The Cooking Channel's Meatpacking Uncorked event was a no brainer. I didn’t read anything about walking around to different stores to sample different wines or sample different foods. Had I known that I had to do so much walking I would have by passed up this event. It was good that I was forewarned about picking up the ticket early. Had I known that I had to do all that walking I would not have worn my heels. I got to the Welcome Center early so everything wasn’t set up yet. After coming out of the Welcome Center the line was chaos. People were everywhere.

I had to ask one of the attendants for a passport. Then to find out what I had to do after receiving the passport was a mind blower. Walking around in heels was not conducive to my ankles. I did not get to every store. The first line that I got one was for a little meatball, I was not impressed. To boot walking on cobblestones didn’t make it any better. I was afraid that I might break my neck or fall for that matter especially in the dark.

To ask for a second helping was a no, no the response I got was let me see your bracelet, that was for a small chicken quesadilla. The ice cream was good but the line was unbearable. I manage to walk around to get a waffle that look like a peanut butter spread with whipped cream. I did try the 3 tater tots that were delicious. I think I was the last one to get that and then they initially closed up shop. Some of the restaurants were actually selling their food. I couldn’t believe that after paying that price for my ticket.

This is something that I would not do again, if I do please tell me that you are not selling me the ticket. They should have had it in one big place like La venue. When I finally made it home I had to get off my feet as my ankles were no longer my ankles.

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The food offered was (almost) uniformly of poor quality. The cost of the tickets could have bought a much nicer dinner at any number of places Potato puffs at two places with pseudo-gourmet sauce. I had these type of potato puffs when Continental Airlines served them for breakfast and nobody touched them! Beef tartar (safe?) topped with raw anchovy!! Mediocre gnocci. All this required a lot of walking, outrageously expensive parking ($25. for 3 hours). Since I brought a guest, I found myself apologizing for the food and walking. Fortunately the neighborhood was fun and weather was great.

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The event was very crowded. The food lines were outrageously long and very time consuming. The boutiques serving wine were crowded as well. It was impossible to sample all of the offerings as the food venues were spaced fairly apart from one another.
Thankfully, it was a lovely autumn evening, but on the whole the organization and management of food lines was shoddy, at best.
I was a bit disappointed and thought that I paid too much for what I got in return.
This is a first for any of the Goldstar offerings that I have attended.

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Similar to many of the other reviewers, I felt that this event was not worth the time or money. Lines way too long, portions too small (save the tater tots), disproportionate amount of starches, cheap wine in expensive, size 00-2 boutiques and too much walking on cobblestone to get food. It started off fun when the lines were reasonable, but as the night went on and the lines became more populated, it was less enjoyable, thankfully I was with fun people. In addition (the most disappointing to me), in the welcome center, many couples or groups of people were asked to share one map in the name of "going green." If this were the case, why wasn't the "green" effort extended to the participating vendors/restaurants--the whole event? Almost every sample was offered on/with plastic, there were no recycling containers anywhere and the existing regular trash cans were very few and far between. If you say you are "going green" in the welcome center by minimizing the amount of PAPER (more recycleable and biodegradable) and have all of the vendors offer plastic (harder to recycle and not biodegradable--especially given the large amount of attendees) there is a blatant and sad contradiction and hardly makes for a "green" event.

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