Well, here we are at Cornucopia, the annual Whistler blow-out of wine and food, carefully scheduled during a lull in between summer and winter activities at the resort. Whistler Village certainly comes alive during this weekend, and there’s no shortage of opportunities to party, drink, eat and have fun…oh, yeah, you can even learn a lot about food and wine as well, but more about that later.
The premiere event at Cornucopia is Crush, the Friday night bash that took place this year in the newly renovated and quite spectacular Telus Whistler Conference Centre. 85 wineries were pouring this year, so there was no shortage of fermented grape for the tasting. Where the event fell down a little, and this seems to be a perennial problem, is with the food. With hundreds of people cramming into the ballroom, there weren’t enough places to get food quickly. Long line-ups abounded, and people waited for up to 35 minutes to get a little taste. My fiancée Dana and I were lucky, we were invited to a pre-Crush media party at Araxi, where we wisely consumed large quantities of raw oysters and other fresh seafood nibbles at the restaurant’s new seafood bar, a gleaming expanse of stone and highly-polished stainless steel. There we met the most height-mismatched partiers of the evening, Hidekazu Tojo of Tojo’s, and Food Network Chef At Large Michael Smith. It’s safe to say that Smith towers about two feet above Tojo, but the two plan to work together on a project in Vancouver in the near future. Speaking of projects, watch your local TV listings for an entire hour devoted to Tojo’s exquisite Japanese creations. I’m not supposed to say anything, but the show is hosted by a certain homemaker celebrity whose stock has waxed and waned over the recent past.
Back to Crush. While we didn’t bother lining up to sample the food, we did manage to sneak a few raw oysters that were being shucked by the dozen, and visited with a couple of our favourite winemakers, Ben Stewart of Quail’s Gate Estate Winery, and Howard Soon of Calona Wines. Then we did lots of people watching, and snapped a few pics of the people who actually bothered to dress up for the event. At this point I’m turning the blog over to Dana for her thoughts on the fashion plates…
Hi Y’all! As Don mentioned above, I decided that this year I would spend some time talking to people who looked as though they’d actually spent more than 5 minutes on themselves before coming to Crush. Given that our culture here in BC is focused on casual comfort I was pleased to see that at least some people were willing to dress better than their chinos and plaid.
High style has never been about comfort and given that it gets bloody cold up in Whistler, it is a convenient excuse not to dress up for Crush. However with Whistler being lauded as an internationally-renowned resort, one might expect to see buttery soft leather outfits, designers galore, carefully manicured nails, and fabulous shoes, and lots of that oh so popular word, “ bling”. Indulging my own passion for great design has always been limited by a serious lack of funds, so I was counting on the vicarious pleasure of watching other people of style. Alas, this year the pickings were slim. Armed with the digital camera, I stalked and pounced on people who looked as though they’d actually thought about their outfits. Some women commented that their fashion choices of the evening were motivated by what I can only describe as reactionary dressing. The most common sentiment was “No one ever dresses up anymore, so I’ll show them!”
Others were there to pick up single guys, and one couple was savouring their first weekend away from their young children and burp-up stained clothing. Few, if any, people I talked to were dressed up because they loved fashion for its own sake. You may have also noted that there are few pictures of men…sorry, couldn’t find any well-dressed men at Crush. Believe me, I looked…hard. I did see a guy at the afterparty at the Bearfoot Bistro who sported a criss-crossed studded leather bondage harness under his leather jacket…and the odd man who looked uncomfortable in a suit….but fashionable men? All I can say, is if you’re the type of woman who loves wrinkled chinos, scuffed sneakers, plaid shirts and ugly acrylic sweaters, then this is your place!
For photos of some of the people I thought looked stylishly cool, and a few who were less than so, click here.
You decide who’s who….
