Alliance. In theory Crave makes sense; creating a event which caters to the 30 & under wine drinkers in a lounge environment.
After observing my 2nd year of this event I want to make a recommendation to Crave to change it's slogan to something more appropriate to what really goes on at the event; I would suggest "Swirl, Smell, Chug, Blackout - Please puke responsibly"!!
For the second year I observed college kids overindulging on wine with little food provided at the event. The events emphasis is not on wine education & after talking with a dozen of the wineries represented all where aware that very little business crossover is expected from this event. The food venders where pillaged by the young winos and the Chef's where not there to showcase their food or culinary talents but rather act as cafeteria staff feeding a frenzy of drunken patrons.
When Crave was over the well oiled attendees spilled out to the downtown bars where we had to deal with over-intoxicated kids before they even made it into our establishments. Every person who puked in our around our business last night had a Crave wristband along with a fight & drunken arrests!
With all the problems we are having with the city in regards to downtown bars & the problem with public intoxication an event like Crave could not have come at a worse time! I encourage the PWA to revisit the format of the event and hopefully next year we wont have to pick up the pieces from the aftermath of Crave!
