TASTE OF THE HILL COUNTRY

Fredericksburg Food and Wine Fest launches early-bird tickets

Tickets to the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival are on sale now.

Photo courtesy of Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival

San Antonians barely need a reason to make a drive down 290 West, but here’s another: the Fredericksburg Food & Wine Festival will return October 22-25. The annual shindig showcases the best of the region — every restaurant, distillery, winery, and brewery featured is located in the Hill Country.

This more than 30-year-old festival recently had a glow-up, relaunching in 2024 with a new look and refreshed schedule. Each year, it benefits a local nonprofit — this year the Hill Country Hospitality Workers Emergency Relief Fund.

Early-bird ticket badges for the signature event, the Grand Tasting, range from $100-$265. The rest of the events are now sold à la carte. An all-access pass, offered to 48 lucky food fans, sold out almost instantly.

Revelers can pick from the following events:

October 22: Opening Night kicks off the festival at Contigo Ranch with LALO Tequila cocktails, bites, wine pairings, live music and a bandana embroidery bar.
October 23: The upcoming Waldorf Astoria hosts The Street Dinner, a four-course feast presented on a long table set down the center of downtown Fredericksburg.
October 24: Stroll through the Grand Tasting, featuring beer and rose gardens, a tequila cantina, culinary demos, a silent disco, and more than 75 food and drink stations.
October 25: The Waterfront Brunch closes out the weekend with a relaxed brunch behind Das Peach Haus at the Fischer & Wieser Farmstead.

A list of talent signed on so far is available at fbgfoodandwine.com. Notable participants include chef and cookbook author Jesse Griffiths, Jerek Lara from Junebug’s Barbecue, and Mike Hall from Hill & Vine.

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READY TO ROLL

Trendy Dallas sushi bar rolls into San Antonio's Pearl

Nori Handroll Bar/ Facebook

Nori Handroll Bar will make its San Antonio debut in spring 2027.

One of the biggest looming trends in sushi is making its way to San Antonio. Dallas import Nori Handroll Bar is opening in Spring 2027 in the Coopers Row apartment complex at 1118 E. Elmira St. in Pearl.

For those unfamiliar, hand rolls, otherwise known as temaki, are a less exacting version of maki — the tightly rolled cylinders most Americans associate with sushi. The seaweed sheets enclose the typical fillings of rice, fish, and vegetables, but are wrapped in a looser cone or tubular shape.

Although several San Antonio restaurants offer the dish, it doesn’t yet have a dedicated handroll bar. The concept first debuted in the Deep Ellum neighborhood in 2018. Entrepreneur Mark Lee partnered with Jimmy Park, a former Nobu chef known for Pōk the Raw Bar in Dallas’ West Village. Originally, the spot only offered 12 hand rolls.

Now under the ownership of chef Deukbok Cha, the restaurant has since extended the menu to several à la carte options stuffed with king salmon, unagi, soft-shelled crab, scallops, and other seafood. The rolls are also offered in sets, ranging from I Could Eat (three hand rolls) to Hangry (six).

Nori's other offerings include sashimi, indulgent chef’s specials like truffle caviar nigiri, and fun appetizers like poppers made with jalapeño, cream cheese, red crab, and spicy tuna. Cha has also introduced Korean flavors that reflect his heritage.

The Dallas location is modeled after the neighborhood alleyway bars found on the streets of Tokyo, offering only 24 seats. The San Antonio outpost has not yet released renderings of the space, but at 2,995 square feet, it might offer a little more stretching room than the original.

“Pearl has such an incredible food culture, and it’s exactly the kind of place we want to be a part of," said Deukbok Cha, chef and owner of Nori Handroll Bar, in a release. “We want to create a gathering place where people can stop in for fresh hand rolls and Japanese-Korean flavors that are simple, approachable, and genuinely delicious.”

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