I promised my friends I would rant about the San Francisco Street Food Festival, so here it is. You know you love when the Zealot gets angry.
Regarding the recent Street Food Festival – I get that the cause is altruistic. Very nice to be promoting something for La Cocina. I appreciate that and am hesitant to be so down on the planners because their intentions were good. But…..
First, how can you have a “street food” festival without street food vendors? I talked about this last week and kinda hoped they just didn’t list the real vendors on the invitation. But no….just the creme brulee guy was there. Apparently, in a twist of irony, an actual street food vendor was detained for operating without a license. Newcomer “Don’t Forget Your Lunch” showed up without registering to bring some real street food cred and wound up in the slammer (so to speak).
It looks like next week’s EAT REAL FEST [LINK] Oakland actually has some real street food in the lineup. Perhaps they might be organized enough to keep lines manageable?
That’s the other gripe. Wandering down 24th street with my son at 3pm, we were excited to meet some friends and chomp some street bites. As we neared Folsom, the crowd started to thicken. Texts started bouncing around: “It’s a Zoo, We didn’t Even Go In. Too many people. Long lines” from my friend Sarah. From Alan: “Drinking at Homestead and making our way down” and 17 minutes later: “Yeah. We are officially out. Heading to Roosevelt Tamale Parlor”. As we arrived, it was clear that if we wanted any food we would have to wait in multiple long lines (I heard anywhere from 20-45 minutes each) just to pay for something I can get in their restaurants. I started waiting in the ticket line and was 15 minutes in before getting any food. Try that with a 4-year old in tow.
We wound up at Casa Sanchez because they had a big space out back with an open table (that seemingly hadn’t been bussed in hours). Roosevelt was pretty packed. It turns out that Casa Sanchez (and the other mission businesses that got slammed) didn’t know about the festival nor the resultant overflow of people who were fed up with waiting. Lines wrapped around the block at Humphrey Slocombe and other nearby favorites. Casa Sanchez was deep deep in the weeds. We felt sorry for them, but even worse for ourselves as we suffered through some pretty poor dishes that were slapped together. At least they had beer.
So what is to be learned? Planners of San Francisco outdoor festivals take heed: Stay true to your purpose. If you are going to promote street food, in support of street food vendors, include street food vendors. Only street food vendors. We appreciate that Delfina and Absinthe are capable of preparing street-like foods, but they miss the mark in authenticity when they can prepare everything in their full kitchens. Also, plan for crowds. We are a big city and people like food here. If we have to wait for more than 5 minutes max to get anything at a festival, you have failed. Plain and simple. Think ahead.
If it takes the same amount of time to get to the restaurant and enjoy a comfortable meal there, I won’t opt for the sidewalk version. I got there and left.
Great article!
Hey there,
Thanks for the rant and the comments, I think many of them are right on. We loved the enthusiasm of the people who showed up, and were really blown away by it, as I think was obvious. I can’t speak to the lines, we will do better in the future, but I would love to speak the ‘realness’ of street food.
La Cocina, as you know, is about supporting the transition of informal food vendors into formal vendors, of the 20 vendors that were there, 12 of them were, at one point or another, informal vendors. I would like to especially point out that many of the vendors who sell on the streets have no web presence, though that does not make them less of a vendor. There were bacon-wrapped hot dog vendors, cut fruit vendors, tamale vendors, botanas vendors and more. The lines were rough, yes, but the intention and heart of it was not. The idea of having restaurants join was to bridge the often insurmountable gap between class in this city, one that is often reflected in our perspectives about food.
I hope that you will continue to be honest and open about your opinions, and really do appreciate the feedback. Should you have any more, I’d love to talk about them so feel free to reach out. Again, thank you for your interest in the festival, and we hope to impress you more next year!
Hi Caleb,
Glad to see that La Cocina is open to the feedback. WRT street food vendors, your comment “many of the vendors who sell on the streets have no web presence, though that does not make them less of a vendor.” Isn’t that the point of the street food vendors, they are still in their infancy? Not sure why that would even be relevant, as to your point the street food movement for many if not most of these vendors is through the likes of Twitter and Yelp, but I am sure you are aware of this.
When I spoke to several of the more popular street food vendors over the last couple of weeks I was in fact surprised to hear that they were not going to be attending because they either were not invited or when they inquired they were told that the event was already booked up and they couldn’t attend. Seems odd since they are the ones driving the movement today.
I think La Cocina is doing some great things and wouldn’t want to take away from that, however it would be best to call the Street Food Fest on Saturday what it really was and that was an opportunity for established restaurants to get in on the street food movement.
Please give recognition to the people that are really driving this movement http://sfstreetfood.tumblr.com/
I too have some strong recommendations for next year as well, so in the event that you are looking for anyone else to provide feedback, I will be more then happy to give up my time to help you guys for next year.
Br,
Jennifer
Hi Caleb,
Thanks for your comments. It is good to see that La Cocina is paying attention and interested in improving. Sign me up for your board for next year and I’ll be happy to give you my strong opinions!
Nobody doubts your intentions. We think it is great what La Cocina does outside of the festival planning role. As for the vendors, I can’t see why the likes of Delfina, Absinthe, Bi-Rite, Heaven’s Dog would have even been invited. Yes, they can bring credibility and crowds. but they are the opposite of street food. “Playing” street food isn’t the same as living it. The idea that they help bridge a class gap is a stretch. Screw people who won’t show up for a mission bacon hot dog, as-is. If they need Charles Phan to cook it for them, they are missing the point entirely.
Regarding the lines, it’s a continuing frustration to be an SF resident, yet to feel pretty excluded from the wonderful San Francisco street festivals because I simply cannot tolerate long lines and overcrowding. I would think after so many years of observing all of the crazy festivals we have, anyone planning something new would be hypersensitive to these issues. I guess you will live and learn. I look forward to seeing the changes next year.
Agreed wtih ezealot. Without regards to relative “authenticity” of street food, its reality is that it’s borne out of economic necessity. Inviting the likes of Absinthe, Aziza, and other big names to a festival that celebrates the creativity of those who really depend on selling good without investors or corporate restaurant groups to fall back on is at best disingenuous and cynical and at worst, hypocritical and insulting.
To make matters worse, the creme brulee guy ran out at 1:30pm, three people BEFORE my coworker, who waited in line for half an hour. Doesn’t this festival go until 7pm? I’m glad I passed on the festival when I saw the booths that were advertised.
A well deserved rant Zealot, I was sorely disappointed in the poor planning for the crowds, the lack of real street food & felt sorry for anyone that might had bought a passport. I was so excited until I got there & then realized the crowd was the food lines. I fought my way out of the crowd & headed to El Toyanese & got some cheap, quick & tasty tacos from a real street food vendor. My idea of a street food fest is sample this & that, who’s going to have the patience to sample when you’re in line for 30+ for just one dish? Fortunately, Little Skillet threw an impromptu cart fest the night before & albeit small it was in the right spirit.