Wine, food and music are the ingredients to an entertaining evening in Opelika.
For the past year Lisa and Chris Beck, owners of the Event Center, have put in an immense amount of time and interest, making sure that the Event Center becomes a social gathering center for all ages and interests.
"We are trying to create diversity and provide something here for everyone to come in and enjoy," Beck said. "Bringing people together is my passion."
Last Friday, the Center held the Wine & Food Festival featuring live music by 3 Way Street as part of an ongoing effort to bring in a diverse and large crowd.
David Ellis, musician and member of the band from Georgia, said he and Beck met by fate in the terminal of a Boston Airport while waiting on their departing flights to board.
Ironically, the two ended up on the same flight with adjacent seats, and the rest of their history fell into place, which turned into a lasting friendship.
"I play in this group, and we do this two or three times a week in addition to my job as a teacher at a music store in Atlanta," Ellis said. "It's great to come out here and be apart of the wine and food festival, instead of just playing on stage all night, and that makes for a really enjoyable atmosphere."
Beck said the Event Center offers a kind of flexibility that allows them to host any type of show.
"We can do it all," Beck said. "In fact, 'Can Do It!' has been our new tag line for the last 6-7 months, and we feel really good about it, because it's plain and simple."
Christine's Gourmet Steak & Wine was chosen to lead the task of bringing nine different wine and food combinations to the festival's menu.
Christine Healey, owner of Christine's Gourmet Steak & Wine, said from the time she could walk she was in the kitchen helping out, and she fell in love with food.
"I'll try anything once, but I'm also very aggressive in the kitchen when I'm cooking," Healey said.
Healey said she made the menu for the festival backwards, instead of a more traditional and direct approach. Instead of pairing a complementary wine with a delicious meal, she tried all nine wines first and then went back and picked foods to go with each wine.
"I tried to choose wines that are either not very well known, or at least new on the market, all for a reasonable price so people can taste and try out something new and still be able to afford it themselves," Healey said.
Lisa said the Event Center strives to offer new and different varieties of gourmet food, by trying to introduce people to something they may have never tried.
"We are trying to get away from the local southern style of food and introduce something new to people, and show them that what they do in the big cities, we can do here as well," Healey said.
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