What to Expect at Southern Smoke Festival 2025

Each year, the Southern Smoke Festival seems to get bigger and bigger. More celebrity chefs, more culinary stars, more restaurants, more cocktails, more swag and we look forward to it all, more and more.

Of course, the mission of the festival is the most important thing. The huge event raises mega bucks for the Southern Smoke Foundation, a local non-profit that began in 2015 as a fundraiser for the Multiple Sclerosis Society in honor of Antonio Gianola, a Houston sommelier and friend of founders Chris Shepherd and wife Lindsey Folger Brown.

Shepherd, a James Beard Award-winning Houston chef, and Brown, executive director at SSF, changed the main focus of the foundation in 2017 after Hurricane Harvey devastated the Texas coast and the Greater Houston area, leaving many businesses and workers without incomes. The Southern Smoke Foundation created its Emergency Relief Fund which helps those in the food and beverage industry in times of crises such as natural disasters and economic hardship. In 2020, the foundation extended its mission beyond just financial aid for medical help, housing, and loss of income. It partnered with Mental Health America of Greater Houston and the University of Houston  Department of Psychology to provide mental health care to F&B employees and their children.

Through the COVID pandemic and more nationwide natural disasters, Southern Smoke continued to offer emergency aid to applicants across more and more states, while also instituting its Behind You campaign to offer no-cost mental health counseling in Texas and beyond. With the July 4 flooding in the Texas Hill Country, which destroyed numerous structures and killed at least 135 people, the cause is even more important.

Last year, the foundation raised $700,000 with its inaugural Southern Smoke Decanted wine auction and $1.3 million at this year’s SSD auction. The Southern Smoke Festival 2024 itself raised $1.5 million dollars and will hopefully raise even more when it returns to Discovery Green October 4, 2025. Tickets are still available, but they are going fast.

Here’s a preview of what to expect, whether you are splurging on the Lexus VIP tickets or just hanging with the General Admission crowd. Either way, there’s more food, drink, and festivities than one can even imagine. Dress comfortably (but a little stylishly, too) and wear the appropriate footwear for walking. There’s a lot of ground to cover at this festival, so be prepared.

A Boatload of Chefs

More than 85 chefs and beverage professionals from across the United States will be rolling out delicious and diverse culinary bites, as well as refreshing cocktails, wine pours, and beers. While we can’t list all of them, a glance at some of the new and returning talent shows just how epic this party will be.

Some of the new faces include Tyler Akin (Bastia, Philadelphia), Neal Bodenheimer (Cure, NOLA), Damarr Brown (Virtue Restaurant, Chicago), Christina Nguyen (Hai Hai, Minneapolis), Calvin Eng (Bonnie’s, New York), Adrian Torres (Maximo, Houston) and Nicolas Vera and Stephanie Velasquez (Ema HTX, Houston). And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

As for the veterans of SSF, attendees will be thrilled to see the return of chefs like Stephen Barber (Farmstead, Napa), Tavel Bristol-Joseph (Canje, Austin), Ashley Christensen (Poole’s Diner, Raleigh), Sam Fore (Tuk Tuk Snack Shop, Lexington), Aaron Franklin (Franklin Barbecue, Austin), Sarah Gruenberg and Bailey Sullivan (Monteverde and Pastifico), Mason Hereford (Turkey and the Wolf, New Orleans), Rodney Scott (Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Charleston), Lee Anne Wong (Koko Head Cafe, Honolulu) and dozens more.

Of course, the city of Houston has its own culinary giants heating things up such as Aaron Bludorn (Bludorn, Navy Blue), Ope Amosu (ChopnBlok), Leonard Botello IV (Truth BBQ), Evelyn Garcia and Henry Lu (JUN), Greg Gatlin ( Gatlin’s BBQ, Gatlin’s Fins and Feathers), Levi Goode (Credence), Ryan Lachaine (Riel), Trong and Cory Nguyen (Crawfish and Noodles) and Austin Waiter (The Marigold Club).

A sneak peek of dishes includes a mobile raw bar with assorted sauces from Lucas McKenzie of Josephine’s and fried smoked quail with spicy peach glaze and autumn vegetable puree from Erin Smith and Patrick Feges of Feges BBQ.

Making Merry

The line up of beverage professionals is no less spectacular and guests will be able to wet their whistles with drinks from local spots like 13 Celsius, Eight Row Flint, Johnny’s Gold Brick, Winnie’s, Montrose Cheese & Wine, Sonoma and Vin Santo, plus visiting mixologists from Bacchanal in New Orleans and Graft, out of Charleston.

Attendees will also find beer from Stella Artois, non-alcoholic beer from Athletic Brewing Co. and canned cocktails from NUTRL.  And there’s always plenty of water at the festival including Acqua Panna and San Pellegrino.

For those who purchase Lexus VIP tickets, James Beard Award winning cocktail bar, Julep, will have owner and mixologist extraordinaire Alba Huerta creating delicious cocktails in the VIP area at The Grove, along with 10 chefs preparing bites just for the VIP ticketholders.

Yeti Culinary Stage Demo Stage

Throughout the event, there will be cooking demonstrations from Aaron Bludorn, Angie Rito and Scott Tacinelli, Caroline Schiff, Rodney Scott, Shuai Wang and Erick Williams at the Yeti Culinary Stage, hosted by Yeti Ambassador Brad Leone. It’s best to grab a seat early because the demos are very popular.

There will also be live music at the Discovery Green stage, cookbook signings and a chance to meet the 2025 Food & Wine Best New Chefs.

Southern Smoke Festival Tickets

General Admission: $225 + $16.65 fee

The fun begins at 4 p.m. and includes all food and drink, plus live music, cooking demos and other opportunities to meet new chefs and cookbook authors. The event lasts until 8 p.m.

Lexus VIP: $550 + $38.09 fee

VIP ticket holders get to enter at 3 p.m. for an extra hour of tasting, plus access to the air-conditioned Lexus VIP area inside The Grove, where Alba Huerta and her team will be serving exclusive cocktails and there will be VIP-only dishes from 10 chefs. There will also be a gift wheel with free swag. And when we say swag, we’re not talking beer coozies and luggage tags. Trust us, there’s some seriously good stuff coming off the wheel.

Southern Smoke Festival 2025
October 4, 2025
3 p.m. (VIP), 4p.m. (GA) to 8 p.m. (Everybody go home)
Discovery Green
1500 McKinney
southernsmoke.org