Food & Music Fest Spotlight: 'The Super Bowl of Regional Food,' Says The SF Chronicle
Yesterday I went over to the offices of the San Francisco Chronicle, weighed down with samples from many of the purveyors appearing at the fest. It was kind of a thrilling moment for me, because when all the foods were assembled, prepared, and laid out in the Chronicle's awesome test kitchen, I was seeing the fest made manifest for the very first time. Everything was just so friggin' tasty. It was a veritable festival of serious deliciousness: Anchor Bar Chicken Wings; Southside Market Barbecue; Graeter's Ice Cream; Junior's Cheesecake; Tony Luke's Roast Pork Sandwich with Broccoli Rabe and Sharp Provolone; his incomparable cheesesteaks; Pink's Chili Dogs, and Katz's Pastrami Sandwiches. Man, I am telling you serious eaters, it was all crazy good.
How crazy good was it? Michael Bauer, on his blog this morning, called the Great American Food & Music Fest "the Super Bowl of American regional food." Not bad at all, serious eaters. And he just might be right. Get your tickets here and get $5 off.
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5 Comments:
This sounds amazing. Wish it was in NYC!
jlbrach at 5:13PM on 06/04/09
Are any other Serious Eaters going to the fest?
Paula Maack at 3:16AM on 06/05/09
I wish! Great music lineup too. When is the east coast version happening, Ed?
kqrbob at 12:26PM on 06/11/09
A good idea, but horrible in execution. Went to this - the most poorly organized festival I have ever attended. It took over an hour just to get in, even with tix in hand.There was no organization, lines were long and unorganized, the "wristband" pay system didn't work, and they started running out of food at three hours in. When we left (disappointed and hungry) mid-afternoon, the refund line was over an hour long, and growing. I can't imagine that if anyone is still there, an angry mob hasn't rioted yet. Hope the "organizers" seriously revamp the logistics before they attempt it again. What a colossal waste of money!
pizzabone at 12:40AM on 06/14/09
I just got back from Great American Food Fest. I agree with the last person,a wonderful idea when I read about it. I did not have too much problem with the long line to get in, although we experienced rude and unruly people almost fighting over a group of troublemakers who wanted to jump ahead in line. We reported this as it was happening to staff - but was told, "we are not the police, you will have to handle the situation yourself." The issues really began once we got inside the gates.There was no direction and no one to ask what to do. No programs were accessable.They were handing out photo copies at a information booth I had to search out. It looked like somebody printed copies from the website as an after thought.So then we decide to get our free plate of food.So we chose the BBQ because it seemed like you got the most food.So we went to the back of the line for the Texas BBQ,we had to almost guess which line it was because there was certainly no one to ask what to do.There was confusion also because some had wrist band some did not.Well the BBQ line was a block and half long,about one hour in to our two hour wait I could see alot of people were just cutting into short lines up in the front.So when we got close to the three service windows I asked the guy in the center line next to us how long he waited he said 9 minutes.So the long line was only being serviced by one window and the other two windows was servicing basically the people who were cutting.I don't blame those people they were probably confused also.Shoreline is to blame,I saw almost no security or efforts to control things or help people,it is almost like their crowd control plan was to let everyone in the gate and let it be a free-for-all.Two people need to be fired; the head of the organization and head of Security. If I was the Food Network I would be ashamed,but I know most of it was not their fault.
finner at 2:31AM on 06/14/09