Taste of Clayton - 2007
30 plus restaurants were slinging hash under the trees in Shaw Park on a spectacular June day at the 15th annual Taste of Clayton. Mild temperatures, a crisp northwest breeze, and mostly sunny skies kept the crowds flowing in. By 3:00 pm all of the tables were occupied and the paths were full of people taking a bite of the last thing they bought while on the lookout for the next thing to try.
As a general rule, these events are not immediate money-makers for the restaurants. The organizers take a cut (thus the tickets to make sure no one is keeping double books). Staffing, rentals, and supplies take another big chunk of the proceeds. Most places chalk it up under PR and advertising, strutting their stuff for upwards of 30,000 people on single Sunday afternoon. For new restaurants -- Oceano Bistro (opened 3 weeks), Chipotle (opened 1 week), Sage (yet to open) -- it's a chance to make a first impression. Established places are there to drum up new customers, remind old customers to come back, or just because the guy down the street is there. Some places step up to challenge of putting out a good product while still doing all of their regular restaurant stuff, others seem to be phoning it in.
Two booths stood out above the rest -- Mercer's Ice Cream and Sage Restaurant. Not surprisingly neither has an operation elsewhere to run and so could pull out all the stops. I have more to say about each in separate posts.
There are two basic strategies in figuring out what to serve at a food festival. The obvious play is to offer items from your menu. This works great if you already serve easy-to-walk-and-eat food. Chipotle set up a taco assembly line, Kaldi's had coffee and pastry, SanSai had their grilled meats and crisp salads.
Upmarket places with involved preparations or ever-changing menus take a different approach. They need to create something that reflects who they are, but that also passes the walk-and-eat test. Villa Farotto (a white tablecloth spot out in Chesterfield catering to affluent suburbanites) nailed it with a street fair classic -- Italian sausage on a bun with grilled peppers and onions. Probably not an item on their regular menu, but the quality of the ingredients and the skill of preparation were evident. The fennel in the sausage sang from beneath a generous pile of thickly sliced peppers and onions that had been sauteed and then moistened with a light tomato sauce.
In the what-were-they-thinking category was the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. They usually have the poshest presentation at these kinds of events -- perhaps a pepper encrusted roast tenderloin. Maybe it was the price of beef. Maybe they are trying to rebrand their image. But the grilled pork on pita with olive salad and Feta cheese was a real clunker. The pita seemed stale and the Feta was applied too haphazardly, downing out whatever flavor the pork was trying to contribute.