Heather Young/Atascadero News San Luis Obispo County Visitors & Conference Bureau Executive Director John Summer, Sunset Magazine's Editor-In-Chief Katie Tamony and Atascadero Mayor Pro Tem Tom O'Malley stand together to commemorate the ground breaking for Sunset’s garden editors’ Victory Garden. The garden will be maintained until the the bureau and Sunset’s Savor the Central Coast event to be held in the county, with the main event at Rancho Santa Margarita, from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3.

The barn at Rancho Santa Margarita was full of prominent San Luis Obispo County people Friday afternoon for the groundbreaking of the Victory Garden to be planted next to the house on the ranch by Sunset Magazine’s garden editors. The garden will be harvested at Savor the Central Coast, a food and wine event that will feature Central Coast wineries and chefs from Sept. 30 to Oct. 3.

The event began, SLO County Visitors & Conference Bureau Communications Director Carrie Head said, while the bureau coordinated with o’donnell lane, an event-planning firm based in Sonoma, to plan a different event.

“They contacted Sunset Magazine to have a food and wine event here,” Head said. “They suggested it as an idea. They just thought it’d be a great way to promote San Luis Obispo County.”

“Sunset was real excited about the concept,” Sunset spokeswoman Dana Smith added. “We are really excited about reaching a new audience.”

SLOCVCB Executive Director John Summer said that partnering up with Sunset would be a benefit to the county.

“It’s an event that will once and for all establish San Luis Obispo County as a place [to go],” Summer said. “It’s more important than ever to market this county. This event is going to put the spotlight on the San Luis Obispo County.”

Summer also announced that Chef Tyler Florence will be the celebrity chef at the four-day event.

While the county is the main focus of the event, Head said it has been opened up to include wineries from the neighboring counties of Santa Cruz, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Ventura.

The event, Head said, is expected to bring in approximately 8,000 people, many of whom will be from Southern California.

While the main event will take place at the ranch, Head said there will be auxiliary events at different locations throughout the county.

“It’s going to be a very special event for Sunset and hopefully for all of you,” Sunset’s Editor-in-Chief Katie Tamony said.

Some of the events scheduled thus far include a farmers’ market tour at SLO’s weekly market on Thursday, Sept. 30 along with a VIP reception in Fremont Theater, culinary and harvest tours, winemakers dinners, Sunset Western Wine Awards Gala on Friday, Oct. 1, Central Coast Pavilion and Grand Tasting at the ranch on Oct. 2 and 3, gourmet food carts, seminars and culinary demonstrations and more. The event will conclude with a concert and fireworks finale at Avila Beach.

The tickets for the many tours, dinners and other events, will go on sale May 1. Tickets range from $25 for the VIP reception on Sept. 30 to $175 per person for the gala Oct. 1. There are events priced between $25 and $175 for many different events.

The main event in Santa Margarita is $75 for SLO County residents, Head said. For those from outside the county, the cost is $85 a person.

The main event will include the Central Coast Pavilion and grand tasting of Central Coast wines from 150 wineries paired with local chefs, local farmers on-site to answer questions about their crops and how to grow them in a more sustainable way, demonstrations and seminars, Cal Poly poultry science students on hand to answer questions about setting up chicken coops at home, rides on the Walt Disney train cars and gourmet food carts. For an additional cost, culinary and wine seminars will also be taking place.

Atascadero, said city tourism consultant Steve Martin, is planning to stage a cultural-tourism pavilion to showcase the city’s historic past.

“I specifically hope to feature elements of Atascadero,” Martin said. “It will be a great opportunity to [show off] Atascadero. It will be an opportunity to show [things] that people are not aware of.”

One thing, Martin said, that is in the works is offering a free shuttle between Atascadero and the main event for both locals and those staying in the city’s hotels. As well, he said, the hope is that attendees at the event will see the city’s pavilion and want to go check out Atascadero while there.

“In addition to the events, I would like to stage an auxiliary event,” Martin said and added that it is still in the planning stages and not know what event could take place or when.

“We want to put together some sort of supporting event just before or just after it,” Martin said.

According to Martin, the event aligns with the city’s tourism and marketing plan and the idea has been presented to the collaboration group to put Atascadero in the spotlight for Sunset Magazine, its readers and attendees to the event.

Leading up the event, Sunset’s garden editors will plant and maintain a two-acre fruit and vegetable garden on the site of the main event. The garden will be harvested at the event to showcase taking items from the “farm,” or garden, to the table. While the items used will not be exclusively from the garden, much of it will be.

“It will be maintained over the next six months,” Summers said.

Nature’s Touch owner Melanie Blankenship said her business, with stores in both Templeton and Atascadero, will participate by providing produce.

“I’m really excited,” Blankenship said.

To receive information about tickets, vendors and sponsorship, go to www.savor centralcoast.com.