July Pop-Up Dining at SKY Armory ft. Owera Vineyards

Last week, I got the chance to attend my first Pop-Up Dining at SKY Armory.  …I mean, when work partners with your favorite vineyard for a food AND wine event, how can you possibly pass that up.

Each month, Pop-Up Dining showcases five small plates (four savory, one sweet) paired with featured wines (this month: Owera Vineyards). Set up banquet style, the event gives you the opportunity to try foods you may have never tried before, directly from the SKY kitchen.

Initial thoughts:

“I have never seen so many wine glasses on a table at one time”

and

“I can’t wait to start eating”

Lol.

While the plates themselves might have been small, the portions were not. I wasn’t the only one at our table commenting after the first course about how if each came out just as big as the last, we were going to roll home after (don’t worry, we all were just fine).

This month’s menu included:

Course 1: Grilled salmon and poached quail egg over grilled endive and radicchio with lemon caper vinaigrette

Paired with: Owera Dry Riesling 

Course 2: Spinach and goat cheese stuffed pork loin topped with a dried cherry and walnut balsamic reduction

Paired with: Owera Owahgena Red

Course 3: Grilled tuscan marinated portobello mushroom over cayuga blue polenta topped with Romesco sauce

Paired with: Owera Chardonnay

Course 4: Seared flank steak over arugula salad, beet carpaccio and feta cheese

Paired with: Owera Cabernet Franc

Course 5: Toasted cherry crumble with a pink peppercorn semifreddo and Belgian chocolate sauce

Paired with: Cazenovia 1793

By the end of the evening (the event lasts from 6:30 – 9:30 and let me tell you, time flies when you’re indulging your tastebuds), we had made friends with two couples at our table and needed a pant-size up. Conversation from the evening ranged from the best places to visit in Nashville, how expensive it is to live in California, the kissing bench at SU, distilleries, a strange plane in Europe that seats passengers backwards, and how good our food tasted. Jokes were passed about how little we all knew about wine (big glass goes red, smaller glass to white), and how we wouldn’t need to eat for days. What can I say, when you’re almost 5 glasses of wine deep, the conversation gets flowing.

This foodie event is offered every month at SKY Armory, so if you haven’t gotten to one yet, you have plenty of time. Tickets can be purchased at skyarmory.com.

What are you favorite foodie events in Upstate/Central New York? Drop them in the comments or shoot me a line!

#foodie #foodpairing #downtownsyracuse #thingstodo #datenightout #syracuseeats