La Street Food Fest

(3 months later…)
3.5 to be exact — with some improvements, this could’ve been a 5 star event! However, I’ve got to give props to the person (s) who came up with the interestingly different concept! Can you say Cha-​chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!!! For both the host (s) and the vendors! What a great $ making/​marketing idea — MINUS the fact that it was VERY unorganized.
I’d like to say that I’m looking forward to the new and improved 2^nd Annual LA Street Food Fest, BUT the ridiculously looooooooong lines has got me… traumatizeeeeeeed! Just thinking about how long we waited for the Ludos 2 pc chicken makes me cringe! arghhh…
$ 5 admission w/​1 FREE drink= 2 thumbs up!
Many Food Trucks all in one area= FANTASTIC idea!
Sample size menu & prices: AWESOME!
FREE water bottles= greaaaaaat way to chill out.
Looooooooooooong line to get in: yiiiikes! — 5 stars
Looooooooooooong line (s) to try the different trucks: — 5 stars

Talk about your sour grapes…
I mean, were there kinks, sure. The lines were long, it was a warm day and a shit ton of people showed up. But, quite frankly, it was a pretty sweet deal.
I paid for the VIP treatment and that is why I think I had a better time than those whining about the lines. I got in after waiting about 5 minutes, I went to the VIP room and had repeated servings of dim sum, mini donuts and booze… for FREE (well, for the cost of my ticket, but you get the idea). And included in my VIP price was a picture from Oh Snap! with the lovely Victoria C.
Sure, I tried a few of the trucks, roughly 4. But, being that I’m an adult with above average reasoning skills, I figured if the line was short, I would wait for a shorter period and was, therefore, able to navigate the time consuming waters of food truck service.
People, really, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
I walked around and got the names of trucks that I didn’t want to wait for for future hunting, I checked out the vendors form UniqueLA, I chillled with the homies and a drank enough booze to knock out an elephant for the low tip price of 5 bucks.
To put it simply, I had a great couple of hours with great people at a really interesting and unique event.
Next time, I hear tell they plan on doing all pre-​sale which would eliminate many of the issues mentioned in the negative reviews, and being that practice makes better, I’ll be happy to return, realistic expectations in tact, to have another great time.

Ok, gonna keep this short since other Unilocalers pretty much covered everything.
Got there early. Planned ahead. Divided and conquered. Took no prisoners.
EXPECTED long lines. ANTICIPATED large crowds. Early bird gets the worm… er, Ludo Chicken Bites.
Challenges were definitely long lines, which if you did the math ahead of time, 4,000+ FB followers /​30 trucks = lines of approximately 133 +/​-​people.
Overall, had a great day. Can’t wait for the next one!

There are times where you can rationalize why something is good and there are times where you can’t even bring yourself to do that. The Street Food Fest was the latter of the two.
While the whole concept is great, the only people who really gain from this were those who organized the whole thing. Let me put it into perspective for you.
The taco truck craze has taken Los Angeles by storm and everyone wants a piece of it. I believe it started with Kogi, a korean taco truck. Not saying the true authentic mexican roach coaches aren’t authentic, but they’re not part of this huge trendy upscale food craze. The thing to keep in mind here is that these are trucks. Not full fledged restaurants.
So, with the popularity of street food trucks storming LA at the steep incline, why not give the people a central place to try every one of them? GREAT Idea!!! Why not charge them $ 5 for it? Even better idea! (For the organizers). This is where the good parts stop.
You have to realize again, these are trucks. These are mobile kitchens that don’t have the capacity to keep up with the demand. The Ludo Chicken truck (the only thing I was able to purchase) had a line that went for 1.5 hrs. I got there at 10:30 am half an hour before the festival’s SUPPOSED opening time and about an hour before it’s actual opening. So you can imagine after standing in some form of line in the sun for 2.5 hours to order my first food wasn’t exactly sitting well. What put the icing on the cake was that as soon as I got to the front of the line, the friendly cashier (no sarcasm here. she was actually quite friendly) informed me that after I order there will be an hour wait until I get my food. So… Loooong wait story short, I wated a total of 3.5 hours before my first food that I ordered. In the sun.
I would say that there were easily 1 to 2 thousand people in the gate within the first hour (Yes that’s $ 5k — $ 10k for the organizers). With that many people and lines for every single truck with the kitchen smaller than my bathroom, expect long lines. And with the line to get in going around the block, it seemed there was no end to the lines.
Do I regret going? No, not really. I did get to spend some quality time getting to know some random guy in front of me. And I did get to taste some tasty bites from other trucks. But the kicker for me was that with all this waiting and the prices high, the portions were not normal portions. It was a sampling menu.
Look at my pictures and you will see, this event was not worth it. If you feel like you MUST go next year, I say go for it. Just bring about 15 friends, each armed with $ 70, split up, and each person go to one truck. Order 15 of every item, and then it MIGHT be worth it.
All in all we spent quite a bit of cash for the 3 of us. I think our total tab came out to be $ 80 for 3 people with stomachs that were still crying for more.

Like all the reviewers have mentioned the lines sucked big hairy balls, like waiting for space mountain at Disneyland but 20 times worse. Quite possibly the under statement of the century, but still worth mentioning.
Cheryl Y, Darshan R, Deana I, and I luckily purchased the VIP tickets when they were available and got to forgo the clusterfuck of General Admission. Sure I paid $ 25 more than the GA folks did, but at least I didn’t have to wait in the FUBAR (fucked up beyond all repair) line in the heat before waiting in the lines at the actual event.
VIP turned out to be pretty awesome. We got some free swag (still don’t know what to do with the full size bottle of BBQ sauce) and we got some free food. The Fry Girl and Dim Sum Truck were set up on the upstair patio and happily offered bite sized morsels of yummy for VIP guests.
This was my first ever food fest, and for their first try, I have to say it was pretty good. Personally I think it might be easier to go find these trucks on your own, but it was pretty cool to be able to eat from 5 or 6 trucks instead of just one or two.

Amidst the mayhem and chaos, I still found ways to have a decent time. The sun was definitely out; it felt like the beginning of Summer was already here. Keep in mind, the rest of the nation is either blanketed by snow or rainfall. Good ol’ So Cali weather.
Yes, let’s state the captian obvious stuff. Long longgggg lines. People turned away. Hotness, crampiness, claustophobia settling in, portal potties, and so on.
Let’s not forget the free waters. A measly $ 5 cover. A drink coupon upon entry. A chance to sample trucks all in one hit and not having to twitter their locations and chase them down. Beer with a simple donation.
Yeah, there’s many things that could’ve have been managed differently. I still found time to hang out with good friends, sample some tasty trucks, and enjoy the weather under some shade while people watching.

Lets start off w/​the good:
— 1^st Annual Street Food Fest — GREAT idea! extra credit for pulling it off to have these trucks parked in one location for people to try.
— Plenty of parking whether it’d be free street parkings if lucky, or just pay $ 5 for parking lots.
— the excitement for this event — great promotion.
— free Canadian bottled water because that one free drink was just NOT going to quench my thirst for the day.
The Bad… now i totally understand lots of people means long lines. And I understand that and expected that… BUT:
— sampling these food items ADDS up! Sure the price sounds great and it’s unbeatable ($ 2, $ 3, $ 5). but wait till you see the size /​portion that they give you!
— Ludobites — Eric L. waited 2.5 hours for this and i heard they were filming?! great choice in choosing the time to film, putting everyone on hold. $ 5 for two chicken pieces. and these pieces where just bite size. NOT worth it.
— Dogzilla — $ 2 for each dog. i thought NICE! this IS cheap! and guess what? i get a size of a King’s Hawaiian roll (that was like two bites for me!)
— Mac & Cheese — dude, another long line. $ 3 /​$ 4 for one order — i really hope this isnt the real size for normal business.
I honestly give props to those who coordinated this event. I do feel bad for those people waiting outside to get in. As I was leaving, I heard one of the guards saying that they’re going to stop letting people in — sucks.
this lunch for the cost of 3 people: $ 5 parking, $ 15 admission fee, $ 6 on dogzilla, $ 16 on komodo, $ 20 on ludobites, $ 12 grilled cheese truck, $ 20 on ludo bites … a grand total of $ 74 for a 4-​hr lunch.(and this was with us three people waiting in different truck lines)
would i go back for the next annual street food fest (if there’s one)? most likely not. I’d rather just follow these truck on twitter or something. I honestly did NOT hate the event. i think it’s a brilliant idea. i just didn’t find it being worth it in terms of cost, portion, and time.
okay. i’m done w/​this review. time to review the trucks itself.

The line to get in was extremely intense (the fest started at 11am and no one was let in till 11:30am) and the sun was definitely taking its toll on people. Thankfully, the food fest was handing out bottles of free water. With the $ 5 entry fee, we were given a ticket to redeem a full sized non-​alcoholic beverage. pretty sweet since the options were Fizzy Lizzy or Honest Tea.
If you didn’t arrive earlier on during the fest, then it was definitely not worth your time as the wait time & lines for each food truck increased exponentially. Not to mention the fact that all the trucks would eventually run out of FOOD! My friends and I were smart enough to split up, that way we were able to get food from various trucks before they ran out. Thank you to my dear gal Hansoul K for waiting TWO excruciating hours in line for Ludo Bites fried chicken! (By the way, a little too much rosemary folks, ease it up a little on the herbs but the sauce was fantastic)
My suggestions would be to have better crowd control, and perhaps letting people in on time would be help. The lines snaking around all the Greek food trucks got CONFUSING. Can we have some stanchions or something?
I would come back to this if it was an annual thing.

Since I’m a strong supporter of taco trucks and gourmet roach coaches, I was very excited to participate in this first Food Fest held in Downtown LA. Apparently, so were a million other street food enthusiasts.
We arrived at 10:20 am with easy parking and not bad of a line. But as time went by, waiting even longer for the gates to open (11:30), we witnessed the expansion of a never-​ending line around the parking lot. It helps to be early!
We found short lines when we got inside. And by the look of the outside line, we were anticipating mass chaos very soon. So we indulged early at Piaggio, Fresser’s, Komodo, Mama Koh’s, and King Kone.
–The chimi fries and bacon-​wrapped hot dogs at Piaggio were exactly what I expected… nice and greasy.
–Mama Koh’s sweet and spicy chicken was just okay for me.
–I liked the spicy shrimp taco more than the short rib at Komodo.
–The root beer floats and ice cream from King Kone were refreshing on a warm, sunny February day.
–My favorite was Fresser’s ever so tender pot roast. Taste and texture was magnificent!
To try only five out of 30 vendors, I felt disappointed, yet satisfied. We wanted to continue on to the Buttermilk truck, Fishlips sushi, the Grilled Cheese truck, and Chef Ludo’s fried chicken, but the lines became intensified and got out of hand. With the crowds and long waits after 1pm, we decided to find these trucks at a later date at their normal locations. So that night we started with a truck that wasn’t even at the fest… Kogi!
Overall, this event was a great concept… to showcase gourmet food trucks in one area. To be the first of it’s kind, with $ 2-​$ 5 prices, it was okay for me. However, improvements can be made for future fests.
–Trucks could be more spaced out to accommodate large crowds. Lines were enormous in limited spaces. At one point, I couldn’t find the end of lines.
–More trucks should be invited to accommodate the millions…
Pluses were the free Honest Tea, music playing throughout, and bumping into fellow Bay Area Unilocaler, CeCe C.

For it to be the first street food festival, I thought it was organized enough. My boyfriend and I were fortunate enough to get the VIP tickets because the general admission (though cheap) line was ridiculously long. Also, the VIP tickets entail free samplings of The Fry Girl’s donuts and the soon-​to-​come-​out Dim Sum Truck. The donuts and shu-​mai were fantastic. We came back for seconds (and thirds and fourths). We also tried the following items:
1. Mama Koh’s Chicken — I thought it was very good. A little greasy and it was mildly spicy. It reminded me of a cross between chicken wings and orange chicken.
2. Yum Yum Bowl — I didn’t think it was worth the price we paid for the food. We got the Tom Yung Goong Soup and Chow Mein. The soup was alright, but the chow mein lacked any flavor; it was unbelievably bland.
3. Fish Lips — I was hesitant to try sushi rolls made in a truck, but Cheryl Y. said that they were actually good. She was right. We got the California Roll and Crunch Rolls, and it was better than some sit-​down places I’ve gone to.
For an entire day’s worth of gluttony, we only spent $ 15 on food… not too shabby. I was one happy (but exhausted) camper. But if we didn’t get the VIP tickets, I would probably have a different view.

I wish that there was better parking and the lines were shorter for food.
Despite the irony that I didn’t get to eat anything I, along with my group was given the opportunity to perform capoeira.
The staff and volunteers were accommodating and there was plenty of space to chill and set up a roda for capoeira!
The VIP is definitely worth it, I had access to it and we threw together an impromtu roda/​ (Enjoyed the view, um, not really. Saw ex-​bestfriends where in another time we would have gone together. But it had bathrooms, a lounge, free drinks and 2 free sample booths) but honestly after being jobless for the last 4 months without getting any unemployment, it’s hard to justify $ 5 for half a sandwich!
I had to flip and cartwheel around on a small bag doughnuts, but I’m glad that Capoeira Batuque was a part of it!
www,

I would have LOOOOOVED to give this event ⁵⁄₅ Stars because in theory this was a fantastic idea with the potential to be one of the most anticipated events every year… but in all honesty it was not, and although i have indeed «experienced better» I’m giving it an OK because it was just that… OK… I’m not beating around the fact that this might have been on of the most disorganized Food festivals of all time, but I’m hopeful that the 2^nd Annual SFF will be MUCH better organized and prepared!
I think the promoters knew that a lot of people would show up, but i’m not sure that they were expecting what happened on the 13^th of February. 11:00am the official start time, and there are already over 1000 people in line wrapping down Beaudry, around the corner onto West 6^th, THROUGH the giant parking lot on 6^th, back out onto 6^th, and around the corner again onto Bixel. Thats where we got in line, and there were 100’s more showing up every minute. To our delight though the line would move a fair pace every couple minutes and it only took us about 50minutes to get into the event (and when you used to waiting that long or longer for just Ramen, it doesn’t seem so bad)
And we’re in! woooowwww look at all the people here…
oh wait. wtf… now we have to stand in more lines just to get food…
yes. that was our immediate reaction to entering the food fest after waiting nearly an hour to get in, we were now waiting near an hour at each food truck we wanted to try. Thank god the Shaved Ice truck was a quick and short line through-​out the day. All in all we got to try to Sushi Truck, which was surprisingly fresh and really pretty good, and the Chicken Wing stand. Yes we did grab some of the complimentary booze, and shaved ice, but we were wanting to try soooo much more, but after waiting in like for the Grilled Cheese truck for over and hour only to realize that it wrapped back down around the start of the line and back towards the truck again we decided to take the hit and bail from the event. It was 3:00pm when we left. what a crying shame.
Now the verdict…
Anyone who came to this event unprepared HATED it. I mean c’mon people. check the weather, wear light clothes, sunglasses, sunscreen and bring good company, because obviously there will be some sort of lines (admitted that no one anticipated what happened that day, until maybe the day before when Unilocal and facebook were showing 4,000+ people going).
Its the people that were prepared that really got the most out of it. Groups of 8 – 10 people showing up and then splitting off into groups of 2 at 4 – 5 different trucks at a time and then all re converging into a group and splitting their new found glory food amongst the group were the real winners. The ones that wore the right clothing, brought sun screen and glasses, or even umbrellas, and the ones that really looked on the «bright» side of the day LOVED IT
I was caught right in the middle of those two groups. Not Completely prepared, but somewhat more than not at all. Only came with 1 friend and seeing as its no fun to wait in line by yourself, were rarely split up to wait in separate lines, I brought sunglasses and a light shirt, and although the crowd was gigantic, I tried to really look on the bright side of the day and when I did, I saw 4000+ people all gathered for their love of quick, cheap, and diverse street food, and it was quite a sight to see!
I really am looking forward to next year because i believe the line-​up will be even greater (both food trucks and maybe participants), the Venue will be bigger (god i hope), and the grouchy unforgiving people of this year wont show up again next year!
+great diversity, great support for street vendors, great prices, great time with friends, great experience to have been apart of, found free parking a couple blocks up, free booze.
–lines, relatively small space, lines.

The Good: Wow for a first time event this thing was crazy wicked. First off, it was at a working movie studio set. So cool right, I did an extra gig here a few years ago and it brought back some memories. Secondly, I live in The OC and I could never find all the those trucks in one day, I really hate driving up to LA and this was one the the rare occasions. Food was great, not sure if the vendors had lower prices today but they seemed pretty cheap and sadly I got full after my 4^th or 5^th truck… LOL. Thirdly, how is it that foodies are the most chill and friendly people in the world? I didn’t see any dunk fighting, everybody was nice in line, and some people even offered me some of their food. And lastly, I planned this as a all day festival. What’s better than walking around and eating food all day. Awesome job from the LA Street food Fest team (Dawson and Sonja).
The Bad: Yeah the lines sucked, but when was the last time you went to a concert or sports event and there was no line for food or restroom? Yeah thought so! The vendors could have picked up the pace making the food. I didn’t get to try Ludo because his frakin line was so slow.
The Ben: If this was the first one I can’t wait for the next one. Actually anything that Dawson does pretty much rocks. I effing missed Giada!!! Booo kendbye.

It’s the first event ever like this in L.A., the organizer could definitely take some pointers of advice given by some people here. Hands down to Dawson for getting these trucks together and offering their food at much lower price than usual.
The line was just way too long to enter, but thank God for presale tix, because I saw the General Admittance was still going even though it’s only 1 hour left to go. My suggestion would be to limit the amount of people to enter, because that day, the capacity was overloaded, because people had to wait at least another half an hour to an hour for each stand that they chose to go and I think it’s pretty ridiculous. However, like I said, it’s the first event of all, so it’s totally forgiven.
Food choice was great, and people were pretty disappointed with Ludobites, including me, because they shouldn’t do filming while customers were lining up that long for it, it’s unacceptable in my opinion. Thankfully I’ve stuffed my stomach with 4 stops, so I was pretty full and happy when I walked out from there. It’s just that, the weather was just so HOT! otherwise, it’s all good!

500^th review goes to the LA Street Food Festival!!! :D
PROS:
— 1^st Annual Street Food Fest!
— Over 30 food trucks and many local artists!
— Great publicity! HUGE turnout! Thanks Dawson for a fun event!
— Awesome foodie folks!
— Great weather (I even got sunburned)! Love LA weather!
— Drinks: new belgium beer, pomegranate liqueur, honest tea, izze, red leaf water (sponsored= free water)
— Yay for blue recycling cans! Go green!
CONS:
— It was madness all day!
— Long lines to get in and get food
— Venue was a bit small
— Only a 6 hour event :(
— Wished there were more trash cans
10:30 am: We got to the end of the line that wrapped around Beaudry & 6^th! O_​O While waiting to get in, we met some really friendly foodie people!
11:30 am: The flood gates were finally open!!! And we finally got inside! :D $ 5 general admissions. We ended up staying the whole 7 hours there, but sadly only got to 6 food trucks. :(
— Fresser: pastrami Sandwich ($ 5), pot roast sampler ($ 2)
— Get Shaved: passionut ($ 2.50)
— Grilled Cheese Truck: harvest melt ($ 3)
— Qzillabbq: combo ($ 5)
— Coolhaus: ice cream sandwiches ($ 3)
— Oh Snap! photo booth ($ 5)
— Dogzilla: mini hot dog sampler ($ 2)
5:00 pm: What? It’s already 5pm? :(Aw time to go home! Can’t wait for the next food fest!!!
— — — — — — — — — —
Happy Valentine’s Day foodie people and Unilocal fans everywhere! Huge thanks to Dawson and Sonja for organizing this amazing event, thanks to all the food trucks for their hard work of keeping our tummies full and happy, and thanks to all the security and cleaning people for keeping the event tame and clean!
Hearing about the event over a month ago, I knew this was going to be CRAZY. I was already expecting LOTS of people and long lines and possibly sold out food. I was just excited and happy to be able to flying into LA this weekend and attend!!! I ran into one of my bay area Unilocal friends, Bobby L. and his cousins!!! hihi! :D I also met so many wonderful foodie folks! It’s always great to talk to people about what we love most, food! At first I was a bit sad that I wasn’t able to get VIP tickets, but in the end, I was perfectly happy with just general admissions.
The only gross part of the event was this kid near the Qzilla line puked on the grass in front of everyone!!! It was gross!!! And the kid just walked away! Soooo… everyone that was walking through the grass after also stepped into the kid’s puke. blehhhhhhhh. So gross! Ew Ew Ew! So if you stepped onto any parts of the grass last Saturday, I’d recommend that you sanitize your shoes VERY well.
Overall, I had a good time at this festival! Next year, I may want to get VIP tickets, bring more sun gear (sunscreen, hat, sunglasses), a food tray to hold all my little plates of food, hand sanitizer, etc.

Dawson, I know for a [fact] that you very expertly executed this event and the long lines etc. had NOTHING to do with you; this, was something internal beyond your control.
I had already told my 2 friends in the car that if I even see something that will trigger my OCD to the point of pulling my 357 Magnum from under the seat and making the lines shorter we would go elswhere to eat.
We did (@ 10:45 AM), and ended up picking up take out from Subway and then to the beach off of the end of Sunset. Much better and no crowds, just people out enjoying the Pre-​Spring weather.
I don’t go to Sunset Junction for the same reasons and, that event is in August… YUCK!

What a fuckshow!
Got there a little later than I would have liked (11:15 or so), thanks 101 traffic. Parked for free on 2^nd street, walked the 4 blocks to 6^th and then I saw The Line.
The line to get into the place wrapped around, and around, and around, and snaked through a parking lot, and wrapped around, and around, and around. It was seriously close to 8 blocks of line. Just to get in. After that, I assume there were more lines to wait and wait and wait… to get food from a truck.
Eff that! We left to go get lunch and cocktails with some friends. As we were walking back to the car (and it’s about 11:50 or so) we see cars and people streaming into the area. I can’t even imagine how long people waited.
I realize that long lines means that an event is popular, but, seriously!!! Can’t planning be more effective so people aren’t waiting hours to get inside an event to wait more to get food? I’m just waiting for the reviews later where people say the trucks ran out of food. After the debacle at the KBBQ fest last year, I anticipate that with this.
Maybe these types of events aren’t for me; that’s just my two cents.

AMAZING!
Got there at 10:15 to line up and there was already a long line. When we left at 1, the line went around the block, through the parking lot, and out onto the street again.
Hit up the following trucks:
Ludo — amazing fried chicken. the batter was nice and crispy, the inside was juicy and tender! ($ 5)
Qzilla — had the little daddy combo that had pulled pork, rib, and brisket. I really liked the bbq sauce ($ 5)
Buttermilk — the buttermilk brick was delicious. The chorizo gravy was very tasty on the egg and hash brown. The biscuit was ok, not that amazing. ($ 4)
Dogzilla — had the dogzilla and the karai furikake. DELICIOUS! the dogzilla had avocado and grilled onions on top. the karai furikake had this japanese mayo, with onions and seaweed on top. ($ 2 each)
Flying Pig — had the tamarind duck taco and pork belly bun. Pretty good, but nothing amazing. the pork belly was nice and fatty. ($ 3 each)
Popsicle — had the avocado vanilla and the aph-​rose-​disiac (pomegranate, orange, rose). The avocado vanilla was really bland, didn’t taste much avocado or vanilla. the aph-​rose-​disiac was really good, tasted like grapefruit. The citrus was very refreshing on a hot day. ($ 2 each)
Cool Haus– had the wasabi ice cream with gingersnap cookies and the dirty mint chocolate chip ice cream with brownies. The mint chocolate was very good since there was a strong flavor of mint there. For the wasabi, didn’t taste much wasabi, tasted more like vanilla. ($ 3 for two)
Grilled Cheese — line took WAYYYY too long. stood there for 45 minutes and the line barely moved. Gave up and left.
Overall, a wonderful experience. They should definitely do this again! The free honest tea was delicious as well! Must go early to get good parking and to avoid long lines!

This is a tough one bc I totally get that it was the first ever Street Food Fest (hence the 2 stars /​:) but I guarantee you that planning for next years SFF started as soon as the gates closed tonight.
The promoters delivered what was promised to us all and that was many a food trucks. I know we all knew it was going to be packed and lines were going to be long but the amount of people there and the disorganization of lines was out of control. And when that started happening @ 11:45am was when I noticed chaos starting to fill up in the area we were at (all stinkin day) then that’s when the «planners and staff» should have stepped in as «event planners» and start organizing asap. I didn’t see any type of «event staff» around at all. The only staff I saw working was the people taking out the trash and keeping the areas clean.
AMEN we took advantage and purchased the overly priced VIP tix. We only had to wait about 20 minutes to get checked in instead of 2 hours. We didn’t partake in any of the amenities that were offered through the VIP tixs (too busy waiting in line to make it there) except for the goodie bags and what they gave out was quite lame. A Street Food Fest tee shirt would have made an awesome take away and would have made the $ 30+ dollar VIP tix worth it. I will say that VIP check in was organized and fast once you got to the registration desk.
I had a list of trucks I wanted to try but didn’t get a chance to make it to any bc my primary truck was of course the Ludo Bites Fried Chicken truck. I am a Fried Chicken snob. I frequent Napa often and plan my trips around TK’s Monday Ad Hoc Fried Chicken Nights. So as soon as I saw that Ludo was serving up FC I just had to see how the french chef cooks up fried chicken. I knew the line for this truck would be the longest so that was our first stop and turned out to be our only stop. We waited 1 hr and 50 minutes to get our tickets to come back in another hour to get our FC. So Krissy asked for me to keep the timer running and when the total Ludo Bites truck time hit 2 hours and 46 minutes we finally had our FC in hand. LB FC verdict = giant herbed up chicken nuggets that were tender, juicy and crispy. Really good but didn’t beat out Ad Hoc. Worth the wait??? Yes!
We also tried some Chicken Tacos from Komodo, the outsourced desserts from the Sweets Truck SUCKED. I can’t believe I spit out a cupcake but I did (looks were deceiving on that one. it was so stinkin cute). The highlight from our SFF day was the Lemon Basil popsicle from PopShop. It was AWESOME! So refreshing and flavorful I am craving another one right now.
There was ample parking in lots near the site. We scored a $ 5 lot spot 1 block away. Street parking was sparse bc most spots were only 1 or 2 hour spots.
I will definitely return to next years if there is one. I hope for better crowd control and line management as well as a larger venue. VIP price should go down or give out cooler stuff in the goodie bags.

2 months…
3 months…
FOREVER since the rumor started…
but it’s HERE!!!
Food Festival in Downtown!
HOLLY GUACAMOLE!
who would’ve known… The power of Unilocal/​The Word of mouth…
People WRapped. and I mean WRAPPED around the entire downtown to get into this place…
I can’t believe I only got to try out Flying Pig and shaved ice… after 2 hours of wait!!!
but hey… they gotta do it again next year! it was AWESOME!!!
P.S:
Many fellow Unilocalers wondered how I was able to have 4 Star experience here at the Truck festival.
My secret to 4 Star experience.
1. Create an event on facebook two weeks in advance.
2. Invite responsible and fun friends.
3. Scare them in advance with the long line alert. They will show up two hour advance with fishing chairs.
4. Show up at 11:10am, find the friends and get in with no wait.
5. Plant your friends on each truck line
6. Give extra cash and tell them what you want.
7. Go around take pictures while your friends are getting your food.
8. Find awesome grass/​eating area and get all of your friends to one place.
9. Everyone gets to try everything and have a feast .
10. Thank all the friends for waiting in line with around of drink and take pretty pictures for them.