SF Chefs At the Park

This event took place back in May 2012 so the review’s a bit overdue.
Great food and San Francisco Giants baseball … now there’s a combination that’s difficult to turn down. This event kicked off the SF Chefs celebration for 2012. This was the first time this event had been held, and judging by its success I hope it is offered again by SF Chefs and the San Francisco Giants. The price was very good, maybe just $ 10 more than I’ve paid for a single Giants game at AT&T Park this season, and that included the game ticket plus admission into the SF Chefs tasting area held in a cordoned off space at Seals Plaza behind the stadium.
In order to make it fair so that all attendees got to sample everything ticketed event patrons received a passport of sorts listing all participating vendors with a checkbox next to it. All of the vendors participated in this checkbox method, but most brought enough food so asking for seconds or even thirds was not an issue. For me anyway sampling 11 portions, 1 dessert and several cocktails were enough to fill me up for the night. I did, however, ask for seconds from a couple of my favorites.
Let’s take a look at what I sampled starting off with some of my favorites:
Smoked Salmon Pastrami on Crispy Risotto Cakes (
) from Kuleto’s.
Sweet & Spicy Baby Back Ribs + Seafood Nachos (
) from Pete’s Tavern/Momo’s/Pedro’s Cantina.
Albondigas (
) from ThirstyBear Brewing Co.
Salpicon (
) also from ThirstyBear Brewing Co.
Carnitas & Chorizo Tostada (
) from Mijita.
Grilled Sausage Trio + Chicharrones (
) from 4505 Meats. Gladly served up seconds!
Pesto Grits w/​BBQ Chicken & Goat Cheese (
) from 1300 on Fillmore. Unlimited sampling here too!
You don’t see stuff like this everyday in a ballpark. These were awesome! The following were less than awesome for various reasons, but I ate them up anyways.
CA Deviled Egg w/​Bacon & Pico de Gallo (
) from Public House. Too salty!
BBQ Carnitas Torta (
) from Tacolicious. Boring ~ it needed some kick!
Buffalo Chicken Beignets (
) from Bön Appetit Management Services. Very salty!
Chicken & Mushroom Panini (
) from Rose Pistola. They offered two other types of panini and offered guests to sample all three but the richness from the cheese made one sample plenty for me.
CocoTutti was the one dessert vendor with the longest line. They allowed guests to select up to three different chocolate candies. I saved them for last and took no pics here as I devoured my chocolates right away!
The featured cocktail at the event was a Ginger Hibiscus Fizz. Here’s a description (
). I enjoyed it as much as the entire event, and if it’s offered in 2013 I will definitely consider returning. Oh, and the Giants won the game 3 – 2!