I love a good excuse to eat.
Breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Brunch. Mid-afternoon snack. High tea. Dessert. Whenever there’s food in front of me.
But what’s even better than eating eight times a day? EATING ALL DAY WITHOUT STOPPING.
No, I’m not talking about the charming American binge-fest that is Thanksgiving, I’m talking about Taste Leavenworth, a “culinary crawl” that takes you from one end of town to the next, sampling delicious food and drink along the way.
Every April, Leavenworth Bavarian Village celebrates the end of winter with a month-long celebration called Spring Sensations, during which local restaurants and shops feature pear-inspired culinary treats to commemorate the region’s pear growing heritage.
Taste Leavenworth is a two-day event during April where visitors can wander the town from shop to shop, tasting up to $155 worth of goodies in the process.
How could I possibly say no to that?!
You’re right, I couldn’t. So I called up fellow gypsy soul, food enthusiast, and photographer friend Megan to join me for a day of hyper-indulgence. I thought it best to have supervision seeing as a hefty chunk of the vouchers in our “passports” were for alcohol; and, of course, because misery loves company. I didn’t want to be the only one rolling myself into bed that evening.
I was still riding the high of a whirlwind wine tasting tour through Wenatchee, Cashmere, and Peshastin the previous day and feeling gloriously rested and refreshed after a night relaxing at Leavenworth’s Best Western Plus Icicle Inn. Despite the brisk weather I encountered upon leaving the hotel, I knew it was going to be a great day.
We began our culinary escapades around 11:30am when Leavenworth was already bursting at the seams with tourists. We first had to retrieve our passports near the gazebo in the center of town. These passports contained vouchers redeemable for food and drinks at thirty-two locations in Leavenworth and Cashmere.
A map on the last page showed us exactly where to find each one, and the back cover listed events happening around town throughout the festival, including live music, walking tours and more.
We knew there was no way we’d make it through all of the vouchers since we would only be attending one day. We wanted to try as many different foods as possible, though, so we needed to devise a plan.
We decided to divide and conquer–we’d save room in our bellies by using just one of our vouchers for the food items and sharing the portion (unless it the portions were bite-sized, obviously), allowing us to visit more places throughout the day. Of course, we would not apply this same methodology to the vouchers redeemable for booze. No, no, those were not for sharing.
Being just about lunch time, we settled on the Oil and Vinegar Cellar as the perfect first stop. There we would get to sample their fresh spring salad with pear vinaigrette. The portions were small and the food light enough that we each got our own. The tricky part then became escaping this dungeon of deliciousness without filling up on bread dipped in their dozens of infused olive oils and aged balsamic vinaigrettes. Little did we know that the temptation would only continue throughout the day.
With a meager lining of food now in our stomachs, we thought it was a reasonable enough time to have our first drinks of the day. We wandered into Eagle Creek Winery for their three wines paired with three pear dishes. Finding hoards of others with the same idea at that time of day gave us fleeting peace of mind that we weren’t, in fact, the only lushes in town.
Once bellied up to the bar, we were given three wines (a Riesling, a Syrah, and a Gewurztraminer) pear-ed (get it?!) with three different sweet pear dishes. It was a lot of sugar for my liking, but they were good nonetheless. The Syrah with a poached pear was by far my favorite.
Next door at Stemilt Creek Winery, we shared a portion of roasted pears over mascarpone polenta with a red wine caramel sauce. I think you can understand why we chose to share that little flavor bomb–it was far too rich and far too big a portion to eat knowing we still had so much more ahead.
Craving something savory now, we skipped across the street to Leavenworth Sausage Garten to share a delicious chicken pear sausage and purchased a local brew to go along with it. We didn’t realize it yet, but this was one of the few foods available on this culinary crawl that was actually savory. In hindsight, we should have gone back later in the day to share another.
The sun was shining in full force now, and tourists and locals filled the streets. I always love to see Leavenworth at its liveliest; the summer attracts outdoor enthusiasts in droves, and Oktoberfest and Christmas keep them coming ’round well into the colder months.
Following our mini-lunch, we went right back to the wine. Okanogan Estate and Vineyards provided wines paired with scrumptious samples of artisan bread, including one spicy variety that particularly tickled my fancy.
Our next stop took us to yet another tasting room across the street, Swakane Winery. This one paired wines with cheeses; the dry Riesling paired with Gouda nearly brought a tear to my eye, and for a red wine lover like me, that’s really saying something.
It was at this point we realized that most of our remaining options were either sweet desserts that we couldn’t stomach the thought of (see what I did there?!) or alcohol. We gave one last attempt at the sweet treats with pear flavored baklava from Blackbird Bistro before conceding to the fact that we’d probably just spend the rest of the afternoon drinking.*
Not that we were complaining, of course.
The weather took another turn for the chilly just as we arrived at Baroness Cellars to try their pear-inspired sunshine sangria (ironic, much?) and Engelwein. I also happened to have a coupon for a free wine tasting at this stop from my wine tour the day before, so naturally we took advantage of that as well.
After a long chat with our bartender, a surprise live piano concert, and running into a few old friends, we zagged back across Front Street to the Icicle Ridge Winery tasting room.
This tasting room is one of the newest additions to downtown Leavenworth. Upon entering, I was simultaneously smitten and confused. The bright, modern decor was absolutely stunning, but a glaring contrast to the winery I’m familiar with which is located just minutes from my home. The winery in Peshastin is classic log cabin whereas this tasting room is all sorts of trendy. I noted this to our server, who simply laughed and shrugged in agreement.
We took our sweet time sipping through this wine tasting. We were nearing the end of our day, and our stomachs were grumbling for something savory and substantial that didn’t have ‘pear’ in the title. We also just wanted time to delight in our beautiful surroundings and enjoy my favorite sport, people watching.
We had one more stop in our sights before making our way to dinner, Blue Spirits Distilling just next door. Another new addition to Leavenworth’s drinking scene and just as trendy, Blue Spirits (a product of Chelan) was abuzz with customers. Here, we sampled a rum paired with baked pear and a few other flavored whiskeys for good measure.
Once we were good and tipsy, we wobbled back across the street yet again to my favorite Latin restaurant in town, South. South was not participating in the culinary crawl, but I love their food and am literally always in the mood for chips and guacamole, so it seemed like an appropriate way to end our day.
If I had to do this culinary crawl all over again (and I would), I would make sure to come for both days instead of one in order to spread out the feasting (and drinking) a little more evenly. There were more sweets I would have been in the mood for the next day, but I didn’t make the time to come back and ended up with many of my vouchers unused.
We certainly got plenty of value out of our passports, though. At just $30 (or $25 pre-sale), these bad boys give you incredible bang for your buck, even if you don’t use all your vouchers.
So, who wants to eat through Leavenworth with me next year?
*Because many vouchers are for alcohol, Taste Leavenworth offers different passports with more child-friendly options for those under the legal drinking age.
This post was written in collaboration with the Leavenworth Chamber of Commerce. All opinions and overindulgences are 100% my own.
