It’s
no secret that on the first Friday of every month, Philadelphia’s
artistic underbelly comes out of hiding to patronize the city’s
latest/greatest galleries, stores and restaurants.
Among the veteran draws, however, are a handful of surrounding-area shindigs attempting to gain footing in the mayhem.

Hosted at Haverford Estates by First Friday Main Line (FFML), a local non-profit that promote and supports artists in Ardmore, Haverford and Bryn Mawr, this past Friday’s inaugural Foodapalooza was one of these infant events. The evening featured seven different restaurants from the Philadelphia
area, all of which provided a starving buffet line with grub that was (by the time I got to it) systemically picked clean, save for a
pretty-darn-good plate of rigatoni, tomatoes and vegetables. Aside from the buffet, the event (a fundraiser for FFML) also featured wine tastings
courtesy of the Chaddsford Winery and the Wine Merchant of Venice, as
well as an glistening chocolate fondue fountain courtesy of
Whole Foods. (I was slightly tempted to stick my hand into
it since the table full of fruit and cake underneath was quickly reduced to a smattering crumbs and empty trays.) Although the wine and sweets were definitely flowing, it was clear that the restaurants just
couldn’t keep up with the enormous crowd, which eagerly circled tables like a flock of beady-eyed birds.

The insatiable attendees weren’t the only anxious-looking people there, either, since the primary component of Foodapalooza was a competition pitting the participating eateries — Auspicious, Café San Pietro, Fuji Mountain, McCloskey’s, Mediterranean Grill, JR Monaghan’s and Primavera Pizza Kitchen — against each other in an appetizer cookoff. Each restaurant’s plate was rated based on four components: flavor,
presentation, originality and texture. The judging panel consisted of local chef/author Aliza Green, restaurant consultant Linda Lipsky, food writer Irene Rothchild and Democratic state senator Daylin Leach. According to these four, the
top participants included the pork tenderloin appetizer with a horseradish cream sauce presented by McCloskey’s, which
received second place, and the shrimp and scallops dish whipped up by Primavera chef Tim Mellor, who took home the gold. What
put his dish on top? Rothschild and Green both agreed that the sauce was perfect, noting its subtle
seafood flavor and creamy texture.

But what about the event as a whole — was it successful as a
first try? “It’s a beginning,” said Green. “The food was good, but
I don’t think that they were expecting as big a crowd as they got, and
that’s where they suffered.” Green was quick to note that every fledgling event has its “birth pains,” and predicted that 2010’s installment would be bigger and better.

FFML chair Sherry Tillman said
that the main aim of the evening was to bring people closer to the art in
their community by creating a fundraiser that could collect the money to
keep artists thriving. If that was the objective, then Foodapalooza was
an undoubted success.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 9th, 2009 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Contests, Food and Art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.