Pour on the Texas wine! Top off the Texas beer! Slice in to Texas steak! Mark your calendars now for Sept. 28-30, as plans are underway for the annual Texas Reds Steak & Grape Festival in Historic Downtown Bryan. Texas Reds is a Downtown Bryan Association event generously sponsored by City of Bryan.
“Texas Reds weekend is, without a doubt, one of the biggest, best, and proudest weekends for our city,” Bryan Mayor Andrew Nelson says. “Its impact on our economy is substantial. The annual festival attracts thousands of attendees from over 100 counties and more than a dozen states. In keeping with the Texas Reds name, our city is ready to roll out the proverbial ‘red carpet’ to welcome everyone to our historic downtown community on the last weekend in September.”
This year’s festivalgoers will enjoy wine from more than 25 Texas wineries, beer from more than 15 Texas craft breweries, artisans, food vendors, kids zone, live music, and of course, plenty of mouth-watering steak.
The festival will kick off with a headliner concert by an artist to be named very soon on Friday night on the Main Stage at 28th Street. On Saturday, the festival will welcome prize seeking master grillers as part of the annual Steak Cook-Off. The festival fun continues throughout the day on Saturday with the opening of the wine and beer tents at 11am, the ever-so-fun kids zone, and live music. Saturday evening will feature the popular steak dinner served with all the fixins by J. Cody’s Steaks and Barbecue. Sunday welcomes the return of the steak and egg brunch accompanied by mimosas and selected Texas wines. A full festival schedule will be released in the coming weeks.
“Since the DBA has been producing the festival, we have learned that people love lots of things about Texas Reds,” Downtown Bryan Association’s Executive Director Sandy Farris says. “In their feedback to us, they emphasize the specialness of the food, wine, and beer components. We have been responding to that feedback by expanding those parts of the festival these past few years. That continues this year with the addition of the ‘Unwind & Dine’ dinner.”
New to the festival, “Unwind & Dine” is a multi-course wine tasting dinner that will be hosted on Saturday night at Madden’s Casual Gourmet. The dinner menu will be created by Chef Tai Lee with each course accompanied by a specifically selected Texas wine. “This new pairing dinner is the result of recommendations from past festival attendees,” Farris explains. “We are very excited to partner with Chef Tai on testing the idea out this year. I think it will be a win for the festival!” Seating will be limited to this dinner so early purchase is encouraged.
Admission to the festival and the Kids Zone is free. Tickets must be purchased for Wine Tastings, Beer Tastings, the Saturday Night Steak Dinner, the Sunday Brunch, and the new Unwind & Dine multi-course dinner. All tickets will go on sale on Aug. 1. Tickets will also be available at the festival; however, the prices are lower for tickets purchased in advance. More information, including a festival schedule, will be available in the coming weeks at www.TexasRedsFestival.com.
Vendor applications for the steak cook-off, wine, craft beer, arts and crafts and food vendors are now being accepted. Applicants should contact the Downtown Bryan Association office at (979) 822-4920 or visit www.TexasRedsFestival.com.
