On the Outside Looking In - LA Street Food Fest

Ok its been 3 weeks since the LA Street Food Fest and I have had time to get over the disappointment of not getting in to the event. This may sound a little like a rant on all the things that went wrong but that's not the intention. After weeks of anticipation my wife and I left the OC for the trip to Los Angeles (DTLA), not bad only a 45 min drive. When we got close to the site of the food fest we were instantly in full on grid lock. An hour later we found a place to park about a mile away and started walking getting more and more hungry with every step.

While walking through the LA streets we ran across the Biltmore Hotel, WOW it is beautiful inside. We used the hotel as a short cut as we trekked over to the food fest.

Now that we have walked the mile to the food fest location, where is the end of the line? It turns out the end of the line goes up one city block, then back and forth through a parking lot (3 more blocks) and 2 more blocks around the corner. Disneyland has some real competition when it comes to long lines.

Along the way there are some cute signs that are trying to encourage you that its worth the wait. "Don't view this as a line...it's an opportunity to build up an appetite!" and" Now would be a good time to peek through the gates and plan your first delicious stop..." The smells coming from inside the event are amazing and at this point we are starving. We can see people inside also waiting in long long lines at each truck.

After 2 hours in line the spokesman for the event came out and

announced that they were not going to let anymore people in. He was very nice and explained that they were as disappointed as we were but also wanted to be fair. He said the lines inside for each truck were running 90+ minutes and now that it was after 3PM and the event ended at 5PM they didn't want to take our money and for us not to have time to taste all the great gourmet food. Looking back, I appreciate his honesty and he seemed to really feel for us.

Still starving and wanting to sit down, have a beer and some good food, we decided to go to Casey's Irish Pub at 613 South Grand Ave LA. We have stopped there a number of times for a Smithwicks, and the place is a true Irish Pub. When in DTLA don't miss an opportunity for a cold one and a good time.

In closing we are VERY happy for the wonderful Gourmet Food Trucks that participated and great publicity they received. We are also happy for the promoters, they not only put on a SUPER successful event, they did a lot to promote the Gourmet Food Truck phenomenon in DTLA. Now someone should do the same for Orange County. I have read other blogs, news reports and tweets from people, and they all had one thing in common, the event was a big success. We can't wait for the next event (this time we will buy the VIP tickets) I'm sure it will be even better.

Check out all the pictures.

Please follow me on Twitter.

Dan