A Love Affair With Food Trucks at the Street Food Festival

San Francisco’s love affair with street food was in evidence at the annual Street Food Festival, which attracted 50,000 food lovers to San Francisco’s Mission District. This year’s line-up was greatly expanded to include a showing of locals’ favorite food trucks. Gourmands of all ages happily noshed on their favorite dishes in bite-sized portions.

Live music ranged from DJs cranking their tunes to more traditional Latin American sounds. The music created a nice vibe to eat and drink through the festival’s 60 food vendors. People happily waited in line to sample their favorite snacks for San Francisco’s most innovative food purveyors.

The selection of food stalls was primarily from the street food community with a few favorite local restaurants thrown in. The festival had a great vibe, with happy people strolling in search of their favorite food truck fare. The back-of-house operations for most of the food stalls was remarkable, with chefs and sous chefs cooking, grilling and plating as fast as they could to keep up with the demand for their food.

This day-long event brought together micro-entrepreneurs, informal food vendors, and renowned chefs to celebrate great street food, entrepreneurial spirit, and the vibrant communities of San Francisco. Sampling delicious food was only part of the fun. It was an overwhelming task to choose from among the assortment of little bites, larger bites, and beverage options. Prices were set to encourage multiple tastings, with $8 as the highest price for any one food item.

This was the third annual SF Street Food Festival that takes place on one street for one day each year. Each year the event attracts more people. The Festival is presented and organized by La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen that provides affordable commercial kitchen space and industry-specific technical assistance to low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs who are launching, growing and formalizing food businesses. They currently have 30 companies in their program, and have helped numerous businesses get started and become successful.

This is perhaps one of the happiest festivals on earth, with satisfied people enjoying food and beverages and listening to music in one of San Francisco’s coolest neighborhoods.