I was brought as a plus one by Jen G on a pair of comped tickets through Yelp for a honest review and had a great time. We had the City Slickers pass, with each party getting 15 food tokens and 4 drinks. Parking was a little complicated (got sent to the vendors lot on accident) but once that was sorted the rest of "where to go" was easy. The $10 lot was SUPER close to everything, and just so easy for the price.
My date, Jen G, and I ran into other members of our YelpFam, and it was a great time strolling with them and checking out all the vendors! At first we thought that 15 tokens would mean 15 small tastings, but we quickly found that some of the larger or more time consuming options (ribs for example) were more tokens. The logic put to the "cost" of tokens made sense as we worked our way around the booths.
The food at this event was SO well prepared and varied. I was starving getting there so I grabbed the first thing I saw at the Day of the Pig booth. Their pulled pork sample was amazing, and as I munched on that I wandered the other stalls. It was so good that I ended with that sample as well! Another favorite were the ribs at Yard Pirate, and (if I'm being honest) they were the only booth trading waters for tokens so they were a big favorite of mine for that as well. There were about 10-15 booths, all serving different items.
They had the aforementioned ribs & pork, but also brisket, chicken thighs, and sausage. Non-meat options too! Mash potatoes, nachos, and mac and cheese all made appearances. Really anything you would want to eat at the perfect BBQ! It was a blast walking around and talking to the vendors.
The drinks selection was not as varied, I was looking for a way to use my drinks for lemonade or something non-soda/non-alcoholic and couldn't find an option for that. The beer selection was pretty well covered, but for such a hot day would have loved more hydration options! I heard that you could buy lemonade down one of the walkways. Tip for next time, bring a bunch of water! You can bring food/drinks into this event and it would go a long way. I also would bring a chair or a blanket, as there weren't many shady spots to sit, though there was shade to stand/lay on a blanket by.
Also would love to see more treat booths (ice cream or more cobbler/pie would be a huge hit!) The one booth with "dump cakes" sold out by about 1:15pm... All in all in the end I left stuffed, and gave away SIX of my tokens! Really a few (I used 9) tokens go a LONG way here. I had a great time, and would make the drive to Vista again for this event. The food holds it's own here! read more