FE ATURES
FE ATURES
SEASON TO TASTE
AS WINTER SETTLES INTO SOUTH FLORIDA, PHIL MARRO AND KATE REED BRING CHEFS, TRAVELERS AND LOCALS TOGETHER THROUGH THE VISIT LAUDERDALE FOOD & WINE FESTIVAL.
By Jenny Starr Perez.
January through March is arguably the best time to visit South Florida. The air softens, the humidity retreats, and the calendar fills quickly with galas, performances, openings and long, lingering meals designed to be enjoyed outdoors. It is the season when the region feels most social and most itself. So, it feels fitting that near the top of that calendar sits the Visit Lauderdale Food & Wine Festival, a weeklong celebration founded by Phil Marro and Kate Reed that has become a defining marker of winter in Fort Lauderdale.
“When we started, we had four events and about 25 restaurants at our Grand Tasting,” Reed says. “Now we’re at 35 events and more than 75 restaurants. That growth says a lot about what’s happening here.” What is happening, Marro adds, is a dining scene coming into its own. “We saw where culinary was going,” he says. “Back in 2017, 2018, you could feel it. The talent was already here, and more was coming.”
Phil Marro and Kate Reed
2026 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY
LAS OLAS BOULEVARD & ISLES
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