Grub Street Food Festival | The Lo-Down : News from the Lower East Side

Happening Now: The Grub Street Festival at Hester Street

The Grub Street Food Festival is in full swing this afternoon along Essex Street between Hester and Grand.

Come hungry if you are headed to the Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair this afternoon: there’s plenty to eat! It’s a smorgasbord of tasty samples of grilled meat, cold sweets, hot spices and gourmet fixin’s. Food and drink vendors have spread out across the high school track next to HSF’s usual spot adjacent to Seward Park. The beer garden, a few food vendors and lots of non-food merchandise booths are happening in the regular space. Admission is free and the fair runs until 6 p.m.

Click through for some mouth-watering pictures.

Grub Street Food Festival Returns to Hester Street

Last year's festival overflowed; this year promises more vendors and more space, along with DJs and high-schoolers' design work.

A celebration of the city’s culinary delights descends on the Lower East Side on Sunday, as New York Magazine and the Hester Street Fair team up for the second annual Grub Street Food Festival.

More than 100 vendors will spread out from the fair’s normal digs to the adjoining tennis courts along Essex Street, providing much-needed elbow room for the popular event that drew 13,000 tasters and shoppers last year. The list of 75 food vendors includes neighborhood faves like An Choi, Georgia’s Eastside BBQ and Souvlaki GR, as well as popular spots across the river such as Commodore and Pies ‘n’ Thighs. Sweets from the Macaron Parlour and Big Gay Ice Cream and other dessert booths will abound.

And this just in from co-founder Suchin Pak: This year’s edition of the festival will also feature a beer garden.

LES Bites: Hester Street, Local Coffee, Starbucks Juice Plans

Orchard Street's original Roasting Plant.

A roundup of the neighborhood food news this week:

The Hester Street Fair is on hiatus this weekend due to the Sukkot holiday, but it returns Oct. 22 with the Grub Street Food Festival, which promises great vendors and more room than last year. (GrubStreet)

A detailed look at the city’s small-scale coffee shops, starring the LES’s Roasting Plant and Cafe Grumpy. (NYT)

Starbucks is moving into the pressed-juice business, and snatched up the long-time manager of East Village pioneer Liquiteria to make it happen. (NYPost)

Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 gives a talk about “the new horizons in foodie culture and comics culture and where they often (and appetizingly) interconnect.” (NY ComicCon).

Grub Street Food Festival Draws 13,000

The lines were long but the crowd was patient (yet rather intense) at the Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair this past Saturday. Grub Street curated a nice selection of vendors from around the city, including quite a few local favorites. You could tell these were some serious foodies. Fair organizers say 12,000 people walked through the gates (More photos after the jump.)

Weekend Guide

Looks like another action-packed fall weekend on the Lower East Side is in store for us:

The Pickle Guys owner Alan Kaufman, one of many participants in this Sunday's 10th Annual International Pickle Day. Photo by A. Jesse Jiryu Davis for The Lo-Down

There is plenty of noshing to be done this weekend at the giant Grub Street Food Festival at the Hester Street Fair on Saturday and then on to 10th Annual International Pickle Day on Sunday. Pickles and Pies and Tacos…oh my!