The SF Street Food Festival Comes Up Short

Were you at the San Francisco Street Food Festival on Saturday?  Of course you were!  I was there, your neighbors were there, hundreds of pairs of heels clumsily clunking against the pavement were there.  In fact, according to unsubstantiated estimates, a grand total of 80,000 people were sucked into the inescapable force—enough to make Dolores Park seem like a relative hot spot of cell signal strength.

With the festival, the Mission was afforded easy access to elusive street food vendors, such as Osha Thai, Blue Bottle Coffee, Whole Foods Market, and The Samsung Galaxy III Experience.  We feasted upon cured meats, tacos from seemingly every continent, mac n' cheese on a stick, ice cream sandwiches from Three Twins, and discounted cell plans from T-Mobile.

In some cases, vendors even provided make-shift photobooths to educate the world about being a “total FOODIE,” with some backdrop about eating local.  Or less traveled.  Yes, something like that.

Whoa now, slow down on the snark, Kevin.  Let's get to the grass-fed meat and potatoes of the fest.

My food was entirely open to interpretation.  To the vendors, a gourmet fry-bread taco with yam-infused refried black beans, topped with locally-sourced lettuce and cabbage.  To me, a well-garnished cracker.  But one thing was damn sure: my $8 Picasso taco was no where near as delicious as the $2 offering from Farolito down the street.

And therein lies the real problem with the Street Food Festival.  It's not really a place for people who know anything about the landscape of San Francisco's food offerings, but for people coming in from out of town.  Its placement in the heart of the Mission is charming, but ultimately inappropriate.  The majority of the vendors have nothing really to do with the neighborhood, and for the most part, the festival would carry the same caliber of authenticity in the Cow Palace parking lot.

It's too bad, too.  It was just a few years ago that food carts were lining up along dead-end Linda Street seemingly every Friday night, dishing out equally-tasty food at reasonable prices.

Those food cart nights had an unmatched energy to them, inspiring dozens of cooks, armed with family recipes, to risk their careers and jump into one of the riskiest industries in our country.  It legitimately created a sense of lasting community, bringing the neighborhood to the same table and providing a fresh venue for strangers of varying backgrounds to meet.

The Street Food Festival is hollow in comparison.  It bastardizes the entire Do It Yourself ethos of street food, while enforcing the notion that our food industry is increasingly dominated by well-funded players.  Small, local establishments were there, but have been losing ground to deeper pockets with every passing year.

I mean, do nationwide chain stores really need another opportunity to beat us over the head with how 'green' they are by rolling out sod for 8 hours?

Comments (22)

The lifecycle of trends…

I find this wholly unsurprising, alas.

I want to know who paid 25 bones a head to go to the Alemany Night Market. Who are you people?

Great summary. Glad I missed it!

I heard it was packed tighter than Clay Aikens fudge.

walked out my front door, haggard, to get some much-needed Philz… the Saturday line of 75 people was only slightly surprising until I realized Folsom was overrun with about forty 25-person lines of American Eagle short shorts and straw fedoras. Found solace in a Haus coffee before going to explore this madness. La Cocina sponsored this? what Sili marketing bro signed off on the whole shindig? from the corporate pop-up co-optation at one end to the beer “garden” a block from the projects, it was like a Mission twilight zone. Or maybe I’m the martian who doesn’t recognize their hood anymore?
I bewilderdly asked two bewildered ladies in line for some overly expensive ethnic food on the same signage as all the other food - “Where are you ladies from?”. “We’re from here,” they said, deadpan. “From the Mission?”. “From San Jose and Berkeley.” “Oh. Here.”
Yeah.
What?

Kevin’s analysis may be more well-rounded - the demise of DIY street food ethos etc. And don’t take me for a self-loathing hipster or some other exclusive nay-sayer.
I’m just saying, shit didn’t smell right.

Kevin is spot on with this. I’ll take my El Tonayense tacos over this shitshow any day.

This about sums it up: I saw a lady wait in line for 30 minutes to place and order, then try to pay $3 for a couple of tiny lamb skewers, only to be told it was $3 EACH. She seemed annoyed, but too stunned to protest and dutifully pulled out her wallet as if the transaction was some kind of Milgram experiment.

Actually, I think holding this event in the Cow Palace parking lot makes a lot more sense. You know, the whole bringing these vendors to a place that isn’t 4 blocks away from the actual restaurant and all.

So, so accurate. It’s sad, because the first time they held the SF Street Food Festival it was a completely different experience – they had actual street food, made and sold by tiny operators. It was simple, it was good, and it was worth the hassle.

Now it’s just restaurant chains charging you for free samples. WTF? The only thing it has going for it is the mob mentality.

Jaded much?
The pork belly sandwich I had was fucking awesome.
Happy to be supporting La Coccina. May they operate many more food trucks in Dolores park with the money they raised on saturday.

stop drinking the haterade and enjoy life.

“it was like a Mission twilight zone. Or maybe I’m the martian who doesn’t recognize their hood anymore?”

Says the Mexican families who have lived in that neighborhood FOREVER.

Oh, the irony…

I made it two blocks before I got so frustrated I had to bail out and get the hell away from there. It was next to impossible to walk down the street because every 15 feet was yet another line that went from curb to curb. Really unfriendly set-up for a street fair.

Thanks for this, Kevin.

Call me a NIMBY, call me an old fuck, call me Ishmael. Jesus fucking Christ this thing is idiotic. The fucking thing happens right in front of my house. What I saw was a grand parade of lifeless packaging. I saw a lot bros. I didn’t see a single one of my neighbors. I had to eat so I went to the guy who sells dogs at Dirty Thieves. I wasn’t going to support this faux street food bullshit. I agree, the whole shitshow should be moved to a parking lot or the Cow Palace.

I ate at no less than four vendors I had not tried before and enjoyed all the food. I also got there early to avoid the crowd. I don’t mind a little corporate sponsorship if it keeps entrance to the event free. The Mission is a hot spot destination now. Nothing that happens there will ever be “neighborhoody” again. The woes of the trend-setter.

They have something like this in Chicago, called “Taste of Chicago.” It takes place once a year and huge crowds show up to eat food outside from restaurants where you normally eat inside. This is the Taste of San Francisco. There’s nothing of-the-street about it, but some San Franciscans love to feel like they’re slummin’ it, hence “Street Food.”

I don’t have a problem with the event, per se - I like walking around my neighborhood and seeing stuff like this on a nice day. I just think it requires better planning - make some frikkin queue lines so pedestrian traffic can actually flow. And ditch the huge corporate sponsors.

My only real complaint was that not one of the vendors was using Square.

Seriously. It’s essentially a free service. I await a good excuse. My tipsy ass would have shelled out a lot more American dollars if I didn’t have to walk up to Mission for a charge-free ATM.

I live on Folsom street in one of the blocks that this happened on and I enjoyed the shit out of it. Yes, it was crowded. Yes some vendors had crazy long lines. I avoided those and went to about 6 vendors and got to try a lot of really great food from all different parts of the world.
Now maybe you could have gotten all of those varieties of food at their respective locations throughout the city for cheaper, but not all at once. It was like international Izakaya.

I boycotted since there was no Chipotle Truck!