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| - So......I saw that this food truck event was going on, plus they were looking for some Yelp folks to be judges. I'm pretty antisocial and usually wouldn't venture out to something like this (food is too expensive, I'm not a big fan of crowds in confined spaces, its just not really my style), but the free food, the possibility to meet some new Yelp friends, and the semi closeness to Surprise lured me in. I was told that we should arrive at 11, check in, then we would meet at noon and start to sample some food and judge things. I got there early, found parking off of Myrtle street, and headed on over to the event. Once I got there, chaos ensued lol. Coming up next will be how I thought it was going to go, and then, what actually happened.
A. How I thought it was going to go.
B. How it really went down.
The Check In
A. I thought I would get there at 11am, head to a booth labeled "Yelp", check in, get my tickets, and sample some food.
B. I walked up to a tent and saw a massive line of people standing in line. I walked up to a lady and asked her, "Is this where you check in for the Yelp event?". Blank stare....she had no idea of what the fuck I was talking about. I didn't feel like waiting in line if I wasn't sure, so I wandered around for a bit and saw another tent with a smaller line. I jumped in that line and was hoping for the best. During that time, I ran into one of my Yelp buddies, Tim, and said hello and introduced myself. He was hanging with some other Yelp folks so we kind of banded together, all the while, not sure where to go and where to check in. Finally, someone got word that we had to go check in at a specific place. We made it there, had to sign a waiver (sure hope I don't choke to death on a chicken wing!) and then were instructed to go and hang out by the amphitheater. A group of about 25 or so Yelp folks were all hanging out waiting for further instructions. Finally at about 12:15 or so, one of the organizers comes over and tells us how it will work. We will get 10 tickets to "sample" foods and one drink ticket. He said that we should have priority (Yelpers) over the rest of the line and that we should tell the vendors we are Yelp people. (Isn't that EXACTLY what South Park was making fun of? Being "Elite" and letting everyone know it to get special treatment? lol!). That's just not my style. Anyways... He wanted us to order our "samples", then bring them back to the amphitheater and eat them there, vote, and then a camera crew was going to interview us? We finally got our tickets and were set free!
The Food
A. Armed with my 10 tickets, I thought I would head to an area designated for this Yelp challenge. There, they would have most of the food vendors, with their sample portions of their food to try, I would vote on them, and then be done.
B. Pandemonium! I walked around and was instantly bored/pissed/frustrated. The intent of the food trucks was good (They intended...again repeat, intended to have 3 lines. One for VIP, one for just "samples" and one for purchasing of food). The line system just didn't work out though. There were no strings or barricades or anything resembling any sort of line A, B, C. It was just one long ass line at each vendor! I noticed that a lot of the trucks didn't even have "samples" or they had "already ran out". How do you run out of samples an hour into a food truck event? 99% of the people there either had purchased advance tickets, or Groupons or something that included tickets for "samples". Amidst all the chaos, I finally found 2 samples that I tried. The first one was a blood orange sorbet from LuLus. It was good, but skimp. It was like a dixie cup full or sorbet. I wandered around some more and was about to have a panic attack because of the clusterfuck of people the huge lines to get a dixie cup full of whatever. My next, and last sample was from a cinnamon roll truck. I gave the guy my ticket and he told me to help myself to a sample on the tray. Their "samples" were literally like 1/30th of a cinnamon roll. It was the skimpest and most weak sample I have ever seen in my life. It wasn't even hot and didn't even taste that good. Thank God it was free with my ticket. If I had to pay $2.00 (That's what each sample ticket cost if you purchased them), for that pinky size piece of cinnamon roll, I would have lost my shit. Anyways........ after wandering around for a bit more and seeing the insane lines everywhere, I called it a day. I ran into some of the people I was hanging out with earlier, gave them my remaining tickets and was out!
I went across the street to La Piazza Al Forno and got a pizza. At least the day ended well with that!
This was a horrible event and I hate to bitch about free stuff, but I have to! The only positive thing I can say, is that I got to meet some new Yelp friends that were cool! That's about it. I would never come back to this event ever again. It was whack!
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