The Phantom Gourment Food Festival Experience

Oh my goodness, what didn't I eat yesterday? I started the day off at the Phantom Gourmet Festival. As I had VIP tickets I went the 30 minutes early to hopefully get a bit more time to walk about and try the fresh food. Low and behold, my VIP ticket got me in with everyone else at the same time. The place was jam-packed and they must of had so many people that perhaps the streets were getting backed up, it really wasn't that much of a big deal though. There were A LOT of people there as the event sold-out, which was amusing to hear one of the hosts saying "Thanks for selling us out", which to me sounded like "you are all sell-outs" so it was sorta funny.

There was quite a selection of things to try. As I noted in the prior post about the event there were about 50 Phantom favorites which are posted in the "purple book" or Phantom Gourmet dining guide. Most of the food leaned toward the fast-food realm. Spike's had great hotdogs, Ivy had some awesome stuffed risotto balls, Summer Shack had their shrimp boil which is so ridiculously good. Fireflys was offering excellent pulled pork, the wings from Kowloon, while a favorite of the Phantom, they were not mine, I may chock it up to old fryer oil though as they were turning out a lot of these things in a short amount of time. I could of done without the healthy chicken option from KnowFat, but it is good to know there is a healthy fast food location around the block from me. The chili from Chili Station (couldn't find a site), was not tasty, but I had probably the best calamari ever from Finz Seafood & Grill, I would certainly go here for dinner. Cabot Creamery was there, I don't think I have to tell you what they offered. The Sausage Guy right near Fenway park was another favorite, while I had to wonder why Panera Bread, Fudruckers, Dunkin Doughnuts and even Cabot were there. Don't we all know what these places serve already?

For desserts Wholly Canoli had these ice cream things that were dipped in chocolate and what was probably crushed cannoli shell, very tasty. Beantown Cupcakes were awesome and even the strange ice cream stuffed cupcakes from Trani were pretty good. I think my favorite dessert item was the whoppie pies from Wicked Whoopie Pies. There were some awesome doughnuts from Kanes Doughnuts (the only one I couldn't find an actual website for).

There was some great entertainment at the bars along the street as well. At the Avalon there was a Sinatra impersonator, well he sang Sinatra songs, this guy certainly looked like Sinatra as much as I do. They had dueling pianos playing at Jake Ivory's and there was an Elvis party at Axis. The theme at most of the places changed at 1pm though as the Patriot game came on, I for one don't watch sports so this was not all that exciting.

The event is certainly fun, the food was good. I will admit it was pretty much food which I don't usually eat, but at times it is good to have this stuff. I certainly ate a lot of it and had a good time. I slipped a few Guinness in there as well at a couple bars along the walk of the event. My suggestion for anyone going next year is to buy your tickets early at $40.00 and don't bother with the VIP tickets as the VIP party, was just as packed as all of the other locations and it was a football fest as well. Also if you can get there early, do so as many of the locations started to run out of food by 2pm and the event is supposed to go until 4pm.