Whole Foods Market's Five after Five

Friday night, after a stressful week, my friend Gretchen and I decided to check out the Five after Five wine/food event held at the Whole Foods Market in Short Pump every week. They had taken the month of February off and returned Friday night. The concept is simple. You pay $10 (used to be $5) and get a wine glass, a ticket, and an arm band. The ticket is for 5 stations throughout the store that have a wine to taste and a food item to try. We got there at about 10 till 5 and there was already a line of about 6 or so people. We got in line and some friendly people who had been there before us suggested that we get a cart and grab some of the drink holders that attach to your cart. This turned out to be a fabulous suggestion, you could put your purse and wine glass down to actually eat your food! We went to the first station in Produce and they had a Gewurztraminer that was good...I am not a huge sweet wine fan, but after the week I had, I drank it and enjoyed it! The food was a Cream of Lettuce Soup, much better than I would have expected. Creamy, and flavorful.

We then moved onto the Seafood station. The wine here was Venegassu Prosecco. I love Prosecco and this was not a disappointment. For $11.99 a bottle - great choice. I also really enjoyed the food. It was a crisp baguette with smoked salmon and a herbed cream cheese. The smoked salmon was perfect with the prosecco. At this station we told them we were enjoying our first time doing this. They informed us that we were lucky - some nights the lines were 60 people back for each station! We basically walked right up to each one throughout the night.

The 3rd station had great wine a Ruffino Chianti Superiore - great price $11.99 on sale, usually $12.99. The food however was disappointing. It was chicken parmesan on a sub roll. It was really dry and tough. Gretchen and I both moseyed away and threw in the trash. Not our favorite. Thought he next station was....it was french onion soup with a bordeaux called Chateau les Arromans for $9.99 a bottle. Also very good. The soup had a great creamy flavor and was served with a cheese melted on a baguette. Our favorite taste of the night.

At this point we decided we wanted to sit down in the little wine bar that is in the middle of Whole Foods. You have to have a pre-paid card here to get the wine. You load it with money and they have about 20 different wines that have an automated pour and you can do 3 oz, 5 oz, or 7 oz. We got a card loaded up with $15 and I went over to a wine that looked interesting and pressed the 5 oz button. My $15 dollars was gone....I had chosen a bottle of wine that retailed for $115. Gretchen, being the good friend that she is had to spend hers just as quickly as I did and got the same one. We loved it. Well worth the $15. I started to write down the name of the wine and then decided not to - I am never going to spend $115 on a bottle of wine!

The last station was dessert. It was dessert wine - a Tinterra Moscato D'asti. Sparkling and sweet. The dessert was lemon cream vanilla cheesecake. The cheesecake was really good - but the lemon cream on top was so so.

I recommend checking this out - it was a great way to check out new wines (we each left with 3 bottles and combined them for checkout to take advantage of the 10% discount when you buy 6 bottles of wine). They also provide recipes for each of the dishes and I am definitely going to make the salmon and the french onion soup.

Starting this week, the Five after Five moves to Thursday nights. I like this night much better and it may start being on my weekly calendar as a standing appointment! Check it out!