The Real Fun Happens After Dark

The NYC Wine & Food Festival gets off to a strong start, with Chelsea Market After Dark bringing out the city's food intelligensia. Among last night's highlights: The chocolatey goodness cooked up by Jacques Torres (below). For slideshow, click here.

Great to be Open Late

The 2009 New York City Wine & Food Festival has begun. The eating extravaganza kicked things off last night with events such as an Alain Ducasse dinner at the James Beard House, Thrillist's Bacon and the Blues party at the Standard Hotel and Chelsea Market After Dark. For the latter, the gourmet food showplace was transformed into party central, with the always rocking Guy Fieri and the glamorous Sandra Lee each presiding over nightclub-worthy event spaces within the mecca of the NYC foodie world. Fieri's "suite" was fit for a bachelor party, complete with food-themed video games, tattooing and shots. Meanwhile, the rest of the market was transformed into a grand-tasting space, with purveyors from Eleni's to Chelsea Wine Vault throwing open their doors to happy guests eager to sample anything and everything.

Filled with energy (and ensuring that no reveler went home hungry or thirsty), Chelsea Market After Dark was a dynamic and delicious start to what promises to be a truly fantastic food weekend.

Meanwhile, a few blocks away, at the Standard Hotel, Thrillist hosted the Bacon and the Blues party, where worries about cholesterol were checked at the door. The night was attended by chefs like The Mott's Brian Murphy (left), among others. For more pics from that party, including pork sliders from Gansevoort 69, click here.

Next up: tonight's big Burger Bash by the Brooklyn Bridge. (Say that ten times fast.)

Let the Eating Begin!

As night fell over the foodie mecca that is Chelsea Market, the epicures descended en masse. Marking the kickoff of the inaugural New York City Wine & Food Festival, tonight's open house at the home of the Food Network was a culinary extravaganza (and a sold-out one at that). Bobby Flay caused a paparazzi-like stir as he passed out burgers and posed for pictures. Simultaneously, purveyors including Ronnybrook Farm Dairy (which was freely distributing brandy-flavored milkshakes); Chelsea Thai Wholesale, (which delighted palates with a spicy papaya dish); and Yellow Tail, (which offered a glass of the good stuff around every corner) kept patrons happy on a night that foretold great things for this four-day bonanza. Apsen Food & Wine and South Beach Wine & Food....eat your heart out! All proceeds from the smorgasbord of events over the next few days go to support the Food Bank for New York City and Share Our Strength. For a list of the (sadly) mostly sold-out activities, click here.