Yesterday I called a friend of mine hoping he could help me bottle some beer that we brewed back in January. He said he was headed to the First Annual L.A. Street Food Fest downtown for some food and beer. One of the fun things about L.A. is the food trucks, ranging from roach coaches to gourmet fusion taco trucks. So someone had the bright idea to round up those trucks, have them prepare sample sized food, and sell it at a festival. I thought it over, and due to my goal of getting out and enjoying L.A. (and also for the sake of not being lame and staying in my house all day) I decided to go down and join them. I drove over, found my way to the general vicinity of the event, and fought my way through the insanity of cars and people. I parked my car and walked for a few blocks - and then I glimpsed the line, which wrapped around a couple of blocks. I had been thinking I would be a good person and stand at the end of the line, even though my friends were somewhere further up, but when I saw the line I changed my mind. It worked out because a couple of minutes before I showed up, two people from our group gave up and left anyway. In the end it didn't matter, because after waiting an hour and a half, we were turned away because the event was filled beyond capacity. All the vendors were running low on supplies, and lines to buy food were reaching ninety minutes long. They had planned for 3,000 people, and 10,000 showed up. Whoa.

Instead of letting this turn of events spoil our day, we just decided to come up with a new plan, still involving food and beer. We walked over to Figueroa/Flower area, where there a bunch of good places I went to during my summer of working at the firm. Unfortunately, none of them are open on the weekends. So, we decided to walk back to the car and take off in the direction of my neighborhood (we were growing hungrier by the minute). We ate at Tender Greens, went to Father's Office for beers, then headed to Sweet Lady Jane's (where i had never been) for dessert (it was to die for).

So, moral of the story - even if L.A. events can be rough due to the hoards of people who will invariably show up, there are still delicious things to be had.