BROOKLYN — It's a festival that will make your mouth water.
A local business organization will turn a Bed-Stuy plaza into a makeshift "wine country" next month, complete with food and wine tastings.
The Toast of Brooklyn Festival is a two-day event featuring food from local restaurants and wine from all over the world, according to the organizers at the Bedford-Stuyvesant Gateway Business Improvement District.
As part of the festivities, organizers are turning more than 1,100 square feet of Restoration Plaza's western plaza into a scene straight out of the Finger Lakes.
"The entire area is going to be transformed into the same experience [as] if you went to a wine tasting in upstate New York," said Michael Lambert, the group's executive director.
The festival will start with a VIP reception on Sept. 13 at 1368 Fulton St. The honorees include Nelson Mandela, whose daughter Makaziwe Mandela and granddaughter Tukwini Mandela will be on hand to celebrate.
More than a dozen wine selections will be available, including from the House of Mandela winery of South Africa.
Food served by the restaurants Madiba and Brooklyn Moon, both in Fort Greene, will also be on the menu. More restaurants will be added as the festival date approaches, organizers said.
The festivities will include live jazz music and a gallery curated by Danny Simmons, an abstract painter and brother to hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.
Originally called the Toast of Bed-Stuy in 2010, Lambert said the group is expanding this year to include the surrounding neighborhoods in order to celebrate the importance of the entire borough.
"It's something new and unique, and showcases a lot of what Bed-Stuy has to offer, and a lot of what Bed-Stuy means to the greater Brooklyn community," he said.
VIP passes ($75 per person) and one-day passes ($45 per person) to Toast of Brooklyn can be purchased on the festival's website.
