6/9/13:
Stars: 4 out of 5
Pros: Beer, Vendors, Food
Cons: Parking, Venue, Crowd
I have learned one
thing in my brief time on the Richmond festival scene; go early cause people
will show up in droves. That being said, I made sure my party (BN and JT) left
the house no later then 11:30 for the noon festival. We got to Shockoe Bottom
around 7:40ish and promptly began the painful search for parking. The event had
limited parking at best. It was a game of "where can I jam a car without
getting a ticket". Never a fun game to play. Now, we got very lucky and
found a place 1 block away, but I talked to some folks how parked beyond deep
and had to walk in the extreme heat to get to the festival. Next year, some
dedicated lots couldn't hurt things a little. Even ones a ways away that maybe
had a shuttle. Just a thought.
The festival was
held at the 17th St. Farmers Market. In theory, this is a great venue if you
aren't expecting many people to attend. But for the crowd that showed up this
place was a tragic location. Lines bunched into each other. There wasn't a lot
of room for walking around. You couldn't wander from vendor to vendor easily to
scope out their offerings so you just ended up picking a line and hoping for
the best. The beer tent was well placed, but the layout of everything else
caused chaos. No bueno.
BN, JT and I got
there early, like I said. This allowed us to get our drinking wristbands and
our beer tickets within 10 minutes of arrival. Once we acquired the necessary
tools we got in line to get beer. The event was partially hosted by
Devils Backbone Brewing Company (Devils Backbone)
which meant that the beer selection was amazing Virginia craft beers. All of
their beers were on tap and all listed alphabetically on a giant sign. There
were a ton of people working the beer tent so the line moved very quickly. JT
and BN both started out with Bold Rock Cider (Bold Rock), another host, while I started
with the Devils Backbone Beggars & Thieves. It was an excellent beer. Not
much foam and ice cold, which was great on a hot day. We cursed our lack of
planning for not bringing koozeys to keep our beer chilled, but quickly found
the Local Suds tent which was giving them away if you downloaded their app and
registered. We jumped on this deal with the kind of zeal one only sees from a
fat kid on a bakery shopping spree. It was a game changer.
After we secured our
beer we decided to make a loop to see if there was one bacon dish we wanted to
try above the others. This hurt us a little bit as the people kept coming as we
wandered which mad the lines very long (we waited 45 minutes). I finally spotted a booth that was
offering deep fried slab bacon. Let that heart attack sink in for just a second…
DEEP FRIED SLAB BACON!!! The slabs were probably 10 inches long and about ¾’s
of an inch thick when they were put in the fryer basket. After they had been
fried the guy then diced the slabs into bite-sized pieces. They served it with
what I believe was a Siracha mayo dipping sauce. It was fantastic for only $3. Some of the
pieces had a nice crunch to them while some were a little chewier. None of it
was dripping with grease either. When dipped in the sauce, these bites were a
party. If a restaurant offered these as an appetizer, I would probably order
double batches several times a week. The other thing that we got at that stand
was a 1/4lb burger made with half ground slab bacon and half ground Angus beef.
BM got this instead of the fried bacon. He said it was very good, nice and
flavorful. The bacon added nice fat content to the burger without making it
heavy. All around an excellent first taste from the festival.
As the day progressed the crowd showed up. And they showed up in droves. Apparently by the end of the day the crowd all told was 17,000 strong. They expected 6,000. This, in my opinion, was an terrible estimation for a BACON festival. You could hold a bacon festival in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness and get more then 6,000 attendees. This, of course, led to a few problems. People, either out of confusion or rudeness, tried cutting lines. Thankfully there were lots of vigilant people who didn't allow that to happen. The biggest problem I had with the crowd was the complaining. You chose to show up late to a bacon festival at the 17 St. Market and you feel that you need to complain about the lines and the crowd? Not ok. Get there early. Then you're allowed to whine. That's just science.
We got ourselves a second beer and then met up with JK, MK and the boys for a minute. The boys had a talking bacon with them. They are pretty much the bomb. Sadly, they didn't stay long as it was hot and crowded. When they left we decided we would need something else to fill our stomachs. All day I had seen people wandering around with Chinese food containers of lo mein. A personal favorite and a must have so we set out to find the source. Turns out the source was the Fat Dragon (Fat Dragon) stand. They were serving up a massive serving of bacon & shrimp lo mein for just $3. And when we got there they had just arrived from the restaurant with a fresh made batch. Wins for everybody! The lo mein was excellent, in my opinion. There was plenty of shrimp and several big chunks of salty bacon. I added a little hot sauce because, well it's never wrong to add hot sauce. All three of us housed our dishes with wanton disregard for the safety of those around us. Kudos to Fat Dragon.
There were plenty of excellent vendors there offering lots of great dishes. There was oysters, avocados ice creams, popsicles and burgers. The food masters took bacon and turned it into... well, what's better then gold? Can you change gold into something better then gold? Like a diamond dipped in gold? These people did great work. My thanks to all of them for using an already great product to create great $3 dishes. I'm looking forward to next years creations.
For my birthday, I couldn't have asked for a better gift from the city of Richmond. I was glad we got there early and I think all 3 of us really had a great time. I also think if we had gotten there a half hour later, it would have been a whole different festival. I hope the organizers learned if you bacon it, they will come. I know I will be there again next year.
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