Bedlam!  It was absolute bedlam, I tell you! Chaos!

The 2014 Atlanta Food & Wine Festival was a complete mad house!  The 12th annual version of this foodie paradise resembled Disney’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival not in the least.

Welcome to Food & Wine!

OK.  Like Epcot’s event, the food was good. Getting to the food, however?  Oh, boy, what a mess.  This is what it looked like shortly before we decided to call it a day …

Wall-to-wall people!

Lines?  Uh, no.  Within that mass of people, there were no lines.  How did you know you weren’t stepping in someone’s way as you squeezed in front of a table to sample the chef’s cuisine?  You didn’t.

Uh, excuse me. Where’s the line?

I will never complain about long lines at Epcot’s party ever again.  Well, OK.  I probably will, but in comparison to Atlanta’s anarchy, Disney’s organization and queues are top-notch.

Pictures?  Forget it!  I shot what I could, and you’ll see them below, but with these two souvenirs in hand, I couldn’t hold food and an iPhone.

Thanks for the glasses!

Of course, it was great to get a commemorative wine glass.  Especially since that’s what you needed to use to drink your samples of wine … and beer.  I even snagged a second one on the way out of the festival!

It was also great to have a cold, full glass of Stella Artois handed to you in the 90 degree Atlanta heat.  Even more generous, they told us to keep the glass!  But, uh, I should have prepared better and brought a backpack.  Or, a bag.

The food WAS good.  What we could get to, that is.  We had a LOT of BBQ.  Ribs.  Brisket sliders.  Pork belly.

Brisket slider.

Pork belly.

But, the best of the bunch – maybe the best morsel at the entire show but something I, unfortunately, didn’t manage to eat enough of – was a piece of bacon-wrapped chicken.  Why was it so good?

Cream cheese-stuffed jalapeño.  When you bit into the bacon-wrapped chicken, you were blasted by the phenomenal flavor of the cream cheese-stuffed jalapeño hidden inside.  I can’t describe how good it was.

Uh, can I have the whole tray please?!

We went back before we left in order to try it again, as well as to get more pictures of its deliciousness, but they had sold out and closed down shop.  I’m going to miss that lovely little mouthful.

Anyway, this is what I’ve got.  I wanted to be able to post more food, but this wasn’t Epcot.  There was no slow and leisurely stroll from “booth” to “booth”.  There were no tables to stand by while we dined and took photos.

It was BEDLAM!  But, it was a fun experience.  Would I do it again?  Maybe not.  Too many people!  Will I miss that bacon-wrapped chicken.  Oh, yes, I will.

A peaceful BBQ “booth” … a bit before the masses arrived.

Before it really got packed?!

Fried oyster and goat cheese.

A delicately prepared poached fish.

A catfish slider prepared by Coast. I only point that out because Coast is down the street from our apartment.

A deliciously prepared 1/2 scallop. The accompanying risotto was awesome!

Brats with a mild “kimchee-type” slaw were prepared on a Big Green Egg.

Chef preparing servings of guinea fowl.

How could you not end with a dessert of cherry-habanero pie?