‘MIKE’S’ AT WINETOPIA 2024
AUCKLAND, 26-27 JULY, VIADUCT EVENTS CENTRE
Friday 26th July dawned, crispness in the air, and a promise of blue skies – perfect for us as we had been working day and night to get our stock ready for Winetopia and so we were lacking in Vit D I think. I don’t know about you, but for us, blue sky in winter, particularly, just makes for a happier mindset, no matter what the day has in store. By late morning the car was packed to the gunnels, and we were ready to venture into the Viaduct, roads were ‘Friday busy’ but hey the sky was blue, right!
Just Mike and I to ‘pack in’ with our trusty trolley and many trips were made to our stall site and the storage room. We were set up by 2.40pm and so, drink bottles in hand and some Tom and Luke fruit balls, we escaped the hustle and bustle of the Viaduct Events Centre, to sit in the gorgeous winter sun’s heat in Wynyard Quarter and happily topped up our Vit D levels. Our wonderful friend, Monique (she’s also our very cool Pastor), joined us; we gave her the tour and took a minute to pinch ourselves….here we were, little wee two person, hand produced, artisan food producers…..getting to ‘play with the big kids’…eeep!
I must take time to mention that our stall placement was just perfect – thank you Karl, from Lemongrass Productions (Winetopia organisers), we had a corner site, in between Ash Ridge Winery and Mahurangi oysters – life could not get better for me. But, knowing we could do nothing but smell the wines next to us, in order to work efficiently, I was determined to make sure Monique and I sampled delicious shucked in front of ya eyes, icy cold, did I say delicious fresh Oysters and they do a mean oyster fritter as well….highly recommend!
After formal briefing for the weekend, we primped our stall and got ready to greet the wine and food enthusiasts of the night, and enjoyed the next four hours, chatting food, chatting wine and just chatting in general, Mike was in his element. At MIKE’S we are all about the tasting experience and so, many hundreds of samples of our Marinated/Chilli/Smokey and Smokey Chilli Marinated Shiitake mushrooms, were readily available and eagerly enjoyed. We love talking sauces and seasonings as well as mushrooms and giving serving and cooking suggestions for all our products, as well as hundreds of samples, kept us very busy and the vibe at Winetopia was busy and fun, loud and cruisey. Monique was an absolute gem, it helped that she has an inviting and welcoming way about her, and, that she also knows and loves good food, has a great palate, has great serving ideas and could also suggest a good wine to accompany our ‘shrooms’. Thanks, Monique, for your all your hard work, encouragement of us and belief in our products; your calm manner helped us remain calm.
Saturday saw us heading back to The Viaduct Events Centre, this time with our daughter Gabrielle, as our helper and what a helper she was – we got slammed and Mike and I could barely keep up with sample making and restocking of the sample board, Gabrielle naturally slotted into the role of front person mostly and talked at ease about our products, like a professional.
Gabrielle is a great cook and was able to share cooking and serving suggestions to our customers and her easy going, yet welcoming manner, saw hundreds visiting our stall. Mike and I knew that there would be a mixed age range in Winetopia guests and so also knew the benefit of having younger faces (Monique and Gabrielle), rather than our older and grey heads; and we were right, these women were such an asset.
Special thanks also to Gabrielle for the exhausting pack down on Saturday night, after a full day without even a break, you are a gem.
The weekend saw us giving out around 3200 samples of mushrooms, hundreds of samples of sauce and on Saturday, we manned our popcorn machine to showcase MIKE’S Life Changing All Purpose Seasoning Mix – and the smell of popcorn, butter, maple syrup and our Seasoning Mix filled the air and added to the plethora of delicious smells, that was Winetopia.
We made great sales and are so thankful for the opportunity to get our products in front of thousands of people. Winetopia was an awesome experience, although absolutely exhausting, and Mike and I took nearly a week for our backs to recover from hours bent over the table cutting up samples; we are stoked we were part of Winetopia ’24.
To Lemongrass Productions – thanks for organising such a fantastic event.
To Monique and Gabrielle, our wonderful helpers, thank you, we could not have done the weekend without you.
To our wonderful customers, and to everyone who visited our stall and tried our products, thanks for the chats, the laughs, thank you for encouraging us and supporting our small, local, artisan food business, you made the weekend an absolute blast!
Pauline and Mike
MIKE’S – making Shiitake happen since 2019