2009 Inaugural Los Angeles Korean BBQ Festival & Cookoff: What’d You Think?

10bux
Worth $10?

Cheapskate foodies, garlic paste addicts, festival fans and carnivores alike: Saturday has come and gone. Did you make it out to the Summit this weekend for the inaugural Korean BBQ Festival & Cookoff? Did you suffer 90-minute lines for such booths as “Flip’s Beach BBQ” (one of the only vendors with a clear, discernable sign posted) or, as did my party, did you stumble upon one of the unmarked vendors in the corner catering primarily to staff, and purchase a (mostly passable) plate for $10 or $15? Did you wait patiently for Sprinkles to set up shop, just for the chance to wait in a line that appeared at surface to be less than than a 75-minute commitment? Did you get sunburned? Stuffed? Bored? Cooled by a paper-and-wood fan that inexplicably reminded of you “Yelp”? Did you partake of the Coors Light and Blue Moon suds? What were the highs and lows? The ins and outs? The Bar-B’s, and the Q’s? The Kims? The Chis? Please grade the festival. Lay it on us, won’t you now, please. My festival grade after the jump.

Ryan Hereby Gives The Inaugural 2009 Korean BBQ Festival:
A B-Minus-Minus

Its heart is in the right place, and from a strictly geographic standpoint, its location is in the right place. But those long lines have got to go, dad. Though more often than not pre-packaged with the word “festival”, clusterfuckery nonetheless maketh infrequently for a pleasant experience. Iron out the kinks, clearly mark your vendors and widen the square footage next year. Kudos to the event organizers for a decent first run…and for not charging festivalgoers a cover for the opportunity to while away the better part of their Saturday afternoons waiting in various lines, in the harsh light of the sun, on the rooftop of a parking garage in Koreatown.

sprinklz
ABOVE: Sprinkles’ mobile cupcake-mobile (?) sets up shop late afternoon, offering KBBQ fest chronic line-waiters an enticing sub-60-minute commitment