This past weekend after several weeks of worry and stress over unprecedented flooding in our capital city, a thousand citizens had the opportunity to dine on the most iconic bridge spanning two of our rivers on a crisp autumn afternoon.
It began with a cocktail hour, with beer and wine being served on the Columbia side, and liquor on the West Columbia side (apparently it was illegal to serve liquor outside on the Richland County side of the river or something like that, who knew?). Of course, I hit up the River Rat Brewery tent for their offerings.
Everyone was taking their selfies by the water, because we often just zoom over the bridge in a hurry in our cars without ever taking the time to stroll across admiring it slowly.
By 5:45 we sat down to dinner where salads from Spotted Salamander were waiting. This spring mix salad featured bacon and black eyed peas for a Southern twist. But wait, they did plan ahead to have vegetarian/vegan/gluten free options available, which is a rarity at these large dinners. The options were from Good Life Cafe and arrived in boxes to those of us who waved our hands in the air for them.
As the sun sank into the horizon the setting got even more glorious. I was so taken with the location and the sights and chatting with people that I actually didn't take any other photos of the food, believe it or not. I did meet the human behind Streets and Eats of SC though, which was awesome and you should check out the photos takes with their camera of which I am supremely jealous. The various courses were provided by restaurants in Columbia, Cayce, and West Columbia.
Emile of Soda City and company did a fantastic job pulling off this huge event, especially after all of the problems that the city has incurred the past few weeks. The logistics of this event fascinated me and it was great to see so many people working in sync to get everyone served efficiently. I can't wait for 2016!