My 1st (and last) trip to Scottsdale Culinary Festival
April 12th, 2008, 7:04 pm · 18 Comments · posted by Jess Harter
I was looking forward to my first trip to the Scottsdale Culinary Festival since becoming the Tribune’s dining writer. But here’s what I learned today: A trip to the food court at the local mall is more enjoyable than going to the premier food festival in the state’s most food-centric city.
My disappointment wasn’t from driving around for a half-hour looking for a parking spot. It wasn’t from having to eventually park almost a mile away. It wasn’t from discovering the trolleys, promised to come by every 10 minutes, never came.
It wasn’t even from showing up at the media tent to check in, as instructed, only to learn there was no media liaison there and they were “out” of media credentials at the start of the festival’s two-day Great Arizona Picnic.
No, despite all that, I was more than content to just walk the grounds of Scottsdale Mall as a food-loving non-journalist, enjoying the weather and the culinary atmosphere. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even do that.
Imagine a packed Scottsdale nightclub, one where $30,000 millionaires and silicone-enhanced Barbies are so shoulder-to-shoulder that you can’t even make your way across the room. Throw in too little shade and far too little seating. That’s the Scottsdale Culinary Festival.
And for what? If, after paying your $10 admission fee, you could make your way to, say, the Southwest Festival of Beers area, you get the opportunity to stand in line for an hour (a portion of Saturday’s line is pictured above), only to pay another $5 for entrance.
Not that that was an impedient to most people, who appeared to have little interest in the food.
The most common expression I overheard among festival attendees was “Chug it!” followed by “Let’s chug these!” Coming in third was the classic “Chug! Chug! Chug!” Not surprisingly, the longest lines were at the beer garden, the margarita village and the vodka bistro.
They seriously love their alcohol at the Great Arizona Picnic. Instead of putting up DUI checkpoints at this weekend’s NASCAR race, law-enforcement officials should have set up at Main Street and Scottsdale Road.
Then again, the festival’s food isn’t much of a draw. If you are willing to stand in line to purchase food tickets and then stand in lines at the vendor booths, you can sample food from national chains such as Chipotle, Buffalo Wild Wings and Claim Jumper. Sure, it’s over-priced, but at least it’s been in chafing dishes for several hours.
It’s an unworthy event for a city that boasts the majority of the state’s best restaurants. I’m no food snob, but give me something more than a giant kegger.
Looking at Get Out’s ranking of the top 100 restaurants in the East Valley, none were among the 50 participating in the Great Arizona Picnic. I’m not surprised. From now on, count me out, too.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Once upon a time, SCF was a great place to sample foods from the most interesting restuarants in the Phoenix Metro Area. In the last decade, however, it has steadily gone downhill. Chain restaurants have taken over most of the booths, and it has become more of a place to meet potential dates than to appreciate good food. These days, West of Western probably comes closest to replicating what SCF once was.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:44 am
Agave on the Rocks at the DBG was WAY better than Scottsdale Culinary Festival. The review is dead on. The bands were horrible, the food was horrible- and what little good food there was- by 7 pm- almost everyone was out out of food and beer- and wine. I’m sad that Scottsdale Center for the Arts would even be a part of something like this.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:28 am
An excellent (and sobering) assessment, Mr. Harter.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Completely agree. Wife and I attended yesterday (Saturday), found Scottsdale’s “culinary” event to be wildly overhyped and overpriced. There were swankier, gourmet events under the same “festival” umbrella but we were all duped into believing “the Picnic” would be fun. When you can’t get a drink and you’re elated to see the Chipotle sign, it’s not a culinary festival, it’s a glorified frat party. Good writeup, Jess.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
The culinary fest has been like this for years. I never knew it in its heyday. At least now there are so many other options - west of western, forks & corks, vinarte, even the bon apetit artwalk. ev trib might slight these because they don’t take place in your coverage area, but restaurants that are in your zones do go to them. They know these more intimate events are where they’ll really connect with new diners.
April 14th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I agree. I have never seen so many bad fake tans and fake breasts, guys in pink shirts with too much gel in their hair yelling obscene things in the middle of families. And absolutely NO PARKING anywhere. I hadn’t been in years and will never ever go back, there were no good restaurants anywhere outside of the dessert places, I mean Samurai Sam’s c’mon I thought this was a culinary festival not an alcohol festival. Where was the McDonald’s stand?
April 14th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Uh, shouldn’t you have been pre-warned by the questionable advertising for this event? “Eat, Drink and Be Pretty”? Ugh. How very…. SCOTTSDALE.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Mr. Harter. The Scottsdale Culinary Festival offers fine diners the opportunity to sample food from The area’s greatest Chefs. On Tuesday, we had a James beard Dinner attended by six James Beard Winning Chefs. On Wednesday, I was Committe Chair of the Food and Wine Magazine Best New Chef’s Reunion Dinner that offered spectacular dishes from five winners of that Magazine’s impressive award, On Saturday we offered a Dine around at 8 of the Valleys’ Best Restaurants paired with a winery at each restaurant for the dinners. On Sunday the Culinary Festival had the Best of the Fest that was eleven on the Valley’s Best Chefs who’s signature dishes were paired with great wines.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
The Great Arizona Picnic is just that, a picnic. We are a charity and all that we offer other than the picnic is by donation. At the picnic, we mandate that the contributing restaurants cannot charge more than $4 dollars for any item. We receive a major portion of the proceeds. It is not possible to serve the 30 or so thousand guests we entertain at the picnic haut cuisine. I suggest next year you attend our signature events or The Cooks and Corks event at the picnic where many of the restaurants you sought could be found.
Sincerely;
Jack Bulkin, Esquire
President-Elect, The Scottsdale League for the Arts proud sponsor of the 30th Anniversary Scottsdale Culinary Festival.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Get rid of the booze and you’ll have a good culinary festival again.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:32 am
Mr. Bulkin makes a good point in differentiating between the larger Scottsdale Culinary Festival (SCF) and its most popular component, the Great Arizona Picnic (GAP). For all I know, the other components of SCF are still worthwhile, but the reality is that GAP is the visible face of SCF for most of the community, and GAP has clearly changed over the years.
In the ’90s, it was often a cost-effective opportunity to sample foods from interesting, independent restaurateurs. It wasn’t haute cuisine per se, but it did offer a good sample of local chefs’ talents. Sometime in the last decade, however, it has become dominated by chains and a frat-party atmosphere. Given the high attendance levels that persist despite complaints on blogs like this one, it’s obvious that GAP draws a large audience, but it’s no longer the destination for foodies on a budget.
It may be that GAP is in part a victim of its own success, but if it wants to regain culinary credibility, some guidelines focusing on local restaurants and de-emphasizing chains are needed. Otherwise, GAP may be financially successful as a fundraiser, but it’s no longer much of a culinary event and hurts the image of SCF as a whole.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I found this event that is coming to Scottsdale in December. http://www.festivalofthewise.com
It is a Music and Arts Festival but it has a more mature audience and the focus is not getting hammered. Not a replacement for the Culinary event but it will be good to have something fun to do in December.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Mr. Harter,
Being a journalist, I would think you would have done your research before writing an article. Parking wasn’t really that hard to find. As for the Trolley never coming, that has nothing to do the Culinary Festival. Complain to the city of Scottsdale, not the non-profit organization that puts on the Culinary Festival. Which brings me to my next point, the SCF is the Scottsdale League for the Art’s annual FUNDRAISER. The Great Arizona Picnic may be a big party but it raises a huge amount of money that they give out to the arts and arts education across the Valley. Sorry, that you didn’t have fun at the GAP, but about 25,000 other people did. If you wanted a more true culinary experience you should have attended one of the 6 signature dinners or Cooks and Corks on Saturday or Sunday. As for the media tent and there being no media liasion and being out of media credentials, my apologies again, but this was YOUR fault. First, there was no media tent at all. There was a Volunteer tent, but you must have just assumed it was a media tent. Second, to receive a media pass, all media was to apply for them on the SCF’s website and the deadline was Monday, April 7th. If you would have done your research beforehand, you would have known this and would have had no problem receiving a media pass. Sorry, that you felt $10 was too expensive, but again, it all goes to charity!!!
April 16th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Mr. L — Actually, I did do my research beforehand, and my media pass was mailed to me the week before the festival. But it came with instructions to check in at the media table at the Volunteer tent to receive a media wrist band as well. Apparently both a media pass and a media wrist band were necessary. If there were no wristbands available for media at start of festival, why would they have sent me a pass? If there wasn’t a media check-in person at Volunteer tent, why did they instruct media members to go there to check-in?
As for your contention that parking “wasn’t really that hard to find,” I think that’s news to the thousands of other attendees I saw driving around looking for somewhere to park. And if the festival has nothing to do with trolley, maybe the festival shouldn’t have displayed the trolley route, along with noting a trolley would come by every 10 minutes, on the festival’s official website.
April 16th, 2008 at 12:41 pm
The Buffalo Wild Wings tent mistakenly (?) gave me five wings for my two tickets, when they were only supposed to give four. I call that a success.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
My wife and I were visiting from Utah and happened to have heard about and decided to attend The Scottsdale Culinary Festival. What a dissapointment that was. We spent more than we planned on and really didn’t get much out of it. We wished we had spent our afternoon visiting one of the many beautiful areas in Scottsdale instead.
April 20th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Since Mr. Bulkin isn’t concerned about prostituting the Scottsdale League for the Arts reputation in the intrest of fundraising. Perhaps he might consider including wet T-shirt contests and tractor pulls. That should really bring in the money. Personally, I will never go again! It was a big waste of time! I would suggest saving the money and going somewhere else.
April 21st, 2008 at 5:49 pm
Jess Harter called like it is and pulled no punches. Two thumbs up on his observations.
Anyone who has been around Scottsdale long enough knows what a great event this truly was back in the day. Fundraiser or not, I liken to poo flinging monkeys at the zoo. Someone needs to correct what has gone wrong with this worthy event.