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More Huge News for Coastal Luxury Management: L.A. Food & Wine

Call Pebble Beach Food & Wine, arriving in a week, what you want. Opulent. Incredible. Over the top. But, with its suburb-sized Lexus Grand Tasting tent, 11,000 bottles of wine and salivating throng of 6,000 foodies, you have to call it big.

But with news that broke just hours ago maybe…not so much.

At noon Wednesday Monterey’s Coastal Luxury Management—the group that puts together PBF&W and runs Cannery Row Brewing Company and Harvest Carmel, among other projects—along with dick clark productions (lowercase intentional) and Anschutz Entertainment Group (better known as AEG), announced the upcoming debut of Los Angeles Food & Wine, set to go down Oct. 15-16.

They are trumpeting a scope of events that’ll swoop from Santa Monica to Hollywood, drawing 30,000 upscale foodies and pimping the powers of 300 wineries and 100 stainless-steel celeb chefs including Thomas Keller, Daniel Boulud, Wolfgang Puck, Nancy Silverton, Masaharu Morimoto, Tyler Florence, Michael Mina, Sang Yoon, Rory Hermann, Sherry Yard and Ludo Lefebvre.

CLM chiefs Rob Weakley and David Bernahl (above), who have been quietly working on the deal for two years, borrowed from an old model to make such a blockbuster possible. Just as they filled the vacuum created by Masters of Food & Wine’s departure with PBF&W, with LAF&W they catalyze the leftover potential energy from the American Wine & Food Festival.

"LAFW will capture both the incredible epicurean caliber found in Los Angeles and the celebrity achieved by today's food and wine leaders. Pairing these talents with the world of Hollywood is a rare combination," Wolfgang Puck says. “It has been my pleasure and honor to host the American Wine & Food Festival for nearly 30 years, benefiting the Los Angeles Chapters of Meals on Wheels, one of the city’s most important hunger-relief organizations. I couldn't be happier to continue with this great organization and evolve the festival by ushering in this fresh, new concept. The quality of talent and content that CLM, dick clark productions, and AEG bring to the table is extraordinary and will continue to raise awareness for our amazing culinary community.”

Chef Keller, who also serves on the PBF&W advisory board, adds this: “I am proud to take part in the first Los Angeles Food and Wine Festival this coming October. My team at Bouchon is eager to partner with Coastal Luxury Management, along with our restaurant colleagues in the area, in establishing this as one of the premiere gastronomic events in the country.”

The new megaevent will mean great cross-marketing for PBF&W—and a buffet of industry buzz.

“This,” Bernahl says, “is big.”