Dallas Arboretum Welcomes Summer With a Garden Soirée and the City’s Top Chefs

The Annual Food and Wine Festival Recalls the Roaring '20s

By Fernanda Aguero // Jun 30, 2021

Photography Dallas Arboretum/Steve Foxall

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Alicia Voltmer, event chair, and Chef Sharon Van Meter, chef chair (Photo by Dallas Arboretum/Steve Foxall)

Flapper dresses and cowboy hats danced together to the music of several local artists at the Dallas Arboretum’s annual Food and Wine Festival. The June 10^th celebration, themed A Great Gatsby Garden Soirée, featured all the Roaring ’20s classics with feathers and fringes decorating the botanical garden’s blooming lawn.

The first day of summer gathered Dallas’s top local chefs for a tasting of various small plates, all paired with a selection of wines. Sponsors Rosewood Ranches Wagyu Beef and Amegy Bank brought together 28 chefs from some of the most beloved and sought-after dining destinations in Dallas, including Cane Rosso, Petra and the Beast, Homewood, José, Carte Blanche, and Fearing’s Restaurant. Accompanying wine was provided by Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, giving guests an assortment of bottles to choose from.

Chef John Tesar (left) prepares food for VIP guests in A Tasteful Place. — Knife’s Chef John Tesar (left) prepares food for VIP guests in the Dallas Arboretum’s A Tasteful Place.

Dozens of plates handed out at the festival, from the jar cakes from La Duni Baking Studio to the brisket hoagie from The Meat Shop, allowed for guests to travel across Dallas in one day. The ’20s-themed day blending together some of the hidden gems, and local celebrity chefs, the city has to offer.

View the slideshow above to relive the Dallas Arboretum’s 2021 Food and Wine Festival, and visit dallasarboretum.org for more information about summer programming.