This year was the 5th annual Atlanta Street Food Festival, but expectant patrons may have noticed a pretty large difference between the festival this year as compared to the past few years. The event was moved from its popular central location in Piedmont Park to Stone Mountain Park. If you dread what impact festivals have on your car mileage or your pocket, here are my recommendations on how to make the most of your festival experience…
Plan to Spend the Entire Day
If you are just going for a few hours, a $15 parking fee, a $25 cover charge and the price of food from vendors on top of everything, seems like a lot to ask. Not to mention, Stone Mountain Park is out of the way for many folks inside the perimeter, and this past weekend sported Heat Indexes of over 104 degrees Fahrenheit. However, I discovered that the people able to make the best of this situation, planned to get their money’s worth by bringing their own lawn chairs and setting them up in the shade for the whole day. This way, you could avoid the heat, have guaranteed seating, and have the time to digest between rounds of eating.
Many people had the right idea in bringing their hammocks! There is lots of trees and natural shade in Stone Mountain Park.
Find the Unique Street Eats
From what I saw this weekend, there are trends in what food trucks sell. I felt that every other truck sold the same tried (but true) foods: burgers, lobster rolls, fried green tomatoes, and some variation of low country boil. But the most popular trucks were the ones that specialized on one food type, or sold food that nobody else was selling. Here were some of the highlights:
Chazito’s Cuban Food truck from Savannah, GA served up some delicious empanadas con pollo, tostones, and maduros.
Mac The Cheese Food Truck was never without a line. They served Fontina Mac and Cheese although they were serving mac every which way, including with lobster.
The Bollywood Zing! truck, based out of Smyrna, served flavorful samosa chaat (samosa with warm chick pea salad on top), however we did miss their biryani.
Roti Rolls, ranked the best food truck in Charleston, features eccelctic sandwiches inspired by many global cuisines, and they source their food “farm to truck.” This sandwich is their “Foghorn Leghorn”: organic chicken, coconut curried vegetables and house-made kimchi all on Indian Roti. Needless to say, it exploded with flavor.
The “Not As Famous Cookie Company” made an appearance with their cookie truck. As a dessert truck serving only cookies, it stood out amongst all the Italian Ice stands. And these cookies were delicious; they should be famous. My favorite was the peanut-butter chocolate pretzel.
Know That You’re Giving Back
The ticket price for entry may have seemed steep for some, but most attendees may not have known that part of the proceeds went to benefit an important Atlanta-based non-profit, The Giving Kitchen. The Giving Kitchen grants help to those in the Atlanta restaurant community dealing with crises (of any sort).
All in all, this festival was definitely worth going to. Although a bit far removed from it’s beloved Piedmont Park location, the new location certainly helped with the crowd problem. The way the trucks were spaced out in Stone Mountain Park made the event feel more like a relaxed family fun day at the park, than like the congested street festivals that can be irritatingly difficult to navigate. The organization and logistics of the festival could still use improvement, perhaps with a more detailed map and description of the food vendors, or use of an app-like guidebook. However, it already seems that the Atlanta Street Food Festival is getting better year after year.
~ By Virginia Spinks, intern at Go Eat Give. Virginia is a senior at Emory University majoring in religion and anthropology. As an Atlanta native, she has grown up around many different cultures and cuisines, and has always had a passion for food. She views food as an experience: a point of connection to bring people together and create lasting memories.
