No pictures, no multiple reviews, no breakfast. Instead, this week Shelley, Sylvia, and Jeffrey, along with WBC super guest stars Andy and Claire, ventured to the 1st ever Hudson Hop and Harvest Festival in Peekskill. There was beer (and long lines), food tables (and long lines), live music (and long lines), insufficient lighting (and long lines), an overwhelming amount of cigarette and cigar smoke (and long lines). Oh, right, and the lines were long. Sylvia sums it up for us.
Being a first time festival, I give props to the festival goers for being so orderly and outwardly patient. If this were in the city, I’m sure there would be a few verbal altercations and a lot of very unhappy people milling about. But, we are Westchester-ites, plus the 1.5 hour beer line probably helped stave off the potential of drunk idiots ruining it for the rest of us.
That being said, by the time we arrived, just before 6pm (the event was 4pm – 11pm) it was crowded and the lines were long. Too long really. From the rumblings I heard as I was trying to pick my way through the crowd to join a line, was that no one expected this many people to show up. For me, a line for beer was mostly expected, but the mass unorganized line that took shape was not. We put Jeffrey on the line to wait as we got food and beer tickets. As Shelley and I braved the food lines, Jeff was still in line. As Shelley and I ate our food, and I braved the food lines again for his food, he was still in line. It literally took him 1.5 hours to get beer. 1.5 hours after we had arrived! And…they were running out of beer! What were they going to do for the next four hours?
At this point the sun was down and we were all really cold and out of food tickets. Which didn’t matter anyway since the food tents were running out of food. So, that really meant, I had to down 2 beers since Jeff was driving. Since it took so long to get the beer, he only got a little food, and we wanted to leave soon for more substantial food in a warm indoor restaurant in the form of Memphis Mae’s in Croton, so it was best for him not to drink. At $5 a beer and a 1.5 hour wait, the beers had to be drunk. So I took one for the team. Not a good idea, since I am a one beer kinda girl over an extended period of time normally. Two beers within 45 minutes after only eating a cup of pumpkin soup and half a mediocre grilled cheese sandwich an hour ago, not so good for me.
Nevertheless, I had the Captain Lawrence Pumpkin Ale, which was very good. Not very pumpkin-y but had a warm flavor profile and not very hoppy. Then I had the Blue Point Oktoberfest. At that point it didn’t taste that much different than the Pumpkin Ale, except slightly more bitter and less warm. To eat, I had the next to last grilled cheese sandwich (It had a red cheese, arugula and caramelized onion) from DeCicco and a cup of their pumpkin soup. It was okay, not worth $6 (or three meal tickets). It was called a grown up grilled cheese, but really, the amount of filling was more equal to a sandwich packed in a third graders lunch pack. Not much stuff at all. But, I did like the caramelized onions and the bread (I believe was from Balthezar Bakery) was very good. The pumpkin soup ($4) was perfect for the chilly night and the addition of a swirl of cream on top was excellent. With the last three tickets we had, Jeff was able to snag an apple crisp and half serving of ice cream from Blue Pig Ice Cream. The apple crisp with the cinnamon ice cream was very delicious and more importantly, warm. I might have to get some at the store one of these days.
The czar says: I would be interested in going again next year to see if they can do this better. Although hopefully they will organize it a bit better to accommodate the hoards of people who will show up when beer and food are on the menu. Let’s not throw the beer tent in the middle of the food tents. It makes food browsing that much more difficult when having to cut through the beer line. More tables and chairs would be nice, or at least throw a few benches around for people to sit. More lights away from the stage would be good too, so we can see better without having to stare into spotlights. $5 beers makes sense, however $10 chicken kabob on a pita does not. The food was too pricey for the small portions served out of a tent which will ultimately be eaten cold given the chilly night.
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