Traverse City Food & Wine Festival: A Preview

Behind the scenes of the inaugural August foodie festival

By Art Bukowski | July 19, 2025

Traverse City’s newest festival is right around the corner.

Traverse City Food & Wine is a five-day event that promises to capitalize on and further promote the region’s blossoming culinary and wine scene. Organized and hosted by Traverse City Tourism, the event takes place August 20-24 in and around Traverse City.

We checked in with organizers and participating chefs to get a feel for this new addition to the region’s festival calendar.

Cooking Up the Idea

Traverse City Tourism CEO Trevor Tkach and COO Whitney Waara say their organization wanted to jump-start a general slowdown in hotel and restaurant traffic in the second half of August as families prepare for the end of summer.

“It’s such a significant drop, and we’re just trying to keep some energy going through the end of the [season],” Tkach says.

The new festival slides into a hole left by the Traverse City Film Festival, which ended in 2022 after serving as a big early August draw for more than 15 years. It will also likely attract a similar demographic. But it’s not accurate to call it a replacement, Tkach and Waara say.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a one-to-one correlation between the Film Festival leaving and this starting,” Tkach says. “Our organization and others want to see more festivities throughout the year. In a way this is a replacement, but that really wasn’t our intent.”

Despite the fact that local wineries continue to rack up awards, there also was a desire to promote them further.

“We have an amazing wine scene here, but it’s still somewhat undiscovered,” Waara says. “We’re here every day and we’re all used to it, but if you talk to people outside of the region or out of state, they’re like ‘Wait, there’s 50 wineries here?’ They’re high quality, they take pride in what they’re doing, and they deserve even more attention.”

The same goes for the local food scene, which has come into its own over the past decade.

“We know that these are both key assets that really differentiate Traverse City from other places, and we wanted to have a brand-builder that put a spotlight on it and applaud that culmination of agriculture and cuisine,” Waara says.

Though some local businesses won’t participate due to staffing concerns—and are on record saying late August is already a tough time in that regard—Waara and Tkach say the local food and wine scene itself is indeed the driver of this festival.

“The wineries and restaurants came to us. We didn’t start this conversation—they did,” Tkach says. “And it’s been years since we’ve seen a willingness like this.”

“And the dates were picked in collaboration with several wineries and restaurants,” Waara adds. “They all were at the table and we talked it through. It’s harvest season and it’s a beautiful time of year here.”

Festival Structure

The five-day event is centered around a “Grand Tasting” at the Open Space on Saturday, Aug. 23, from noon until 4pm. Several local and visiting chefs will offer their wares, and more than 100 local wines will be available to taste.

“We wanted to create this anchor event that could be a place for everyone to come together; something to build around,” Waara says.

The main stage at the Grand Tasting will feature a conversation with Tyler Florence, a Food Network host, James Beard Award nominee, and renowned restaurateur. There will also be a cooking demonstration by Mei Lin, a Top Chef winner who boasts her own James Beard nomination for her restaurant work.

Other event highlights include an opening night patio party, a wine pairing dinner hosted by Florence at Aerie Restaurant & Lounge and a joint National Writers Series conversation with Antoni Porowski, a New York Times bestselling author, National Geographic TV host, and Emmy-winning star of Queer Eye.

And while TCT is excited about these “premiere” happenings, they are just a few of more than 60 events hosted at various restaurants and wineries in the region over the course of the festival. Participating local businesses were encouraged to engage with the festival in a way that best works for them.

“They get to create something that fits their brand, showcases their offerings, and meets their capacity,” Waara says.

That mindset also offered a way to work in a variety of events that have different price points and appeal. Many other food and wine festivals are prohibitively expensive, Waara says, and organizers did not want that to be the case here.

“We worked really hard to ensure that there was…something for everyone, whether it’s groups coming up, or people coming solo, or couples,” Waara says. “We wanted a lot of different activities and a lot of different businesses engaged, and we’re very excited to have curated this variety [of events].”

The Cooks in the Kitchen

Sarah Welch appeared on Top Chef (where she was a finalist) and founded two acclaimed Detroit restaurants (Mink and Marrow). She’ll be appearing at several Traverse City Food and Wine events, including a multi-course tasting dinner at Artisan, and she can’t wait for the festival to arrive.

“It’s just awesome to have that collection of talent all in one place,” she says. “It’s a great opportunity to get to know people and actually see what they’re doing in a more detailed way.”

Chef Omar Anani, another James Beard nominee, owns Saffron De Twah in Detroit and was a champion on Food Network’s popular show Chopped. In addition to Traverse City’s increasing recognition as a serious food town, he says, it’s also a great spot to talk about Michigan’s production of high-quality ingredients. (Fun fact: Michigan ranks second only to California in terms of commercial agricultural diversity.)

“I’ve been in Detroit for decades now, but I still do events in Traverse City, and I just freaking love it up there,” Anani says. “I think a lot of the bounty of the produce and food can really be showcased in a city like Traverse City, and that’s what I’m most excited about.”

Mei Lin grew up in southeast Michigan. After her Top Chef win, she worked as a personal chef for Oprah before opening up two restaurants in Los Angeles. She’s thrilled to get back “Up North” for the festival.

“I’m so excited to see a food and wine festival happening in Traverse City—a place I grew up visiting as a kid,” she says. “It feels special to come back and experience everything through fresh eyes, from the amazing local flavors to the beautiful community that makes this town such a gem.”

Amanda Danielson is founder and owner of Trattoria Stella, a significant pioneer in Traverse City’s fine dining scene. She says she’d rather have had the festival in May or June, but she’s fully supportive now that the ship has sailed in that regard.

“I still don’t feel it’s a great time of year to add another festival when people are already very busy,” she says. “That being said, I still definitely want it to be a success.”

While Stella is not participating, Danielson herself is excited to select wines for the multi-course tasting dinner at Artisan, which features all women chefs.

“That should be an amazing event because of the people involved alone,” she says.

Learn more about the upcoming festival at traversecity.com/food-wine.