LA STREET FOOD FEST ‘SUMMER TASTING’ EVENT RETURNS
The first, original, biggest and best street food event returns July 16th to the Rose Bowl
LOS ANGELES, June 21, 2011— Foodies mark your calendars! LA‘s biggest and best Street Food event produced by Angelenos for Angelenos to support the local community returns to the Rose Bowl on Saturday July 16th 2011. Imitated by many but equaled by none, the LASFF 2nd Annual Summer Tasting Event will raise the bar yet again, introducing guests to dozens of legendary street food purveyors from all parts of Los Angeles and beyond. With just 4500 all-inclusive tickets available across 3 sessions (pre-sale only) in a venue triple the size of last year‘s, crowds and lines will be virtually non-existent, allowing attendees to enjoy the best of LA‘s street food scene in an expansive grassy park.
Attendees will enjoy sampling a curated selection of signature street inspired eats from numerous vendors including the city‘s best gourmet trucks, old school carts and stands, celeb chefs and LA‘s best restaurants serving from white tented booths in the Rose Bowl‘s beautiful Brookside Park. Attendees can take advantage of large picnic areas to stretch out and enjoy their treats and plenty of seating options. Vendors include LA favorites the Grilled Cheese Truck and Flying Pig, street eats from foodie favorites, Starry Kitchen and Guelaguetza, Food & Wine‘s Best New Chef, Ricardo Zarate‘s Mo-Chica & Picca. Also for the first time together in Los Angeles, Bill Esparza (Street Gourmet LA) has helped to curate a legendary group of Baja chefs including Javier Plascencia, and the chef widely acknowledged to have the best street cart in the world, Diego Hernandez of Corazon de Tierra. The ever popular Ice Cream Social also returns, featuring cult favorites CoolHaus, Master Chef’s Batch from Scratch, and a preview of the soon to open Mother Moo Creamery.
A portion of every ticket sold will yet again benefit a local cause, The Downtown Womens Center. ?With over 12,500 women homeless each night in Los Angeles County, community involvement is the only way we can really solve this issue.? said Lisa Watson, CEO of the Downtown Women‘s Center. ?The proceeds and awareness raised at this exciting event will help the many women suffering from homelessness and extreme poverty.”
To avoid past issues of crowds and long lines, attendance has been capped at 4500 (across three soccer fields) and all tickets will be pre-sold. Affordable all-inclusive $60 Summer Tasting tickets include sampling from numerous food vendors, cold brews at one of two Singha Beer Gardens, a Tequila Tasting tent, refreshing summer cocktails from Hendricks Gin , refreshments from IZZE, Honest Tea, Dry Soda, Coba, Cascal and Activate Water, free prints at the Oh! Snap photo booth, chef demos, DJ‘s, raffle prizes and great giveaways, plus free parking for all attendees. For the first time, Test Kitchen Luxe Lounge and discounted Family Pack tickets are available in limited amounts.
All-inclusive tickets are available online now through the LA Street Food Fest website and Eventbrite and are presale only. No tickets at the door. Tickets are $60, Luxe Lounge tickets $75. Even with a slew of imitators, LASFF 2011 is again shaping up to be the hottest ticket of the summer.
Event sponsors include Whole Foods, LA Weekly, GOOD, Pasadena Magazine, Blackboard Eats, Test Kitchen, Singha Beer, Hendricks, Tequila Rack, Amoeba Music, IZZE, Honest Tea, Dry Soda, Cascal, Coba, Activate Water, KIND and Pop Chips.
ABOUT THE LA STREET FOOD FEST
MISSION
The LA Street Food Fest was started not only to fill a gap in the local foodie and events scene with a delicious good time, but to create community and a platform to educate and support independent small business owners. For that reason, all of our events aim to do much more than just entertain. We host mandatory meetings for our vendors that cover everything from the basics of food handling to marketing skills, including how to create sustainable business models. Partial proceeds of all of our events support local causes, and a portion of every Summer Tasting ticket sold will go to support our charity partner: The Downtown Womens Center. Charity based tasting events often require vendors to donate their food and services, something we know can be challenging for new and less established vendors, and for that reason, the participation of every vendor at our Summer Tasting Event is being subsidized by us. For us, every event is an opportunity to do a little good and to help make this amazing city we call home a little better for it. Over the past 18 months, we have not only helped to launch numerous small businesses, but have donated more than $30k to local charitable causes. We hope that you will join us in enjoying fantastic food and a great time, while also supporting our local community and LA‘s economy.
ABOUT CO-FOUNDER SHAWNA DAWSON
A native Angeleno who spent her formative years in Mt Washington and Hancock Park, Shawna Dawson is a USC grad, marketing ninja and social media maven with more than a decade of experience doing business in more than a dozen countries. A passionate foodie and believer in the power of community, Dawson was formerly Yelp‘s LA Director of Marketing and Community Manager. Still on the pulse of LA‘s food scene, she‘s the principal of Sauce|LA, consulting clients on the virtues of grassroots, social and viral marketing and has helped to launch numerous top LA restaurants including Lazy Ox Canteen, Test Kitchen, Playa, Sotto and Picca. She‘s also the founder of Artisanal LA – LA‘s first grassroots showcase for the city‘s finest local, sustainable and handmade edibles with seasonal shows and regular neighborhood Pop-Ups.
ABOUT CO-FOUNDER SONJA RASULA
A native Angeleno, Sonja is proud to have grown up in the hills of Echo Park amongst coyotes and churros. A designer, journalist and community curator, Sonja Rasula is the Founder and Director of UNIQUE LA (the largest independent design+art show in the country). Before starting UNIQUE LA Sonja starred as an interior designer on HGTV‘s ?Home to Go‘ and TLC‘s ?Trading Spaces‘, and was a Pop Culture Expert on the Canadian music television stations MuchMusic and MuchMoreMusic. An online content and marketing whiz with 10 years experience, she‘s created and directed new media for numerous brands including Food Network, Reebok, Sony, and AT&T. Sonja is currently expanding the UNIQUE brand to both Atlanta and NYC.
For more information on the LA Street Food Fest, please visit:
www.lastreetfoodfest.com , www.twitter.com/LAfoodfest and www.facebook.com/LAStreetFoodFest
To download media buttons and images for web and print please visit: www.lastreetfoodfest.com/media/
To purchase tickets, go to https://summertasting.eventbrite.com/
Find LASFF Online
Website: www.lastreetfoodfest.com
Twitter: @LAfoodfest
Facebook: www.facebook.com/lastreetfoodfest
