Editor’s Note: Managing Editor Angel Holmes co-founded Charleston Wine + Food Festival in 2004 and served as its executive director for eight years.
When executive chef and co-owner of Circa 1886 Marc Collins and then-public relations manager for the South Carolina Aquarium Angel Passailaigue Postell (now Holmes) met in the early 2000s, they found themselves wondering why Charleston, with its rich culinary
history, didn’t have a wine and food festival to call its own. As Collins continued to ponder the idea of organizing a local event, he began meeting with chefs around town to brainstorm collaborative ways to catapult Charleston’s evolving dining scene to the forefront of a bigger audience.
Around the same time, Hank Holliday, owner of Hank’s Seafood and Peninsula Grill, was also thinking about starting a culinary event in town. So was Dick Elliott, who owned the former Maverick Southern Kitchens. Chef Lewis Osteen had already started a “Salute to Southern Chefs” from 13 states at Charleston Place Hotel. With such talented minds attuned to the same idea, it was only a matter of time before the seed took root.
In the meantime, Holmes left the aquarium and started her own firm, Home Team Communications, representing celebrity chef Ken Vedrinski, who was then at Woodlands Resort & Inn. Within this new framework, Holmes and Collins circled back and decided to take the next steps toward outlining a blueprint for the festival.
After an initial meeting in 2004 attended by Holliday, Elliott, officials from Mayor Joe Riley’s office and others, a planning committee with 13 members formed with the common goal to elevate Charleston and put it on the culinary map of the world.
Holmes, who eventually took the festival on as a client because the board could not find anyone else capable of pulling it together in a short time frame, set the organization up as a nonprofit. One of her next moves was to hire Mitch Crosby, president and founder of JMC Charleston, for his full-service destination event planning services. Crosby teamed up with Denise Barto, owner of All Occasions, the party and event division of AAA Rentals, as a resource for their talent for entertaining, inventory, decor and tents.
Then in 2006, after two years of meeting and planning, the first Wine + Food Festival came to life. Offering 30 events in the culinary village in Marion Square plus dine-arounds in private homes and restaurants, the launch attracted between 8,000 and 10,000 visitors.
Holmes credits that early success to the planning committee, unpaid and contracted staff including Randi Weinstein and Sara Donahue, interns and volunteers such as Lisa Buzzelli, who remains with the festival today. She also hails legendary author, chef and cooking show host, the late Nathalie Dupree, who came on as chairman of the board, along with Dupree’s dear friend and then-food editor for Charleston Magazine Marion Sullivan.
In its second year, Holmes became director of the Wine + Food Festival. During her eight-year tenure, a snowball effect kicked in. The board grew to 35 members. Media and James Beard judges flocked to Charleston. High-end establishments such as FIG and Halls Chophouse opened, while countless others around the King and Calhoun neighborhood developed.
After eight years at the helm, the time came for Holmes to step down so she could represent the restaurant groups that had grown as a result of the festival’s success. For the next ten years (2012–2022), Gillian Zettler ran the festival and, according to Holmes, elevated its quality through expanded event designs, more creative programming, bigger sponsorships and a new office space.
When Zettler left the position in 2023, current Executive Director Alyssa Maute Smith took over the role. “Each year’s programming is a reflection of communitywide brainstorming, which is influenced by the various cultures that have impacted the story of the Lowcountry’s cuisine,” she says. “Because ‘rising tides lift all ships,’ meaning it wasn’t one restaurant that’s put us on the map, the evolution of the festival has been a community-wide effort. As the organization has evolved and matured, it’s allowed us to take an even stronger focus on bringing the community into the planning process that our city will feel ownership of what we are creating together.”
This spring, the Charleston Wine + Food Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with a past-present-future theme. “In honor of the Lowcountry’s history, there will always be a Gullah Geechee component,” Smith explains. “This year’s event will also incorporate an excursion to Native American shell rings to learn how indigenous people were eating and cooking with local ingredients. Although there is no documentation of Native American customs, this experience will give visitors a glimpse into the ancient culinary history that surrounds this landscape.”
She adds, “We always take the opportunity to highlight women chefs and mixologists as well.”
For Smith, the festival’s lineups continue to feel authentically Charleston. “Educating guests while honoring history has always been a component and value for the festival,” she says.
Beyond programming, the nonprofit looks to the future by focusing on the sustainability of the local food and beverage industry for future generations through mentorship as well as diverse and inclusive educational opportunities. “We will always show up for the community all year round, not just during the festival,” Smith says.
Although this year’s format looks different than years past with a new location for the village at Johnson Hagood Stadium at The Citadel and resurrected programming of events that have gone missing over the years, the Charleston Wine + Food Festival has come full circle.
Crosby remarks, “It’s wonderful to still see some of the same volunteers. It’s remarkable, too, how the hospitality community has grown here by looking after each other. I’m also very pleased that Nathalie and Marion’s Bubbles and Sweets event has made a comeback this year.”
Reflecting on the event’s last two decades, Collins says, “My wish for the festival would be plenty more years of continuing to showcase this great city, its food and beverage community and the rich food history that is unique to this area of the country. In my opinion, there isn’t another place in America that is as diverse in terms of food based on so many factors that coincided with the Lowcountry.”
The Charleston Wine + Food Festival continues to evolve, honoring its past while shaping the future of the Lowcountry’s culinary legacy.
To learn more, visit chswf.org.
By Sarah Rose