It tasted good while it lasted!
A new policy offering ticket-holders unlimited bites at Sunday’s Taste Williamsburg Greenpoint food festival was so successful that some vendors had their plates wiped clean long before the event wrapped at 5 pm, according to a first-time food hawker.
“We ran out around 3:30 pm and I was like ‘Oh, no,’ ” said Nino Coniglio, the owner of Williamsburg Pizza and Brooklyn Pizza Crew. “I was scrambling to order dough from one of our restaurants.”
Coniglio and more than 40 other vendors came together at East River State Park to feed the masses at the ninth-annual festival, which this year offered all-you-can-eat samples to anyone who shelled out $55 for a ticket, or $85 for early VIP admission, to the four-hour feast.
And even though Coniglio ran out the 170 pizzas and 300 rice balls he prepared long before closing time, the local pieman deemed the day a success and said he plans to participate again next year.
Williamsburg barbecue joint Cash Only BBQ’s booth also fielded hordes of hungry eaters throughout the event, according to attendee Isaac Quinn, who said the vendor had enough finger-licking fare for him to try even as other stations had already closed by the time he arrived at 1:45 pm.
But although he couldn’t sample all of the cuisine, Quinn, who trekked to Taste from his home in the outer borough of Manhattan, still praised the event as a way to get out and see what’s cooking in Kings County kitchens.
“Williamsburg has changed so much over the past few years and the festival gives you an excuse to explore the city more,” he said.
The fast-disappearing free samples also helped organizers achieve their goal of cutting back on festival-related waste, according Taste director Dana Krieger, who said the event drew around 1,500 people and netted more than $100,000 in sales, all of which will go towards finishing work on the Firehouse North Brooklyn Community Center, set to open in a former Wythe Avenue firehouse.
