Sparkman Wharf sits at the edge of the Channelside district in a way that does not quite announce itself. The outdoor food and beverage complex, built around a restored waterfront warehouse, is the kind of thing Tampa has been building toward for a decade: a destination that uses the actual geography of Tampa Bay rather than the idea of it. On a Saturday in late March, it was the site of the Savor the Bay food and wine event, which is what happens when the people who organize these things have access to outdoor space that earns the occasion.
The format was uncomplicated: twelve Tampa Bay chefs, eight regional wine and spirits producers, tickets that included unlimited tastes, and a crowd that knew what it had come for. No sit-down meal, no auctioneer, no program. Four hours of moving between tables, tasting things, and making conversation with the people who produced them. This is the event format that works because it asks nothing of the attendees except appetite and time.
The Crowd and the Pace
The mid-afternoon start time (two o’clock) meant the first hour had the unhurried quality of an event that has not yet become itself. The chefs were plating at their stations with the careful attention of people who have not yet been exhausted by the crowd. The wine producers were pouring full tastes rather than the splashes that appear when the afternoon runs long and the bottles start running low. By three-thirty, the pace had changed: the ticket holders who had been timing their arrival for the “prime” window had arrived, the chef stations had lines, and the event had the energy of something that was working.
The crowd was mixed in the way that Tampa’s food event crowd has become mixed over the past several years: the predictable demographic of wine enthusiasts, food industry workers attending on their day off, couples who use these events as a form of date-night research for where to eat next. But also younger attendees who may have come for the Instagram moment and stayed for the event itself, which is not the worst outcome.
What Was Worth Tasting
The station from Rooster and the Till was the most discussed among the people comparing notes at the event’s perimeter. Chef Ferrell Alvarez had brought a preparation built around house-cured pork and a pickled element that cut through the fat with the precision of something developed in a kitchen that takes fermentation seriously. It was gone within ninety minutes, which is either a success or a miscalculation depending on how you measure these things; the line that formed at the empty station after the fact suggested that arriving early would have been the correct strategy.
The wine side of the event had two producers worth noting. A small producer from the Finger Lakes region was pouring a dry Riesling that had the mineral structure of the variety without the residual sweetness that makes German Riesling inaccessible to half the people who taste it. Explaining this to the people in line at the station resulted in a cluster of converts by the time the afternoon ended. The second: a Spanish import distributor was pouring a txakoli — the Basque white wine made from a grape variety that produces something briny and slightly effervescent and entirely right for standing outside on a Tampa afternoon in March. The bottles emptied quickly.
The Venue Itself
Sparkman Wharf works for this format in ways that an enclosed ballroom does not. The evening air, the water visible beyond the complex, the combination of warehouse architecture and outdoor pergola that the space uses to organize itself without walls: these are the conditions that make a food event feel like an occasion rather than a transaction. The Tampa Bay skyline to the north is present without demanding attention. The breeze off the water, on the afternoon in question, was the kind that makes March in Tampa feel like the city’s best argument.
A few practical notes for anyone attending future events at Sparkman Wharf: the outdoor configuration means that a bag to carry a glass is useful rather than optional; the concrete surface is comfortable in good shoes and uncomfortable in anything less; the shade availability is limited, and arriving in the late afternoon when the sun has moved improves the experience considerably.
The Case for This Format
Food and wine events in Tampa Bay have multiplied over the past decade, which means the market has become discerning about which ones are worth attending. The ones that work share a common quality: they choose the venue before they choose the program, and the venue they choose is specific to Tampa Bay rather than interchangeable with an event hall in any other city. Sparkman Wharf at the water’s edge in late March, with a dozen kitchens doing their best work under the open sky, is a specific Tampa Bay experience. That specificity is the reason to attend it rather than something equivalent in a ballroom.
Savor the Bay runs twice yearly, typically in March and October. Information on tickets and participating chefs: savorthebay.com