82.1 F
San Fernando
Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

NoHo Hosts Vegan Nights Food Festival

Hundreds of vegetable-philes flocked to North Hollywood’s Federal Bar on Sept. 1 and 2 for Vegan Street Fair Nights, a smaller but equally delicious counterpart to NoHo’s annual Vegan Street Fair festival. “Vegan Street Fair has 30,000 people in the street. Vegan Street Fair Nights is a little more laid-back,” explained founder Jessica Schoech. Among the 14 vendors were taco cart Cena Vegan, brownie baker Charlie’s Brownies and Word of Mouth food truck, whose goodies included deep-fried vegan macaroni and cheese bites and a jackfruit barbeque sandwich. Roughly 1,200 festival-goers turned out on Friday, and another 1,300 on Saturday, Schoech said. Unlike the regular Vegan Street Fair, attendees must purchase tickets to Nights. Price ranges from $24 for general admission to $164 for an “eat-it-all passport,” which includes $10 in food from each of the vendors and a VIP wristband that lets the wearer skip the line. Smaller crowds and fewer vendors mean visitors have more time to savor meatless munchies, Schoech said. “With 14 vendors, you can actually eat at every single one of them without feeling like you missed out on anything,” she said. The lineup is guaranteed to feature the best vegan eats around thanks to the curation efforts of Tim Cook, better known to his 100,000 followers on Instagram as “VeganFatKid.” A longtime friend of Schoech, Cook keeps an eye out year-round for new plant-based treats to feature at Nights. “This event is great because you don’t spend all your time waiting in line,” Cook said. “You can explore the options without feeling rushed.” Cook and Schoech recently cooked up a plan to expand Nights beyond North Hollywood, adding events in New York, Las Vegas and Seattle for 2018. While the scale of the regular Vegan Street Fair makes it difficult to pull off outside of large population centers such as Los Angeles and New York, Nights’ smaller format gives it the potential to travel nationwide. Long-term, Schoech hopes to see the event in three new cities every year. “If we’re able, we want to spread the magic of this to as many cities as possible,” she said. – Helen Floersh

Featured Articles

Related Articles