Actually, these street fairs—or festivals as the organizers like to call them—are becoming more interesting, and, yes, as the flyer below says, thanks to the little pop-up beer gardens and the stronger presence of some of the better local pubs and restaurants. These things used to be very generic, like every other street fair in the City. Ours increasingly has a more local flavor. It's worth checking out, especially considering that the dire forecasts of weather Armageddon are—surprise!—not going to pan out. Yes, no hurricanes, and no ten inches of rain. There might be a cloud, however.
I look forward to this every year. You're right, more personality and local flavor is definitely a good thing, but as long as they still have zeppoles I don't really care what else happens. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to all the food vendors like 5 Burros, Cabana, etc? Most of them disappeared. It was mainly kiosks offering products. Only good ones seemed to be the Takoyaki octopus balls and the fried ice cream.
ReplyDeleteTotally disappointed by this turnout. A tradition in our home is the 5 Burro burrito. They didn't even have a table this year! No cannollis! Lots of bland sausage and corn. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteYou know that the 5 Burro Burrito was available throughout the entire festival, right inside of the 5 Burro doors, right? The restaurant was half-empty! Plenty of seating for anyone who wanted a burrito that day.
DeleteDid not know that! Dang. Would have been happy to go in.
DeleteSome restaurants did not apply for a special permit to serve alcohol and may be the reason why some of the usual participants went missing.
ReplyDeleteThe stands were mainly marketing tactics to attract people to their businesses. Either A) The marketing failed and it cost more money than their return, or B) It worked well enough that they didn't need to do it again. I'm leaning towards the first, these stands are not cheap. The time, labor and cost probably didn't match expectation. Station house was there which was a nice option. They offered a beef burger and chips for $8 which I thought was delicious, but i was really hoping on Cabana which was nowhere to be found.
ReplyDeleteThey need more indie vendors, like the ones that appear at the Queens Night Market. How about some of those Smorgasburg stalls...!!!
ReplyDeleteSausages and Mozz Arepas, ughhh...
Local business stands are nice though...
I for one was really upset about the lack of Cabana and 5 Burro, but at least there were still a few other local businesses around!
ReplyDeleteDid you not see all of the food trucks down toward Ascan Av? It was extremely busy there. Lots of food options.
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