Another weekend waiting for the wife to pop... We decided to head out to Shoreline Amphitheater for the Inaugural Great American Food and Music Fest.
The premise: collecting an array of America's "Best dishes" in one festival along with some musical entertainment. Included in this collection were Pastrami sandwiches from Katz's Deli from NYC, Hot Dogs from Pink's in LA, Graeter's Ice Cream from Cincinnati, Buffalo Wings from Anchor Bar in NYC, Bagels and Lox from Barney Greengrass in NYC, Southside Market Brisket and Sausage from Texas, Tony Luke's Cheesesteaks from Philly, and Junior's Cheesecakes from Brooklyn. There were also a lot of demonstrations from Food Network celeb chefs like Guy Fieri, Bobby Flay, and more.
The price was steep, at $40 a ticket which included a plate from one of the vendors. Any additional food or drink would be from $2-12 extra. Given that it would cost well over $40 to fly to all these places to try this stuff out, we figured it might be worth it.
Unfortunately, it wasnt. The idea was great, the execution was abysmal. They expected about 5000 people at the inaugural event, and some 15,000 showed up. Lines were horrendous. When we got inside, we waited in line for almost 2 hours not even getting halfway towards the Philly cheesesteaks (our first stop). Ice cream was plentiful (and delicious - i might have to mail order some of this stuff from Ohio) because it was all pre-packaged and available at multiple booths However, each of the other vendors had just one stand, insufficient staff, and there were just way too many people and not enough food.
After 2.5 ours, we gave up, went to the front, and were happy to find that there was a line at the box office for refunds to get our money back. That was an hour line as well.
Again, a great idea, but a real disappointment.
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