9th Annual Wine Festival Coming Up

March 27, 2014
Volume 9, Number 3
Wine Festival.......................................................... pg. 1
Upcoming Events ................................................. pg. 2
Director’s Cut (Exec. Director) .......................... pg. 2
Local News ............................................................. pg. 2
Trout Derby ........................................................... pg. 2
The Inner Circle (Membership) ........................ pg. 3
The Turn of Events (Events) .............................. pg. 3
Freeze Frame (Photo Spot) ............................... pg. 4
To promote, protect and improve business through the cultural, social and economic development, growth
and sustainability of Blowing Rock while preserving the charm and character of the village.
9th Annual Wine Festival Coming Up...
the Grand Wine Tasting at either or both times, as well
as entry into Small Venue Tasting Tents around town but
also seated tastings of select reserve wines and bubbles
served with yummy nibbles and face to face conversations
with winemakers and reps.
Multiple seminars will be held each day and the newest
event of the festival is TASTE! that will feature signature
dishes presented by area restaurants and samplings of
wine and beers. Add to that live music and you have the
formula for a perfect evening. A true restaurant showcase.
The 9th
Annual Wine
Festival kicks off in
Blowing Rock on April
10! This year, the Grand Tasting will offer hundreds of wines from
around the world and North Carolina,
along with tasty morsels prepared by
the Executive Chef for the Carolina
Panthers training camp, Aidan Waite. It
will take place in the Grand Tasting Tent on
the Maple Street Parking Lot while the Grand
Reserve Wine Tasting, sponsored by Blue Ridge
Mountain Club, will be held in a tent on the lawn at the
Inn at Ragged Gardens. It will include not only entry to
In the evenings, various restaurants will offer winemaker’s dinners where each course will be served with wines
from area vineyards. Make your reservations now!
Thursday, April 10th
6:00 pm: Casa Rustica & Grandfather Vineyard & Winery
7:30 pm: Rowland’s at Westglow & Signorello Estate Vineyards
8:00 pm: Twigs – “Taste” After Party
Friday, April 11th
5:00 pm: Childress at Timberlake’s Restaurant
6:30 pm: Moffett & Trent Moffett at Gideon Ridge Inn
6:30 pm: Vision Cellars at the New Public House
6:30 pm: Around the World Wine Dinner at Twigs
6:30 pm: Vidalia Restaurant and Hanover Park Vineyard
7:00 pm: “Mi Amore” Italian at The Table at Crestwood
Saturday, April 12th
5:00 pm: Victus World Imports at Timberlake’s Restaurant
Chamber Holds Technology Fair
Blue Ridge Wine & Food Festival
Blowing Rock
April 10-13
www.blueridgewinefestival.com
Business After Hours
Monkee’s
Tuesday, April 15, 5:30pm
Help Us Help You - Restaurant
Chamber Board Room
Thursday, April 17, 3:00pm
Help Us Help You - Retail
Chamber Board Room
Thursday, May 8, 9:00am
Art in the Park
Saturday, May 17, 10:00am-5:00pm
Blowing Rock Farmer’s Market
Park Avenue
Thursdays, May 29-October 16
4:00-6:00pm
Business Meetings
Board Retreat/Planning Session
Chetola Evergreen Room
Wednesday, April 2, 8:00am-12:00pm
Resource Development
Chamber Board Room
Monday, April 14, 4:00pm
Membership Committee
Chamber Board Room
Wednesday, April 16, 9:00am
Executive Committee
Chamber Board Room
Tuesday, April 22, 8:30am
Business Support
Chamber Board Room
Thursday, April 24, 9:00am
March 20 the Chamber’s Business Support Committee held its first Technology Fair at The New Public
House. There were eight vendors of technology products and services present to share with the attendees
their latest and greatest new technology products.
Others were there to help attendees with problems
they are experiencing with their devices. Whether it
was a problem with their phone, pad, or simply “how
do I….” The Chamber has heard for years that we are
all technology challenged and that we need help from
time to time just to keep up.
In addition to the vendors of technology, we had
some folks to answer questions about the new smart
credit cards that will be entering the market in 2015.
Most businesses don’t even know that they will be
faced with equipment upgrades to accept these cards.
Further, not accepting them will cause loss of sales
and worse, higher fees in the future as their security is
the reason for this change.
Perhaps the best part of the fair was the social media roundtables. These were informal discussions
about effective social media use for marketing business. Each table featured one of the social media
platforms and someone proficient in using that platform in marketing their small business to lead the
discussion and to answer questions. Jess and Kenneth Wehrmann, owners of Monkee’s led the table
on Instagram and Twitter, Janet Calhoun, owner of
Traditions Pottery led the session on Facebook, and
Terri Bailey, Membership Director at the Chamber
led the discussion on Pinterest. If you have interest in
one of these topics, contact the presenter for a copy of
the handout. The thought here was that anyone can
The Milners were gracious to open their business up
for the fair and provided a light breakfast and coffee.
While we had 30 members present, I have a feeling
many of you would have benefited from this opportunity.
Board Engages in Strategic Planning
Under the leadership of Cathy Robbins, President,
the Board of Directors will begin a strategic planning process for the Chamber. After the board retreat
trip in November, the board determined that the
Chamber needs to intensify its focus and map out
a long term strategy for the next 5-7 years. We have
engaged Dr. Dana Clark, Professor of Marketing in
ASU’s Walker College of Business and his esteemed
colleague Dr. Rich Pouder, Professor of Management
to lead us through the process. It is expected that this
process will take several half day sessions throughout
the year. Dr. Clark comes with a specialty in hospitality management and Dr. Pouder is a strategic planner. Together they will utilize graduate students this
summer to develop the plan. “We are all very excited
to have the opportunity to utilize the assets the university offers us for this very important initiative” said
Charles Hardin, Executive Director. Dr. Clark will
lead the board in discussions next Wednesday, April 2
at Chetola’s Evergreen Room. The Chamber is grateful to have Chetola sponsor this event. The Chamber has invited the Town Manager, Scott Fogleman
and Tracy Brown, Executive Director of the TDA to
join the group in this session. Both the Town and the
TDA are considered valuable strategic partners.
Wine Festival Volunteers Needed
Easter Egg Hunt
The Wine Festival is rapidly approaching us. There are
many small jobs that need to be done. If you can spare a few
hours, please contact Volunteer Coordinator, Pam Vines at
[email protected]. It literally takes a village. No
special talent or skills necessary.
Cedric Burnside Project at Canyons
“You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when
you give of yourself that you truly give.”
~Kahlil Gibran
Member News
For more info and calendar:
www.blowingrock.com
read volumes of information on any of these subjects,
but actually working with others who are actually using this successfully in their business is golden!
Congratulations to Alice Roess
Appalachian State University renamed its dining hall in her honor.
The official new name of the facility is the Alice Roess Dining Hall.
Read More Here...
Tweetie Opens For Season
April 11
www.tweetsie.com
Memorial Park
April 12, Games:10:00am Hunt: 11:00am
Saturday, April 12, 9:30pm, $10 Cover
Ensemble Stage Presents Interactive Musical
Murder-Mystery, “Resort to Murder”
The Evergreen Room at Chetola, 414-1844
Saturday, April 12, 10:00pm
www.ensemblestage.com
Chetola’s Corkscrew 5K
Saturday, April 12, 8:30am
828.295.5535 or [email protected]
www.sportoften.com/events/eventDetails.cfm?pEventId=12633
Tour For Life National Adoption Event
The Watauga Humane Society at Boone WalMart
Sunday, April 13, 11:00am-4:00pm
www.wataugahumanesociety.org
35th Annual
Blowing Rock Trout Derby
The 35th Annual Derby begins at
sunrise on Saturday with prizes being
awarded at 4:30pm. Win prizes for biggest fish in separate age categories. No
entry fees are required and no pre-registration is necessary. Just take your catch
to the official Derby headquarters at the
Blowing Rock American Legion Building on Wallingford Street.
Children 11 and under and persons
with disabilities may fish at Broyhill
Park’s Mayview Lake. There is a limit of
three (3) fish per participant per day at
Mayview Lake. All anglers must have a
license and obey all posted fishing regulations. The only fish eligible for entry
into the derby are freshly caught trout
taken from Watauga County public
trout waters. Admission is free.
Blue Ridge Wine and Food
Festival… Are you ready?
The 2014 Wine Festival is FULL of events
with a very loaded schedule of Grand Tastings, Grand Reserve Tastings, TASTE!, Concerts, Coffee Cupping, a Murder Mystery,
Seminars, Wine Dinners, Cooking Classes,
and more!
The Wine Festival typically brings 2000-3000
customers into Blowing Rock. As a front line
person in customer service, we feel it would
be good for you to know the changes to the festival this
year – and there are MANY!
• There are two separate tasting tents (The Grand Reserve & The Grand Tasting tent). Each tent has two
tasting times. Anyone who purchases a ticket to one of
these events gets free tastes at the satellite tents located
along Main Street. The Reserve Tent is located on the
grounds of the Inn at Ragged Gardens.
• There are 5 satellite tents along Main Street to encourage guests to walk through town and shop and
dine while here. Guests must taste at the tent locations; no alcohol may be consumed past the posted
areas of the tents.
Welcome to Our New Business Memberships:
Arrive At (Todd Mortensen) 870 West King Street, Boone, NC, 828-737-1428,
www.i.arriveat.com
Blowing Rock Refuge Church (Rhonda Gailes) Morris Street, Blowing Rock, NC, 828-773-6750,
www.brrefuge.com
Brittany Edsall Fine Art, LLC (Brittany Edsall) 1098-4 Main Street, Blowing Rock, NC, 828-406-4128,
www.brittanyedsallart.etsy.com
Chair and Equipment Rentals (Mark Miller) 1530 N. Wesleyan Blvd., Rock Mount, NC, 800-422-8368,
www.chairandequipmentrentals.com
Heartland Payment Systems (Melissa Tausche) 1741 Sunset Drive, Blowing Rock, NC, 828-414-1741,
www.HeartlandPaymentSystems.com
Papa Joe’s Italian-American Restaurant with Indulge Bakery (Joe Papa) 8062 Valley Blvd., Blowing Rock, NC,
828-295-3239, www.papajoesitalianamericanrestaurant.com
Piedmont Federal Savings Bank (Susan Norris) 1399 Blowing Rock Rd., Boone, NC, 828-264-5244,
www.piedmontfederal.com
Quail Hollow in Blowing Rock (Frankie Petrie) 448 Laurel Park Rd., Blowing Rock, NC, 828-372-7008,
www.quailhollow-blowingrock.com
ReDeux Boutique (Elena Romagni) 215 Boone Heights Drive, 300, Boone, NC, 828-355-9944,
www.redeux.co
Stick Boy Kitchen (Lisa Pearce) 211 Boone Heights Drive, Boone, NC, 828-265-4141,
www.stickboybread.com
Todd Bush Photography (Todd Bush) 2989-C Tynecastle Hwy., Banner Elk, NC,
828-898-8088, www.bushphoto.com
• TASTE! is a showcase of area Chamber Member
restaurants and will be held on Thursday under the
Grand Tasting Tent on the Maple Street Parking Lot.
• There are LOTS of events going on during the
festival. Many of the Chamber Members have
created their own events to promote their
business and we are advertising for them.
THIS IS FANTASTIC! And we encourage
everyone to get creative with their involvement. For instance, Foggy Rock is having
a Pancake Breakfast and has partnered
with Bald Guy Brew to do a Coffee Cupping at their restaurant. Grand Idea!
• Website address is www.blueridgewinefestival.com
• If you have questions about festival
events, feel free to call us. You are the best
source of information for your customers
and we want to help all we can!
One final request, if you know anyone
who has volunteered to help during the
Blue Ridge Wine and Food Festival, give
them a kiss on the mouth! We couldn’t do it
without them! (If you feel a little uncomfortable with this, a simple THANK YOU is probably
sufficient).
Contact Billie Rogers at [email protected] or
295-7851.
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The Chamber now has its own show on
Mountain Television Network 18. Go check it out!
2nd Tuesday of the Month
12:00pm, 6:30pm, 11:30pm
2nd Wednesday of the Month
6:00am, 7:00am, 9:00am
2014 OFFICERS
CATHY ROBBINS
President
Tweetsie Railroad
CHELSEA gARRETT
1st Vice President
diSanti, Watson, Capua & Wilson
MELISSA PICKETT
2nd Vice President/Treasurer
Blowing Rock Inn
KEVIN TROYER
Secretary
4 Forty Four Inc.
MEMBERS OF THE BOARD
JOHN ALDRIDgE
Airlie Enterprises, LLC
DAVID BARKER
Blowing Rock Market
BETSY COLLINS
Individual Representative
DICK gOOSMAN
Meadowbrook Inn
CHARLES HARDIN
Executive Director
[email protected]
MARCIA gREENE
Chetola Resort
DON HUBBLE
Individual Representative
LYNN LAWRENCE
First Baptist Church
SUZANNE MILLER
Blowing Rock Antique Center
CINDY MILNER
Bistro Roca
KEITH NEAVES
Neaco
DOUg PEgRAM
Village Real Estate
JIM PITTS
Blue Ridge Mountain Club
TERRI BAILEY
Membership Services Director
Art in the Park Coordinator
[email protected]
MANDY POPLIN
Doncaster Outlet
STEVEN PRICE
Westglow
CULLIE TARLETON
Individual Representative
JESS WEHRMANN
Monkee’s
BILLIE ROgERS
Events Director
[email protected]
CATHY WILLIAMSON
Kilwin’s Chocolates &
Ice Cream
MARCIA VAUgHAN
Travel Counselor
[email protected]
132 Park Avenue • PO Box 406 • Blowing Rock, NC 28605 • 828.295.7851 • fax: 828.295.7651 • [email protected]