To see the slideshow of scenes from the event, click here.
For a few brief hours last night, the ailing GardenWalk mall became the place to see and be seen, and the best place to eat in Anaheim. The lines got long (though not as long as those execrable luxe-lonchera “festivals”), but the crowd was mellow as they rocked out to tribute bands for the Eagles and Journey.
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Gentle members of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce:
please, please, reach out next year to Little Arabia (and while you're
at it, why not recognize it as an official neighborhood?) and to
Anaheim's other enclaves. We are–and I say this as a proud
Anaheimer–the best city for eating in Orange County, but the event
needs to reflect all the tastes of Anaheim.
Slater's 50/50 had a good burger (their proprietary bacon-beef
mix) with guacamole and a fried egg; St. John's Greek Orthodox Church
was there with trays upon trays of sweet, sticky kataifi, and
Fullerton's Cantina Lounge served a “Mexican mac 'n cheese” that would
either earn Gustavo's ire or his admiration.
Rich Mead's Anaheim
Hills restaurant, Canyon, was serving seared ahi (slightly
overdone–the perils of festival cooking) on an excellent salad with
shredded papaya and a sweet-sour dressing.
The best bite of the
event came from The Ranch, a restaurant opening in East Anaheim (no,
not Anaheim Hills) this fall: perfectly medium-rare lamb “lollipops”
with chimichurri and cowboy beans.
While the Yelp OC staff were
pouring vodka shots (they experimented on us with blood orange vodka
and diet Rockstar, then wisely switched to cranberry vodka), Noble Ale
Works was handing out samples of their 6.5% Dark Sybian IPA–talk about
a line–and TusCa had wine for those who prefer noble rot to Noble Ale.
Taste of Anaheim ought to be a role model for other “Taste Of” events, in that one set price included all the bites of food. Compare this to the Taste of Newport which, while more popular, requires a gate fee and then requires money to be loaded onto an eScrip card. Given the size of the food samples being given out, $40 was a bargain–and discounted tickets were available through many avenues. All it needs is better line management and a lot more diversity.
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