In a few weeks I will be hitting the road and heading down the I-5 to Feast Portland, the flagship food and drink festival of the Pacific Northwest. After being founded in 2012 Feast Portland has quickly become one of North America’s top food festivals with some even calling it “the best food festival in the country”.

One of this years main events is the “Widmer Brothers Brewing Sandwich Invitational Presented By Dave’s Killer Bread” happening on Thursday, September 18th. As you can imagine this excites me very much. This years event brings together 14 of North America’s top chef’s including Hugh Acheson, Chris Cosentino and Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood from my hands down favourite sandwich shop Bunk Sandwiches. Here is the full list of chefs:

• Hugh Acheson, Empire State South (Atlanta, GA)
• Dustin Clark, The Oddfellow Social (Portland, OR)
• Chris Cosentino, Cockscomb (San Francisco, CA)
• Scott Dolich, The Bent Brick (Portland, OR)
• Rick Gencarelli, Lardo (Portland, OR)
• Tommy Habetz and Nick Wood, Bunk Sandwiches (Portland, OR)
• Derek Hanson, Broder Nord (Portland, OR)
• Eric Joppie, Bar Avignon (Portland, OR)
• Paul Kahan, Avec (Chicago, IL)
• Stephanie Pearl Kimmel, Marché (Eugene, OR)
• Tyler Malek, Salt & Straw (Portland, OR)
• Matt McCallister, FT33 (Dallas, TX)
• Bonnie Morales, Kachka (Portland, OR)
• Cathy Whims, Nostrana (Portland, OR)

Photo from Sandwich Invitational 2013.

These great chefs will compete for the ultimate honor of creating the best sandwich ever, as judged by attendees and a panel of esteemed judges, including Rob and Kurt Widmer, Josh Ozersky, Karen Brooks, and last year’s winner, Chef David Kriefels. All of these sure to be delicious sandwiches will be washed down with Portland’s own Widmer Brothers Brewing beer, along with Northwest wines and cocktails. I think it’s safe to say that this will be the highlight of the festival for this sandwich and beer loving blogger! Make sure to come back for the post-event post, after I eat all the sandwiches and drink all the beers.