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Night Market Recap

Posted by Foobooz on October 8th, 2010

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The Night Market brought out the crowds last night. We started to feel an energy as we approached 10th and Tasker. At 8pm the crowd at 1601 was pouring onto the sidewalk. We could hear live music from a block away. As we approached the intersection of Passyunk and Tasker we were blown away by the throngs of people.

We descended into the crowd discovering long lines at the food vendors. The line for Tacos Al Pastor from Los Taquitos de Puebla took 30+ minutes to conquer. Coup de Taco and Honest Tom’s were sold out by 8:30. We spotted reinforcements being delivered to Gigi & Big R’s truck.

It was a first-time event and showed some rookie mistakes. The Food Trust, who put on the night market didn’t expect the crowds that showed up. The perfect fall night really encouraged people to come out. The one week delay due to rain claimed four vendors and another, Sugar Philly was lost due to truck problems. Despite that an estimated 3,000 tacos were served.

It wasn’t a perfect event but we can’t wait to see the sophomore effort.

If you haven’t signed up for the Night Market e-mail list, do so now as a survey will be going out next week and you’ll be the first to know about the next Night Market. That night is planned for the spring but the “you should do it sooner” exclamations were frequent. But where?

Night Market [Official Site]


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    This entry was posted on Friday, October 8th, 2010 at 1:15 pm and is filed under Food. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

    • AB

      Food Trust should do this every month. On Passyunk, extend the street closing south to Cantina @ Morris.

    • http://www.phillyphoodie.com ThadS

      I just couldn’t fathom standing in line so long for a smaller sample of things I have previously eaten. Well, that along with the pretentiousness of the crowd. Wouldn’t the obvious place to do it be Headhouse square?

    • Willie

      Yes, honestly, if anyone from Food Trust is listening (and they should be), don’t wait until spring – everyone will have forgotten by then. I think early November just after Halloween would be good. It’s still warm enough to hang for what would be the last outdoor event of the year.

      I think around the Independence Visitors Center on Arch St would be a great place to do it, plenty of room and you wouldn’t have to close off any streets.

      Less tacos please. More food you don’t see every day. More vendors. Expect big crowds and make sure no one runs out of food.

    • ENOC – Don Tanblock

      two words to describe last nights crowd – hipster doofus

    • me

      thads: you’ve used the word pretentious to describe the crowd at the night market twice now. i’m wondering: what about the crowd was pretentious?

    • Pointer Obvious

      @Me:

      Maybe having SEPTA reroute one of the most heavily traveled busline in the city (twice because you can’t just cancel the cancellation for the original date) so a bunch of people can eat tacos and foodstuffs served out of trucks could be conceived as a “hipster doofus” move, among other things.

      A “Night Market” is fine, but on the scale they had it, I don’t think it was really worth it to obstruct an area that sees a pretty high volume of traffic. Also wondering if a number of standing restaurants there appreciated the overlay distraction/competition. This sort of self-absorbed thinking on part of the hipster phood doofuses planning the Night Market should be put under review ahead of any attention to shouts of “do it earlier” from other hipster doofusses.

    • RJ

      Wow, what a bunch of cranky assmongers (Pointer & Thad, not the so-called hipster doofuses).

      Did you have to walk two blocks out of your way to catch the 23?

      Walking home from the event I passed a number of packed restaurants & bars, seems like maybe this generated a little EXTRA business for them as opposed to scaring people away.

    • nicole

      The neighborhood did have an energy to it that would have a bummer had I not seen every single restaurant new and old open and busy. I even saw that the old timey Italian clubhouse on Passyunk across from Capogiro had their door open checking things out. As a resident of the neighborhood, I thought that it was all in all a good thing.

      With that said– yes there were rookie mistakes. When we got there the lines were too long and the food too gone. Secondly, it could have felt more like a market— I would have loved to have seen a farm stand (thats what I was thinking) and some other vendors to make it less street fest and more marketplace. Also, I hate to criticize this but I have to– who chose that music? Way to isolate so many people! It was atonal and unpleasant. We can have awesome events like this while keeping elements that would be of interest to everyone in the area. That music was a terrible choice.

      I hope that The Food Trust does this again very soon! Please don’t wait until Spring. I hope that you’ll take my comments into consideration

    • RJ

      Thanks for some positive comments from another resident of the neighborhood, Nicole.

      I do agree, the music was awful.

    • me

      pointer:
      maybe having a city with a vibrant nightlife is important to the citizens of philadelphia. and maybe the restaurant owners greatly benefited from the influx of market-goers on a night that would otherwise not be as busy.

      also, you didn’t address my question at all. how was the crowd pretentious? were they wearing ascots and drinking out of tea cups with their pinkies extended?

      i saw lots of different people but i didn’t see pretension.

      i don’t know what a hipster phood doofus is.

    • j

      $5 for a dry teriyaki chicken drumstick was way too much…maybe two would have been better

    • barryg

      The event definitely increased business for the neighborhood restaurants and bars.

      The only mistakes were “good” sorts of problems because the event was so popular. There needed to be more food and queuing could have been a bit more efficient.

      And, vendors, more real food and less sweets! Why was there so much dessert?

      @Pointer, the 23 is actually the most heavily used bus route. But I don’t know why the minor detour is a big deal.

    • Willie

      @Barryg: Thanks for making sense. Pointer’s problem is obviously not with the event itself but with the type of people he perceived to have attended the event. Weird since it wasn’t a very “hipster” crowd. Was he even there or is this just his imagination?

    • LadyAdmin

      I agree with the other commenter that it would have been nice for the event to have more of a “market” feel with more tents and stalls and fewer trucks.

      Also, I’ve noticed this pattern of low self-esteem amongst a lot of food events in Philly. It’s like organizers all believe no one will show up and they low-ball on everything. But I’ve yet to see ANY food/bev event in Philly NOT sell-out, no matter what the price on it. Philadelphians LOVE food and booze events! I would ask that organizers please set their sights and expectations a touch higher, I think the support is definitely there.

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