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| - Was it 95 degrees? Yeah. Did we go anyway? Yup. I rarely waited in a line more than two people deep, which can maybe be attributed to people (rightfully) thinking that standing in the sun and eating lots of food would be pretty uncomfy.
I knew it'd be tough as a vegetarian here, and it was just as I expected. Spinach dips galore (2 tents), a roasted red pepper sammich (aaarrgh), and gazpacho (3 tents!) were the options, as well as various stuffs from good ol' Woodlands and Namaste. The standout for me was the Spinach dip from Village Tavern - cheddar, jalapenos, multicolor corn chips, it was good enough to maybe drag me to the brick and mortar. We'll see.
I kept feeling overwhelmed by corporate presence. Every time I turned around, I felt the eerie stare of Dunkin Donuts, or Jamba Juice, or freekin' Land o Lakes (just thinking about cream on this hottest of days was enough to make me sweat), just booth after booth of two story mobile "Flavor Factories" and other creepy, rhymie stations. Weird, and not what I expected.
Those neat fans with the misting component were pretty sweet, and the beer stations were frequent and comfy. But if your only experience with local eats in CLT was from this 5 block corpo-business party, you'd be underwhelmed, to say it nicely. Where was a Vietnamese outpost? A pal tried (all of) the BBQ available - not impressed. Little-to-no classic Southern (hey, Mert's was here, at least). And nary a local beer to be seen. Sigh.
Not worth my 20 bucks in coins + parking.
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