Seattle Magazine's Best of 2010 Party - Seattle, WA

Have you ever partied with 1,700 of your closest friends? I have. Well, take out the fact that they were all my friends (I didn’t know them, perhaps they would like to be my friends?), and Seattle Magazine’s Best of 2010 “Party of the Decade” was just that. A jam packed, glamorous, glitzy, 1,700 person party. It was truly quite the experience. Of course, I had to have the perfect dress, the perfect shoes and the perfect hair, so I consulted my local Nordstrom for the perfect little black dress (seriously, it was GORGEOUS) and the most amazing sparkly shoes. The outfit was topped off by an updo from the fabulous Swink Style Bar (@swinkstylebar) and I was ready for the purple carpet (yes, not red, purple. This party was much too cool for the standard red carpet). I attended with two of my girl friends, and after we had our van cab pull over far away from the front door, we strutted up in style, ready for our photo ops. Unfortunately, it was colder than snot outside and we settled for a quick group shot (them with their coats on, me without. I mean c’mon, the DRESS) and shuffled quickly in the front door. We were immediately provided tasting glasses, raffle tickets, drink tickets (for drinks from the “Decade Lounge” upstairs), and a pour of some delicious Nicolas Feuillatte champagne and off we wandered into the party. The main floor had several wineries and food booths, as well as the “main stage” for some of the musical acts that performed throughout the evening. This area featured wines from some of my favorite wineries, including Barrage Cellars (@barragecellars) (pouring their very tasty 2009 Riesling), Kiona Vineyards & Winery (@KionaWine) (where I sipped on the AMAZING 2006 Lemberger. Have you tried this? Do it. Now.), and O Wines (@owines) (their 2007 Red Wine has aged beautifully since it was released back in February of this year). My favorite foods from this room included the Il Fornaio pesto gnocchi, and Capital Grille’s wagyu beef.


We trekked up some stairs (never easy in heels) and wandered into the Taste of Tulalip Retro Game Room. In this room they had more tasty treats from the Tulalip Resort (which I lunged for immediately. You saw my notes on the food from the Taste of Tulalip preview and event), as well as skee-ball, pool tables, and foosball! Down farther from this room was the Tulalip Wine Tasting table, where resort sommelier Tommy Thompson was pouring my FAVORITE from the Taste of Tulalip, the 2005 Corliss Estates Cabernet Franc. I was so delighted to be able to sip on this wine again. Adjacent to the Tulalip table was the Team Photogenic SEEN lounge, where at a point later in the evening, my friends and I were interviewed by Count Kody about our wine blogs! Look for my segment when it’s finally edited and posted, I talk all about this wonderful (well, at least I like to think so) blog in it!


Much like the Energizer Bunny, this party kept going and going and going. We were shocked to discover that you could keep walking across a window enclosed walk-way (where snacks from Tom Douglas restaurants (@TomDouglasCo) were featured) and into a completely different room that contained another stage and additional wineries and food stations. In this room I was able to try the Buty Winery Semillon/Sauvignon Blanc/Muscadelle, which was quite lovely.

I’m not kidding, the party went even farther with a trip up MORE stairs to a third level, which contained the “Decade Lounge”. This area had music and dancing, as well as a bar with ice sculptures and what appeared to be some sort of cosmopolitan luge (sign me UP). We stood in line for our tasty cosmo’s (which we then put in our wine glasses. That didn’t look weird or anything) and ventured around the top floor a bit more.


I was simply amazed at the sheer magnitude of this party, both in size and complexity. There was quite literally something here to appease any appetite or taste. While my feet were hating life at the end of the night (I did not expect that much walking INSIDE a party), I left there feeling like I had attended one of Seattle’s most well put together and glamorous parties in history. With every party comes one that’s even greater following, so I can’t wait to see what they have in store for the next!


(With some fabulous friends at the party incl @DivaTink, @YasharWineMongr, @ErinDrinksWine, and Lauren!)