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Event Sat Jul 14 2007
Green City Market BBQ, Reviewed
Ultimately a success with around two thousand attendees, this year’s Green City Market BBQ showcased about forty different food stands and about another dozen drink vendors—mostly of the alcoholic variety. This celebration of locally produced food and drink took on the intimate and giddy air of a back yard party as patrons slowly grazed from one table to the next. As the crowd grew it never got uncomfortable, but mingling was inescapable. It was genuinely inspiring to hear people talking Illinois-centric food, restaurants and ingredients the way that tailgaters at Soldier Field talk football, the NFC and their beloved Bears.
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Judging by the size of the lines in front of their booths, the big winners of the night appeared to be the Frontera Grill and Sola. The big losers of the night? Anyone who needed to use the bathroom. One lonely and quickly filthy port-a-potty had to meet the needs of the entire crowd. A battalion of fresh toilets did eventually arrive but the party had been over for a half an hour by that point.
So was it worth the $50 ticket price? Sure. Although I can’t speak to the wisdom of holding an event like this on a weekday, I can say that almost every booth brought enough food to keep serving up until the very end, the beer and wine ran freely, the music was fantastic, and the weather couldn’t have been better. But, man, that toilet…
