Local foodies gathered to Alton Baker Park for a taste of some of city’s finest foods at Bite of Eugene.
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, Eugene Magazine put on their fifth annual Bite of Eugene in Alton Baker park, with the help from American family insurance and local restaurants and food joints around town.
“I love seeing all the other local businesses here, you don’t have Red Robins or BJ’s,” Hannah Morton, front of house manager of The Boulevard Grill said.
Over 20 different food vendors serving food that ranged from soft serve frozen yogurt to shrimp kabobs. There were many local hot spots such as Off the Waffle and Umpqua ice cream, with a few new vendors like Kore Kombucha mixed in as well.
“The whole set up is really neat to showcase businesses around town,” Eugene resident Nate Tilley said.
Local breweries also had booths set up in a beer garden. Visiting from Coos Bay, Dan Vincent said if the beer garden wasn’t there he doesn’t know if he would have stay for as long as he did. “The beer garden was nice to have,” Vincent said. “But it’s nice to be able to try a few bites of what Eugene has for only a few dollars.”
After trying the event out on a Friday night last year, Eugene Magazine decided to move the event back to a full day event said event coordinator Lindsey Ferguson. The main event of the day was the Bite of Eugene’s Iron Chef competition. The competition included four chefs that went head to head against each other for the title of Eugene’s Iron Chef and to compete in the Oregon Iron Chef competition that is held in Portland. In each of the rounds the two competing chef’s were given a secret ingredient that they would have to include in their dishes. The chefs would be given 30 minutes to prepare their dishes for the three judges.
It took the judges twice the time to the chef’s had to decide who the 2013 Eugene Iron chef would be. In a close competition, Brad Burnheimer from Agrarian Ales edged out the competition in the final round of cooking with dishes based off the secret ingredient hazelnut.
Burnheimer said he was pleased to see people come out and be interested in the food and the community surrounding food.
“The fact that people can have an event like this and people come out to support food and local food vendors,” Burnheimer said. “And the fact that people care enough to do it.”