Southern Living is coming to Auburn to set up a tailgate for their Southern Living Tailgate Tour. The tour involves the Southern Living test kitchen and the Cobblestone Bread Co. food truck working together to visit three different SEC college towns: Auburn; Columbia, South Carolina; and Athens, Georgia.
"We've commissioned a truck, and so we're going to three different universities and doing this tour," said Brianna Belmonte, public relations representative for Cobblestone Bread Co. "Our first stop will be in Auburn and that will be Oct. 4, for the LSU game."
Southern Living test kitchen director Robby Melvin will be challenging Cobblestone Bread Co. chef Nathan Lippy to a sandwich smack down.
"It's not so much a competition as much as it's kind of a friendly way to go at it with a sandwich that I came up with for a tailgating issue we did last year," Melvin said. "It's a combination, you know, sandwich smack down-cooking demo. We're really going to be able to show everyone who's there, who is watching, how to put our sandwich together."
Southern Living will be serving buffalo chicken meatball sliders on Cobblestone Bread Co. Windy City hot dog buns. Cobblestone Bread Co. will be serving chicken bruschetta with mozzarella and balsamic glaze on their white grinder sub rolls.
Melvin said he will show everybody the procedure on how to mix, season and scoop the meatballs into perfect shapes. All of the ingredients will be fresh, Melvin said.
After both chefs are finished, they will pass out samples so the audience can vote for their favorite on raffle cards that will be handed out. The voters will be entered to win $500 to use toward their own tailgate.
Melvin said the tailgate will be set up with bar tables for the audience and a large demonstration area. They will also have a social sharing photo booth available.
Claire Rock, marketing manager for Southern Living, said Cobblestone Bread Co. approached them regarding the partnership.
"They know Southern Living owns the South," Rock said. "We could really have a presence on campus and get people excited about coming out to tailgate."
After the demonstration, the magazine is going to do a feature on the tailgate.
"It's going to be featured online, and we're going to have lots of digital coverage on this," Melvin said. "We're also going to have a little write-up that will be featured in the magazine."
Melvin said they chose Auburn because they wanted to go to a big game where a lot of Southern Living readers would be attending. Melvin is an Auburn fan himself and said he is excited to come for the game.
"Southern Living has always wanted to do a tailgate tour and take our test kitchen out on the road," Rock said. "I think it was the perfect partnership."
The tailgate is free and open to the public. It will be located in the Gay Street parking lot from 12-3 p.m. They will be doing demonstrations and pass out samples during that time.
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