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Remember how I’m behind on recapping events?? Yeah, well I just realized that I have yet to even mention our trip to the Fabulous Food Show in November! I won tickets to attend the event thanks to Alicia from Poise in Parma! Chad + I have attended the food show every year for the last 7 years.
Over the last 7 years it seems like it’s become increasingly… boring; commercialized; and uninteresting.
But this year was different. So, so, delightfully different!
Chad decided to forego this years’ event, so my aunt and I (Ari’s “Grandma Dee”), decided to head down early on opening day, Friday. Right off the bat, it just seemed different. I can’t exactly pinpoint it, but the atmosphere seemed a lot less like “BUY! BUY! BUY!” our products, and a lot more locally focused — which it should be! We have SO many awesome local products, restaurants, & chefs, so it just MAKES SENSE to feature them.
One of the first we hit up was ice cream. Because dessert first, obvy.

As I mentioned, I was pleasantly surprised by the local focus from the vendors! Especially since at the last Cleveland Flea I didn’t have a chance to try The Bearded Buch Raw Kombucha because the lines were way too long. But at the Food Show he had a booth and he was offering samples!




Other props for the event go to the Food Trucks! Each of the 8ish food trucks offered “sample size” portions of their normal menu items, which could be purchased with the same tickets used for beer & wine. Grandma Dee & I decided we would order a few things and share them between the three of us. The good thing (and bad thing) is that the sample portions were HUGE! We had a hard time finishing our shared portions!

(From left: Barrio Tacos,
Sterles Country House — featuring Cleveland Kraut,
and Sushi on the Roll)
What I’d like to see next year:
1. A larger focus on the local craft beer makers. Great Lakes Brewery appeared to be the one of the only local breweries to have a booth. There are so many great, new, local breweries. Focus on them!
2. Expand on the idea of the food trucks with a larger focus on local restaurants. I would have loved to have tried tasting portions of some of my favorite CLE restaurants (and would love to see them get some mainstream exposure to a crowd that generally wouldn’t venture to these places).
Overall, my best Fabulous Food Show experience to date! Can’t wait to see what exciting things the 2015 show has to bring! Only 10 months to go! Ha!
I could still be at the FFS eating the Barrio tacos. They were so good! We tried several of the food trucks and they were all delicious.