Culinary bliss at Riverfront Park
Pig Out in the Park continues today and Monday in Riverfront Park.
Voracious eaters from throughout the Northwest united for a massive culinary adventure at the park on Saturday.
By noon, crowds were bottlenecking as patrons tried to choose between 48 concessions, offering everything from Thai to Italian.
Scintillating aromas filled the air as steam from stir-fried noodles joined with plumes of smoke from a nearby grill that was searing a dozen or so bratwurst. For some the choices were staggering.
“I get down here and I always want to go to my old favorites. The challenge is to try something new,” Larry Sullivan said.
The North Side resident and his 11-year-old son, Colton Sullivan, kicked off their annual pilgrimage to the festival on Thursday night to hear Thomas Mapfumo and The Blacks Unlimited, a band that plays renditions of native Zimbabwe music.
“The music is what we come for, but we never leave without eating,” Sullivan said Saturday, as the two pondered whether lunch should be East Indian, Western barbecue or something else.
Vendors greeted a steady flow of customers whose orders kicked off a chorus of ticking from cash registers.
Longhorn Barbecue, a local business for more than 50 years, is a relative newcomer to the fair, making only its second appearance.
“The restaurant has been here for a long time, but we’ve always been so busy with catering that we were never able to make it happen before,” said Bill Miller, co-owner of the company’s three eateries.
Many restaurants come to Pig Out for the exposure. Original New York Coney Islands is a hot dog stand, not a restaurant, but part-owner Donnie Tennison has been coming since 1987 just the same.
“I know tons of people,” Tennison said. “We (the vendors) all trade food and just have a blast here.”
Parents and children bounced between booths in an effort to please diametrically opposed palates.
Connie Phillips of Kettle Falls, who was at the park with an entourage that included a sister-in-law, two teenagers and several younger children, said pleasing the masses was simple: The adults and teenagers opted for teriyaki kabobs and rice while the children ate pizza. Chelsea Phillips, 9, dislikes anything spicy, so the youngster opted for a kids’ meal from Zip’s Drive-In.
“There’s a lot of variety,” Connie Philips said. “We were bound to find something that everybody likes.”
Una Ballard of Spokane visited the fair with her sister and a friend, an annual outing for the trio who leave husbands and kids at home.
“We buy one thing and we share it and we go to another stand and we just share that, and eat all day,” Ballard said.
Their girl outing including buying toe rings from the row of vendors selling everything from tie-dye to toys.
Ballard’s sister, Un Kim, visited a fortune teller who read palms from inside a tent.
“She said I’m going to travel a lot,” Kim said.
Marjorie Tully, who recently moved to Cheney from Los Angeles, was a first-time visitor to Pig Out. She enjoyed the culinary diversity at Pig Out.
“This is a little bit of everything,” she said. “It’s the world coming together.”