Weekend Foodie Warriors- Take 19!
Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend! In this edition of Foodie Adventures, we headed to the South Carolina Peach Festival, Food Trucks at the Greenville Triumph game, and checked out a brand new pizza place in Greenville, Coastal Crust!
A couple weeks ago, as I was driving down the highway, I came across a billboard for this peach festival and knew that I had to check it out for you guys! This had the works – a 3 day festival which had a beauty pageant, a parade, a carnival, and so much more – but my favorite part was the dessert competition 😋
People from all around the county came to show off their peachy desserts and try to win a prize.
All the peaches were provided by Abbott’s Farm to the bakers for their recipes. The dessert competition was held at City Hall, and all of the dishes had numbers to keep the judging anonymous.
The judges (middle) included Brett McBee (the owner of Brett’s Bakery, a block away), Miss Nanda B. (a local chiropractor), and Ms. K. Wood (head chef from Cherokee Medical Center). See the in action shots of them at work below!
P.s. The last picture in the slideshow is my favorite, Ms. Wood caught me taking a candid shot and smiled at the perfect moment 🤗
After the judging was over we were able to taste test some of the desserts, we tried a peach pound cake and a peach crumble, and both were delicious!
Third place winner was #7 Karen Cozad, with her Cream Cheese Peach Pie Delight, winning a prize of $50.
Second place winner was #11 Regina Grisby, with her *Peach-za* (haha get it? 😂🍑), winning $100.
ANNNDDD *Drum-roll please*…..
The first place winner was #15 Katie Gordon with her Blooming Peach Cheesecakes, winning $250!!
The winning dishes are also below, in third to first place rankings. The little peach rosettes and Peach-za (Zach came up with that nickname) were absolutely gorgeous when it came to presentation.
The winner’s plaques were hand-carved by a local shop on Main Street called Scott and James, go check them out, their work is lovely!
I was lucky enough to speak with the MC after the competition, Carlton Bridges, who told me some history behind the event. While Carlton has been involved with the festival for 20 years, he only recently took over the duties of the dessert competition.
“The dessert contest was always the brain child of Abbott Farms PR manager, Brent Parish, who is no longer with us. Every year we have been trying to increase participation in the competition, growing the number of contestants from 15-30+ participants every year we have done it. We are hoping to maintain Brent’s legacy by continuing to hold this competition every year, keeping his vision alive.”
Carlton Bridges, Master of Ceremonies
After the competition, we walked around Main Street and the car show, pie eating contest, and arts & craft vendors! I even snagged a couple cupcakes (super yummy) and a set of microwave mitts to use in my kitchen, got one for mom too.
Zach has always been a big soccer fan, so he loves having the Greenville Triumph soccer team here (an MiLS team, he’s even blogged about them before in his guest written blog, check it out here).
We checked out one of their home games this weekend on Saturday, which included going to some awesome food trucks in the process, my fav!
There was a Mediterranean food truck called Chef on the Run, a BBQ food truck (SBH- Smoked Butt Heads, yes, that is their name), and the Kono Pizza Truck.
The pizza truck was really cool – they take pizza dough, turn it into a cone shape, and bake and fill it so it is a handheld, no mess pizza. We didn’t try the pizza, but will try it another time!
We did try the BBQ, which was amazing! We got a pulled pork/brisket sandwich. This BBQ place also has a brick and mortar store location on Pelham Rd. in Greenville, SC, and they’ve been winning competitions for years!
It was a blast being able to walk in with the Greenville Fan club, the Reedy River Riot.
We went in with flags, and drums and noisemakers galore 🎉
We had our own designated seating behind the goal! Even though we lost the game, it was a really fun evening.
Grand Opening – Coastal Crust Pizza
Greenville, SC
You must know pizza is my favorite food by now! So when I saw this restaurant was having its grand opening a week ago, I know I had to stop by this weekend. Waiting until the crowds subsided, I decided to grab a couple friends for a late lunch to see what it was all about.
They had a great atmosphere, nestled between a jewelry store and the rest of the hip Village of West Greenville storefronts, which boasts The Village Grind coffee shop, Van’s chocolate shop, Golden Brown & Delicious (totally raved about their food truck before), and the Anchorage, another award winning Greenville foodie destination.
My friends are the best, goofiest people too, love them to bits 💜
Chef Andrew, the head chef at Coastal Crust, came over to our table once he found out one of my friends has allergies (allergic to about 3 of the four main ingredients in sauce and pizza), and personally let them know of everything on the menu that they could eat. Probably one of the best table side services we’ve had in a while honestly!
Chef Andrew assured us that everything was super fresh, made to order, and high quality, and he wouldn’t send it out if it was sub-par.
“The mozzarella is pulled in house, the meats come from about two to three blocks away at Revival Butcher Shop (providing us with sausages, pepperoni, & our chorizo), and everything else is locally sought out on farms as well.”
Chef Andrew, Coastal Crust
On the suggestion of our awesome server, Erin, we started with the Peasant Board, which was a mix of chef chosen cheeses, meats, pickles, and other accouterments.
Starting from the bottom left going clockwise, it included:
- Olive Tapenade
- Macadamia nuts and pistachios
- Pepperoni
- Speck (a longer aged prosciutto)
- Salami
- Speca (think the homemade version of a Romano’s Macaroni Grill bread, which you can buy fresh at our local Swamp Rabbit Cafe & Grocery )
- Fontina cheese
- Homemade bread and butter pickles
- Sweet and spicy red pepper jelly
- Smoked mozzarella
- Local honey
- And Aged cheddar infused w/balsamic and onion
We had to go for the pizzas next 😁🍕🍕❤ you’ll see their meatball pizza, Max got their veggie pizza, and Tam and I got the “Fig and Pig” pizza, which was an olive oil base, with mozzarella, figs, crispy prosciutto, and smoked blue cheese.
Now I’m not a huge fan of blue cheese, but it really worked on this pizza! You got the funk of the cheese, the crispy, salt umami flavor from the prosciutto, and then the figs come in and bring sweetness and a balance to those flavors. If you like sweet and salty , this is the pizza for you!!
I also loved how thin crust it was, that’s my favorite way to eat pizza 💜🍕
If only for the service alone, we would come back in a heartbeat. However, when Erin told us about the canolis and seasonal fillings they hand make in house every day, I’m definitely coming back 😍 Sunday’s flavor was salted caramel, and the dinner version was supposed to be strawberry basil. My mouth is watering writing this 🤤
This place has ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ in my book 😁 Would highly recommend checking it out!!
So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? Where’s your favorite food themed festival or new restaurant that’s opened near you? Sound out in the comments below or let me know your suggestions of what dishes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗
