With a hot September behind us and a sure-to-be warm October ahead, it’s not only the temperatures that are heating up but the festival season as well. And many of Houston’s outdoor festivities center around food. Some festivals combine music and food, some art and food, some charity and food.
With Southern Smoke Festival preparing to hit Discovery Green October 5, we are gearing up our appetites. We got a head start on stretching our stomachs by attending Chefs for Farmers 2024 this past Saturday. The annual two-day event took place September 28 and September 29 at Autry Park and brought in crowds from around the city and a few folks from further afield as well.
What started in Dallas in 2010 as a farm to table dinner eventually became a foodie festival of restaurants, distilleries and wineries showcasing local producers and purveyors. It made its Houston debut in 2022 and has quickly become a yearly local favorite feast.
My companion, Classic Rock Bob, and I have learned to get to the event early and the VIP tickets are worth the extra cash for those thinking about attending next year’s event. As an even bigger incentive, we have some delicious details to share about this year’s tasty treats. Though we were only able to make it for one day this year, it was enough to put us on a diet for the rest of the week. Kudos to those who are able to enjoy both days.
Anyone remotely familiar with Houston’s restaurant scene will recognize the faces of Houston’s top chefs, pit masters and their talented teams. As usual, the line for Leonard Botello IV’s Truth BBQ was a long one but it moved pretty quickly and Botello himself was carving the beast, a charred slab of brisket that was making the mouths water of eager festival-goers. His offering was the same as last year, a perfect slice of brisket atop a slice of white bread served with pickled onions and homemade dill pickle chips.
One of our early favorites was a wagyu slider from Auden, which is a restaurant located within Autry Park. The meat was meltingly tender, slightly sweet and made even better by a tiny bit of yogurt sauce and pico de gallo. Next to its stand was Annabelle Brasserie which was offering oh-so-French madeleines along with very frou-frou deviled eggs.
We met up with a couple of friends and one of them served as our food gopher, bringing us back rabbit boudin in a toasted split-top roll from Rainbow Lodge and slow-roasted pork sandwiches from Cafe Piquet Cuban. The whole roasted pig was being made into pork empanadas but they weren’t quite ready yet, so we enjoyed the succulent meat in sandwich form. Classic Rock Bob is a big fan of rabbit so he really enjoyed the boudin but I was missing some heat. I like my boudin spicy enough to make me say “Aieeee!” like Justin Wilson. Look him up, kids.
Last year, the Smoky Palomas had been our favorite festival quaff. This year, we were torn between the Maker’s Mark whiskey sour and Deleon Tequila’s Deloma 75. When we bumped into even more chums, we discovered they were enjoying the Maker’s Mark Apple Butter cocktail in the VIP Lounge. Because it was a balmy 93 degrees, we all availed ourselves of the plentiful bottles of water and cans of Le Croix. We all love Le Croix sparkling water but the mojito flavor was a definite miss.
I complained to my peeps that I wasn’t getting enough spice but that was remedied by a walk up to the hill of even more tents. Unfortunately, that meant leaving the shade of the green-turfed area. While the end of September should be pleasant in most climes, it seems that each year it gets hotter and hotter in Houston. Pretty soon, our food fests will be held in January.
Victoria Elizondo at Cochinita and Co. had a vegan mushroom taco with salsa macha that more than delivered the heat but I was missing a beverage to cool it down. As I sweated it out, another attendee suggested I try the wings at Little Rey. I had to wait a minute as they were coming right out of the fryer. They were messy, they were spicy and they were juicy. The jalapeno ranch on top helped to cool the heat a bit and I liked the crushed peanuts on top. And I gnawed them to the bone for every endorphin-releasing bite.
Despite my love of spicy foods, I began to wonder how wise it was to eat a straight-out-of-the-fryer hot-sauced wing under a tent full of other sweaty folks in the hot September sun. Apparently, I’m a slow learner because I followed it up with the spicy chili wonton from Bashi, a recently opened Sichuan concept at Understory Food Hall. It was oh-so-good and oh-so-painful. I loved it. I should have gone back for more, but I now know what new place I am going to next.
By now, my crew had changed favorites more than a few times and we hadn’t eaten even half of the available bites. The Saturday event was based around street food while the Sunday event brought out even more heavy hitters in the culinary world of Houston. One street food that CRB and his pal could not get enough of was the smoked elote. Unfortunately, none of us remembered which restaurant it was from. Blame it on the heat, not the cocktails.
Another bite we loved was the pork belly from Blood Bros. BBQ. These guys always hit it out of the park with pork. They had slabs of pork belly hanging over the fire despite the summer-like weather. If the attendees were feeling the heat, the chefs and pit masters had it even tougher.
But we Houstonians are a resilient people. A little heat and humidity won’t keep us from having food and fun with friends. And we’ll even do a little dirty dancing to prove how tough we really are.
This article appears in Jan 1 – Dec 31, 2024.
