LA Street Food Fest – 2nd Annual Summer Tasting Event

Plenty of room on the Rose Bowl field during the early part of the 2010 Summer Tasting Event. Organizers have greatly expanded the amount of space for this year's edition.

Often imitated but never duplicated, the LA Street Food Fest returns with its 2nd Annual Summer Tasting Event, taking place once again at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, July 16th. Everything about this year’s edition of the festival has been expanded, from the number of participants to the event space, which now includes three soccer fields in the Rose Bowl’s Brookside Park. With plenty of room and staggered event times (see below), Co-Founders Shawna Dawson and Sonja Rasula hope to mitigate the long lines and food shortages that affected the latter part of last year’s Summer Tasting Event.

The list of participants features dozens of the city’s favorite gourmet trucks, old school carts and stands, celebrity chefs, and some of LA’s top restaurants. Vendors include food trucks like The Grilled Cheese Truck and Great Balls on Tires, street eats by foodie faves Starry Kitchen and Guelaguetza, and one of Food & Wine’s 2011 Best New Chefs, Ricardo Zarate (Picca, Mo-Chica). Bill Esparza (Street Gourmet LA) has helped to assemble a first-ever gathering of legendary Baja chefs, including Javier Plascencia and the chef widely acknowledged to have the best street cart in the world: Diego Hernandez of Corazon de Tierra. The always-popular Ice Cream Social makes a welcome return, featuring cult favorites CoolHaus, Master Chef’s Batch from Scratch, and a preview of the upcoming Mother Moo Creamery.

The Sailor Jerry station is sure to be a popular stop again this year.

Sampling all that great food is thirsty work, so the Summer Tasting Event will have two Singha Beer Gardens, plus cocktail bars featuring Sailor Jerry Rum, Milagro Tequila and Hendrick’s Gin.

Tequila Corrido makes it a very happy birthday at the 2010 Summer Tasting.

Agave aficionados will want to zero in on the Tequila Tasting Tent, featuring:

• Angel Bendito Tequila
• Agave de Cortes Mezcal
• Inocente Tequila
• Reserva Quintero
• Sacacuento Ultra Premium Mezcal
• Tequila 55
• Tequila 1519
• Tequila Abondonado
• Tequilas Bracero
• Tequila Capaz
• Tequila Corrido
• Tequila El Agave
• Teteo Tequila

TICKETS
Summer Tasting attendees have several ticket options for entry to one of three 3-hour sessions, capped at 1500 people each:

• Session I: Picnic in the Park (all ages, 10am-1pm)
• Session II: Family Fun Day (all ages, 2pm-5pm)
• Session III: Date Night (21+, 6pm-9pm)

No word yet on what Starry Kitchen's Nguyen Tran will be wearing at this year's festival.

The $60 All-Inclusive Session Ticket features:

• 75+ street food vendors
• Cocktail bars and Singha beer gardens
• Tequila Tent
• Ice Cream Social
• Beverages from IZZE, Honest Tea, Coba
• Street Food Cook Off
• DJ Bryan Davidson
• Portion of proceeds to benefit Downtown Women’s Shelter

The $75 Luxe Lounge Ticket includes all of the above plus the Test Kitchen Luxe Lounge:

• Private tented lounge hosted by Test Kitchen
• Hendrick’s Bar featuring Julian Cox
• Special bites by Chef Farid Zadi
• Massage station with Dr. Kevin and Dr. Steve
• Preferred parking and special entrance

NOTE: only 200 Luxe Lounge tickets are available per session.

Family Pack tickets start at $130 for 2 Adults and 1 Junior (ages 8-12) for Session I or II.

Online tickets are on sale now at Eventbrite. No tickets will be sold at the door.

A portion of every ticket sold will benefit the Downtown Women’s Center to support its mission “to provide permanent supportive housing and a safe and healthy community fostering dignity, respect, and personal stability, and to advocate ending homelessness for women.” In 2010 the LA Street Food Fest raised over $10,000 for St. Vincent Meals on Wheels and Woolly School Gardens.

LA Street Food Fest – 2nd Annual Summer Tasting Event
Saturday, July 16, 2011
10am-1pm (Session I), 2-5pm (Session II), 6-9pm (Session III)
Online tickets: Eventbrite

The Rose Bowl
Brookside Park
360 North Arroyo Blvd.
Pasadena, CA 91103

NOTES:

• Children age 7 and under are admitted free with a paying adult to Session I or II.
• Due to health and Rose Bowl regulations, no dogs allowed. Sorry, Snoopy.

Update 7/12: For those of you lucky enough to have Luxe Lounge tickets, here are the cocktails by Julian Cox!

• Peat Rose – Hendrick’s Gin, fresh lemon, cane sugar, seltzer or soda, lemon verbena, Islay Scotch, rose air
• Gin y Hendrick’s – Hendrick’s Gin, fresh lime, mint, agave nectar, salt, cucumber espuma

For more information on the LA Street Food Fest, visit lastreetfoodfest.com.
Follow LA Street Food Fest on Twitter: @LAFoodFest
Become a fan on Facebook: LA Street Food Fest