The 5th Annual South Beach Seafood Festival is back to kick off Miami’s globally-recognized stone crab season. #SobeSeafood kicks off October 17-21, 2017, with a week of dinners & events, leading up to Friday’s Chef Showdown & Saturday’s South Beach Seafood Festival, all happening in the best way South Beach knows how!
This is not your typical Seafood Festival, but a high-end experience that showcases the talents of South Florida’s leading chefs and culinary masterminds via a diverse group of events, benefiting a great cause: CI Foundation’s EAT SMART program.
Saturday’s beachfront event, South Beach Seafood Festival, brought to you by Kendall Jackson and presented by Coca-Cola and Jack Daniel’s, spans five blocks and welcomes over 13,000 seafoodies to enjoy a day of fun in the sun in the Sobe Chic way. And this year, it’s all about the UPGRADE!
Did we mention this is not your typical Seafood Festival? Guests should be prepared to indulge at pop up cafes from Miami’s leading high end restaurateurs serving the freshest seafood dishes. Guests can choose their dishes and pair them with complimentary all day open bars for 21 and over!
For Saturday, October 21’s South Beach Seafood Festival,
this year’s carefully selected 18 restaurant cafe’s will be brought to you by:
• A Fish Called Avalon
• Café Avanti
• CIBO
• CJ’s
• Dragonfly
• Joe’s Stone Crab
• La Moderna
• Lobster Bar Sea Grille
• Meat Market / Miami Smokers
• Naked Crab / Naked Taco
• Nikki Beach
• Papa’s Raw Bar
• Poseidon
• Red the Steakhouse
• Rusty Pelican
• Toro Toro
• Trulucks
• Whole Foods Market
And, how about that upgrade. The entrance will be at 14th and Ocean Drive and spans down on the sand until 10th street with the party going from 12-7PM. And, there’s so much more then just food.
Saturday’s festival includes:
• Kendall Jackson, La Crema, and Cambria Wine pairing experiences,
• South Florida’s Top Live Bands at the Main Stage,
• iHeart Radio DJs at the Jack Daniel’s Beach Club,
• Life-size beach games,
• Pacifico Airstream,
• Chef demonstrations in the Whole Foods Market Culinary Showcase Kitchen,
• VIP Experiences in the Land Rover N&S Dade Hospitality Village featuring the GOYA Culinary Pavilion,
• The Coca-Cola Dance Club,
• Casa Herradura,
• Celebrity Cruises “The Edge” showcase,
• Jackson Family Wines sensory garden experience, and so much more – right on the sand!
For the VIPs, the hospitality village will stay open for a VIP-only After Party from 7-9 PM where you can dance the night away.
Festival tickets start at $45 which includes full admission and complimentary all day open bar. Guests can choose from 60+ delicious large-portion menu items, from 18 cafe’s, creating items priced between $5-$8 only for the #SobeSeafood Fest day! There will be stone crabs, stone crabs, and more stone crabs, along with lobster tempura skewers, mahi sliders, scallop BLTs, oysters, shrimp tacos, lobster roll waffle cones, crab cakes in a shell, grilled octopus, shrimp parmesan, surf n’ turf filet and lobster, and more. VIP tickets are $150 and include $20 worth of food vouchers, access to the VIP Hospitality Village full of private samplings and incredible wine and dine experiences, private after-party and so much more.
Event is open to the public, but must be 21+ to consume alcohol.
Ahead of Saturday’s festival, there’s loads of fun for the culinary inclined:
VIP Chef Showdown: Friday, October 20, 7-11PM
The ultimate CHEF SHOWDOWN, brought to you by Cambria Wines, and presented by GOYA, Herradura, Land Rover N&S Dade, and Celebrity Cruises. This is the battle of all battles, showcasing the best in Miami’s culinary seafood scene.
At this VIP night for all the true seafoodies, 16 chefs go head-to-head in 8 different seafood battles where THE GUESTS are the judge!
Reigning champions defending their titles are:
• Chef Andre & Tyler Bienvenue of Joe’s Stone Crab in Battle Crab,
• Chef Sean Brasel of Meat Market in Battle Surf ‘N Turf,
• Chef Dustin Atoigue of Mondrian South Beach in Battle Shrimp,
• Chef Jean Delgado of Toro Toro in Battle Tuna,
• Chef Demetrios Pyliotis of Poseidon in Battle Fish,
• Chef Bernie Matz of Bodega South Beach in Battle Taco.
• …plus ourbrand new category: Battle Sushi and the official OYSTER PIT
Competitions will be announced at the end of August.
Each restaurant designs a sampling station around the tasting village, making it easy and fun for guests to eat, eat, eat and vote! Chefs from each battle will then take the Macy’s Showcase Kitchen stage and prepare their dishes LIVE, while Miami’s favorite famous foodies will judge each showdown and add their votes.
In addition to the chef competitions, guests will also enjoy the 2nd Annual Herradura Cocktail Showdown, hosted inside Casa Herradura! 10 top competing bartenders in South Florida will be making ocean inspired cocktails and this battle crowns Miami’s Best Bartender! The 2017 Battles will all be announced in September on @sobeseafoodfest social media.
(Friday’s Chef Showdown event is located in GOYA’s Culinary Pavilion at 11th & Ocean Drive, inside the Land Rover N&S Dade Hospitality Village.)
VIP Weekend passes are available for Friday and Saturday! Hotel packages are available through our host hotel properties, Mondrian or Shelborne.
South Beach Seafood Week kicks off Tuesday night, October 17th – with various events throughout the week:
• Tuesday, October 17, 6:30-10 PM: ALL NEW Crabs, Slabs, and Cabs at Shelborne Hotel, presented by Jackson Family Wines and Menin Hospitality
• Wednesday, October 18, 6:30-10 PM: Cooking & Cocktails at Meat Market, hosted by GOYA, Herradura, and Meat Market
• Thursday, October 19, 6:30-10 PM: An Evening at Joe’s Stone Crab, presented by La Crema
Tickets can be purchased for all events at sobeseafoodfest.com.
About South Beach Seafood Festival
The iconic South Beach Seafood Festival, brought to you by Breakthru Beverage Florida and partners, along with the team from CI Management, kicks off Miami’s globally-recognized stone crab season every October in the best way that South Beach knows how! This is not your typical Seafood Festival, but a high-end experience that showcases the talents of South Florida’s leading chefs and culinary masterminds via a diverse group of events.
South Beach Seafood Festival
About CI Management
CI Management Group is a South Florida based event management company with over 20 years of hosting non-profit fundraising events in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and up the east coast in areas, such as Baltimore and New York City. In addition to the client roster spanning from celebrity athletes, Big Brothers Big Sisters, ALS Recovery Fund, Starboard Cruises, Flowers Baking Co., and Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce, CI Management is the managing partner and owner of various events around South Florida, to include Jimmy Johnson’s Championship Fishing Week, South Beach Seafood Festival, and South of Spice, along with the event producer for Las Olas Wine & Food Festival, among others.
CI Management Group
305-255-3500
About CI Foundation
Community Initiatives (CI) Foundation, the beneficiary of the South Beach Seafood Festival, is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect individuals and corporations with children and families in need through hands on programming focused on educational, nutritional and specialty needs. CI Foundation acts as a fiscal agent for many corporations that are looking to give to local nonprofits and also the beneficiary of many events that occur throughout South Florida to give corporations the opportunity to support a variety of community outreach programs and produce educational initiatives important to them within the South Florida’s community. CI Foundation has started the EAT SMART program thanks to the help of the partners of the South Beach Seafood Festival, which supports youth educational initiatives to help them foster creativity and find the balance between healthy eating and healthy living in Miami Dade County.
Community Initiatives (CI) Foundation
ci-mgt.com/about-ci-foundation
Information provided by Ashlie Rolfe, VANESSA MENKES COMMUNICATIONS
