Monday, September 21, 2009

Partying at South Beach (San Francisco, not Miami)

Now that I'm back home in the Bay Area, there are still tons of food events to take advantage of. Case in point was this past Saturday when I checked out the second annual "A Taste of South Beach and Mission Bay."

The tiny event took place in South Park, the quaint patch of green in San Francisco's SOMA district. South Park is typically quiet on the weekends (it's more a weekday hangout) but it was busy this weekend for the food event, put on by the business association for the emerging South Beach and Mission Bay neighborhoods.

A variety of restaurants in the area put up booths, and then there were music and a few arts and crafts display. But in terms of food events this summer, this was definitely small. That was a nice change of pace, not having to push through people for food or standing in long lines. It was like a little block party, with some really good food.


After walking around checking out the different food booths, I settled on the Cuban sandwich ($5) from District, one of my favorite wine bars near AT&T Park. The sandwich had ham and pork and a lot of gooey cheese and bits of pickles and olives. It wasn't super big, but satisfying.

I also got a Bloody Mary ($5) from Bacar. It was so nice getting alcohol without having to get special tickets like other food events. Bacar's Bloody Mary was super spicy than I'm normally used to, but it was good. I love starting out my weekend mornings with a good sammie and a Bloody Mary, does it get better than that?


Actually, one of the really popular booths was the one from 21st Amendment, a microbrewery and restaurant. They were selling beer for $2, and I tried a watermelon wheat beer, which I can't say I totally love. But, hey, it was $2.

The really popular booth was by Little Skillet, which is a popular weekday lunch counter selling Louisiana-inspired food. They were popular at this past weekend's food event because they were selling fried chicken! (And yes, I passed.)



Even though I passed on the fried chicken, I did try the Red Velvet Cupcake ($2) from Little Skillet. It was extremely red and a nice cream cheese frosting.


And of course, the weather was amazing this weekend to be outside. It was nice checking out all the area restaurant's food and not have to deal with massive crowds. Now, I'm going to find my patch of green and stretch out to get rid of my farmer's tan. :)

5 comments:

Cookie said...

I'm so bummed that we missed this on Saturday! I'm not sure how we would've since we actually ate a late lunch at Gordon Bierch! :(

Hungry Dog said...

Ah, I love South Park, used to work right there before the dot bomb (who didn't?) Nice post. I like to wait up with a ham sandwich too.

Carolyn Jung said...

No fried chicken?!? Oh, surely, you could eat one piece in the name of research. :)

egg to the apples said...

Welcome back to the Bay, your trip looked amazing.

foodhoe said...

single guy, I'm not fond of fruity beers and just can't imagine watermelon beer! I would have liked the smaller format of this block party, I do love that neighborhood.