Sonoma Jazz Festival

What an epic fail this was. We are from SF, so we had to make special plans all the way around. Hotel, fuel, tickets, and all the trimmings. It was my wife's birthday present.

The event web site, and available media gave NO indication whatsoever of what this event really is: A tourist trap rip off. We arrived to find no parking available within distance of the square, so we had to walk for some way on a road with no sidewalk and heavy traffic. OK, maybe. Then we came across a restaurant that had a sign out front. We asked there about what to do, and they responded with "you know, I'm not sure. I was told to just stand here and not let anyone in until 1:00." I mentioned that the tickets said 12, and they had no answer. They directed me to "the square" for my tickets, which I thought I had in hand. There was no mention of a "check in" anywhere.

So, I finally find the one place that is the check in, and they hand me a map, 4 raffle tickets per person, and two promo wine glasses. They also give me a lanyard with 12 numbers down the side. These are for my wine samples, they tell me. So, we are on our way. We don't know the venues, but they are scattered all around, not just the square. The tickets were for the food samples. I should have known that something was wring. They said that I could buy additional ones for $1 each. Telling, huh?

Each place had wines, beer (1) or tequila (1). Only 9 had music and only 4 had food. The food tastes were such delicate, fresh, organic and local items as Costco meatballs in a 3 oz paper souffle cup, brownies, a half shell BBQ oyster (one). I thought that it was a joke. Is this the cuisine of the representative chefs? of Sonoma? What a farce. At one location they had no food and they said "it's coming in 3 minutes." Never came. When I asked about it, the server told me, "Well the restaurant inside is very busy, and they are paying customers. This is charity." Well, I PAID for it! $65 for a freakin meat ball in a paper cup? If you don't want to do something correctly, then do not do it! The winemakers that were at this particular table were bitching publicly about how disorganized the event was, and that they would not be back. Well, yeah me neither.

Some of the venues punched one hole in my card for each place, some of them with 3 wines to taste. Some of them punched a hole for each glass. No one knew what to do. When I got to the pub, they poured 4 oz of beer into a 16 oz plastic cup and handed it to me. I thought, well this will wash back my one oyster, but why use your stock plastic cup for this and not the cheesy wine glass you gave me. For a town as 'green' as Sonoma, that was a pretty big fail. Every place we went, we were herded into a back room with other patrons glaring at us as we went by. The servers all had that "I am not making anything from this event, so screw it" look on their faces, as the texted from the corners with their backs to the room like no one can tell.

The concert was great. The music in each venue was superb. Hats of to all the musicians. I wish I would have known that there was not continuous music in each venue and that there was no organized seating in many.

The choice of food and drink inside the event was even worse than the offerings from the "chefs" in town. Some place named Johnny Garlics. Never heard of them, and they had every venue inside. Lowest bidder? If this is Sonoma's idea of good food that is good for you, remind me to pack a lunch. For the Brunch on Sunday, we were served Jumbalaya in 3 places. What a horrific thing. News for you: brunch should not be served in a 3 oz paper cup.

The ONLY thing I saw that had any character at all was the small sandwich at Hopmonk, and even that was rather cold in the middle, as they could not keep up. Sliders...really...?? (I love my Hawaiian rolls, but that was the best thing we had.)

Overall, I love Sonoma. I go to events at BR Cohen all the time when I can. I would take an average, plain old day in the square to this every time over this charade that they call a jazz festival. One thing for sure: never again. I would prefer to have just made a check out to the kids directly.

Note this is only a review of Wine and Song at the Plaza.  We did not attend the additional fee concerts.

My wife and I attended the Sunday New Orleans Brunch at the just completed 2011 fest.  I assumed wrongly that $65 would include a decent brunch with lots to choose from.  Not at all.  Each place had only one food item and the portions were about the size you get at Costco's for free samples - hardly enough to make a typical meal much less a New Orleans Brunch.  We're pescaterians (fish and shellfish are the only animal flesh we'll eat) and there were only five locales serving that day (many more on Saturday) - three of the dishes had meat, one was oysters, and one was dessert - so only the oysters were really attractive to us and they were very good - thanks Murphy's Irish Pub.  Clearly not a brunch for vegetarians.  But additional food tickets were only $1 each and you could use them on any of the food items.  The wine was great and depending on which of the five places you went, scant or plentiful.  No problem in getting all you wanted to drink if you hung out at one of the places where they weren't even bothering to check off your 12 pours.  But this contributed to over-drinking under-eating.  The music was mostly Dixieland Jazz consistent with the brunch motif, not my favorite type of Jazz.  A good rock band at Murphy's.  But most of the music was available to anyone who wandered into those places.  Lots of Fiji Water being given away for those impressed by importing rainwater 5000 miles.  All in all a bit pricey given the lack of both quantity and variety of food, but a good time wandering from party to party.

We were looking forward to Lyle Lovette but found the venue cold, the chairs uncomfortable, the food soso to poor and the performances lackluster at best.  It was a disappointment, though in all fairness we did have high expectations.  Our $84/each seats were miles away from the performers and the sound quality was so poor that there was no distinguishing any of the words.  Giving it two stars was probably being generous.  On the plus side, Sonoma ought to have something like this and my hat is off to the organizers for their effort.