Party in the Pocket: Flavor 2026 VIP Kickoff
Flavor 2026 officially kicked things off with a stellar shindig at The Pearl in Stuart. Read on for a walk-through of the party of the summer—and get a first look at some pics from the night.
We’re just days away from Flavor 2026, and the fun has already begun. This past Sunday, around 200 VIPs and Flavor supporters gathered at The Pearl in Port Salerno for the Flavor 2026 Kickoff Party—and man was it a blast!
The festivities started at 5 p.m., but since it was storming like crazy down in Jupiter, where I was coming from, I got there a little late (I’ll blame it on my Über). By the time I rolled up, the festivities were in full swing. The band was jamming on stage, Pontiki boats were lined up ready to escort guests on sunset cruises around Manatee Pocket, and tons of people were already sipping cocktails, noshing on passed hors d’oeuvres, and mingling. I grabbed myself a French martini and made my rounds.
I ran into so many friends and familiar faces, which made the shindig even better: Jay Cashmere, Sam Kerrigan, and radio duo Mo & Sally were there, along with all my favorite foodie influencer friends, Amber and Sarah from the Flavor team of course, and media, PR, and hospitality industry peeps in spades. The place was buzzing so hard, I thought it would take a while to find my girl Kerri—but as luck would have it, I spotted her almost instantly. To be fair, she was kind of hard to miss in the AMAZING Hayley Paige dress (and shoes) she was wearing like a boss—in love with Hayley’s designs!
Here’s something neat: Local photographer extraordinaire Tracey Benson and her hubby, fellow photographer Tyler Benson, were there documenting the night, and they brought a special surprise to the event—the Palm Beach GlamBot. It’s pretty much the same thing they use on the red carpet at celebrity events like the Oscars, a camera that swings around on a giant arm and magically turns your ridiculous attempts at looking sexy (ahem, not me trying) into pure gold. We all went a little GlamBot cuckoo for sure!
This was the night there were tornado warnings on the Treasure Coast, but it managed to remain sunny for most of the evening. When the sky did start to turn, the Pontiki cruises had to stop for safety, but the party kept going nonetheless. Kerri changed into this super cool custom “Flavor” dress made by Kristen Alyce/Garbage Gone Glam and gave a speech, hyping us all for Restaurant Month. And when I left around 9:30, there were still a ton of people hanging out, plenty of swag bags to be claimed. . . and a magical DOUBLE RAINBOW in the sky.
Speaking of swag, thanks so much to our amazing Flavor sponsors and party vendors, without whom nights like this wouldn’t be possible. For a full list of the official Flavor 2026 sponsors, click here.
This is just a tiny peek at the photos from the event. Want to see more? Check out the full library of photos from the night here.
Enjoy—and don’t forget to start booking those reservations for next week! Visit flavorsouthflorida.com to see all the participating restaurants and check out their Flavor menus.