You’ve got to try this: Lauderhill’s Sola Rum Food and Wine Festival returns in person for a fifth year

Food festivals are one of the most fitting gatherings for people who simply want to have a good time. The city of Lauderhill will offer a gathering of that nature for south Floridians in the Sola Rum Food and Wine Festival, which takes place Saturday, October 15 at the Lauderhill Performing Arts Center. Tickets start at $75.

This annual event brings together chefs, restaurants and distillers across Florida and beyond to demo signature dishes and drinks for attendees. The festival returns to in-person after being postponed last year due to the pandemic. Some new additions, including an expert sommelier and a performance from Musiq Soulchild, make this event a welcome comeback for local foodies.

“This is a festival that’s celebrating culture through music, food and rum wines,” Natasha Sweeting, co-producer of the festival, said. “You’re going to enjoy yourself and have a great evening to sit, taste, and stroll under the stars.”

This year marks the festival’s fifth year in business, and the organizers try to add new events, experiences and performers to the festival’s line-up each year. The previous year’s attendees saw Jasmine Sullivan perform, and another year’s guests were entertained by a Junkanoo Band. This year, festival guests will see three chefs compete in a cooking competition, watch a Musiq Soulchild performance and partake in a wine tasting curated by two sommeliers.

“Sommeliers are essentially wine experts,” Sweeting said. “They give tips on selecting wines when you’re out to dinner, and you can impress your friends the next time you are out. It’s educational and fun.”

Tahiirah Habibi is one of the sommeliers curating the wine tasting at the Sola Rum Food and Wine festival this year. She is a nationally recognized sommelier and founder of the Hue Society. This organization is a trailblazer in educating people of color about wine culture and providing resources to help them successfully break into the wine industry. Habibi is launching the South Florida chapter of the Hue Society at Sola for more people to dive into this subject. Ray Shole is the other sommelier who’ll be participating in the festival. He is the current expert at Michael’s Genuine restaurant in the Miami design district. Habibi and Shole will elevate the experience of the festival for attendees, Sweeting said.

Sola, which stands for So Lauderhill, is a different experience from other food festivals because it gives exposure to and elevates the work of quality chefs while spotlighting restaurants and wine brands of which people might not yet have heard. The competing chefs, Chef Keith Lorren, Chef Robert Gladstone and Chef Nina, are talented professionals who are growing in popularity. Chef Kulture, which is a network of Black and brown chefs who advocate for opportunities to support one another, assembled all three to participate. Chef Nina is participating in the food festival for the first time, and she is ready to impress everyone because part of her flair involves having no restrictions on what she can cook.

“Other festivals would tell you to make this type of dish, stick with this type of cuisine, and you have to look a certain way,” Chef Nina said. “With Sola, they put the ball in my court, and I can beat my own drum.”

Lauderhill represents the ideal place for the festival because it’s a melting pot of different cultures. Seventy thousand residents live in the city, most of whom come from Black, Hispanic and Jewish communities. International cricket and soccer matches have been held in Lauderhill. There are over 40 different languages spoken in the community, festival producer Maria Munro said.

“It’s the diversity, and we have so many things we can feature in Lauderhill that sometimes it’s overlooked,” Munroe said. “We want people to come and experience a little bit of what we offer.”

The Sola Rum Food and Wine Festival has the right parts for an exceptional fall culinary experience. Locals of South Florida will have the chance to discover new rums and dishes they may add to their list.