Why I'm NOT going to Iron Fork.

I like the concept, I really do.  I'm sure the event sponsors make big bucks from this.  I'm sure the organizers get a huge mark on their resume and there is a lot of media coverage.  What I don't like, is a lot of other things.

At the last Iron Fork I was at, there was a huge mass of people, more people than you could find at a JT and Rhianna concert.  The people, that were there, came in two groups.  I would say that about 90% of the people there were those who were not really interested in trying new foods, flavors and even following up and visiting any of the restaurants or place sin question.  The final 10% are foodies and are all up in doing everything with food.  Those 10% can be seen and picked out as they were dressed in a less business casual but more formal attire.  I saw many foodies talking about the way different flavor combinations worked, what they saw on a recent episode of Good Eats and whether or not they would visit the restaurant based on the few samples they had.

The other huge 90% know that they will get an all you can eat and all you can drink for $45.  I've seen people passed out, outside of the event.  I've seen drunk people yelling and screaming and running through the rest of Union Station.  I have even seen people pushing their way past less dominate people so that they can get more food samples and more drinks in any line.

Is there a way that this could be fixed?  Yes, it uses a velvet rope or chain links barrier or something that would make people form lines.  I've notices that humans have the innate ability to not form a single file line and instead mob in.  If you take 50 people and tell them to get in a line to sample a glass of wine from one representative, the 50 people will not form a single file line, but instead gather around line people do at a bar: line up parallel to it.  Then the people behind that line group up and mob up, so there is no order or line.  That is a tough one to deal with.

This also means that there is no set number of times that someone can sample from the same location.  My wife and I went to this Iron Fork event with VIP tickets right at the start and by 7:30, some vendors were running out of food.  I tried some gooey butter cakes but didn't get a chance to eat some artisan chocolates, because I spotted a large woman get chocolate, eat it, bump her way to the front of the line, get another chocolate, while still holding a half-full wine glass in hand, and then find a friend near the middle of the line and talked her way up to getting a third sample.  The people handing out the food, don't have a set amount that they can give someone and were not told to stop giving sample out to repeat favorites.

The chef and cooking competitions were cool and I love watching healthy and friendly competitions to see what is cooked and what is happening.  I love how the special guest was just a news anchor.  The idea and the event was a goo idea.  I just wish that there was also a dress code.  Seeing girls in tshirts and flip flops at the ballroom at Union Station, while drinking alcohol and complaining that there isn't an indoor smoking section and it is too cold outside, doesn't make the even more favorably memorable for me.

Who knows, though, perhaps this time all of these issues have been fixed and it will not be utter chaos.  Try it out for yourself.  This Thursday night.

The loss of good food places in Union Station....

I thought of writing this while looking at Chris's blog and photos of Union Station:
http://stlouispatina.blogspot.com/2011/08/union-station.html

When I was young, during the 1980's, I remember that Union Station was the place to be.  A few years after they had closed St. Louis Centre, people started to flock to Union Station for the hotel and for the large number of shops and restaurants.  When it was renovated around 1985, it had over 40 shops and restaurants: including the famous O.T. Hodges Chili Parlor.  It was a yearly ritual for our family as my younger brother or myself would almost always pick to celebrate our birthday at Hodges, in Union Station.

I remember that we would always go to Union Station when it was cold outside and we would go straight to the chili parlor and eat. When we were finished with dinner, we would walk around and visit the shops and then stand and watch the show at the Fudgery, before heading out to the parking lot and then to home.  The Fudgery, was closed last time I was there, around April of this year.  It was a great spot where a group of workers would sing, dance and even shout out some rhymes all about chocolate, while mixing, tempering and making fudge.  If you were one of the hundreds of people that would stand by their open air and open access tempering station, you would get a free sample of the delicious and melt-in-your-mouth fudge.

The Chili Parlor was in the corner, on the second floor, by the food court.  I remember that they had a small diner set-up including a silver and red bar with bar stools and booths.  I remember it being really cool because they were one of the first restaurants, I remembered, which still sold soda in the glass bottles.  Now, O.T. Hodge started to sell his chili at a booth at the 1904 World's Fair.  By 1930 there were 17 locations between the river and Jefferson Avenue.  It then split into two companies: one that is the restaurants and one that makes the chili for those restaurants.  Today, although both arms of the company are still around, I don't believe there to be a single restaurant in the whole of the Saint Louis area. (http://www.othodge.com/history.html) 

The Fudgery company was invented in 1980 and was nicknamed "fudge theatre".  When A.C. Marshall made fudge using the traditional copper pots and marble slabs, he would whistle, sing and even dance while he worked, all in a shop with no walls.  This allowed people to view the whole process, from start to finish and even ask questions of the workers.  The Fudgery still is located downtown in the Union Station, as their website suggests, and it may have only been closed for repairs when I went in April.

There was also a small McDonalds, a Hooters, a Greek place, a few Chinese fast-food locations, a deli and a bunch of other fast food and food court worthy retailers.  I remember a bunch of stores like a Discovery store which had nature items.  It was like an Eddie Bauer and a Brookstone had a baby store together.  I remember a store which sold puppets and stuffed animals, including some fake mounted animals, like pandas, which had a front and rear end of this stuffed panda.  I also remember seeing one of those old school KB Toys, back when seeing a 16 foot long stuffed snake was always for sale, giant and usable crayons were for sale and the ideas that filled a young child's imagination about using and playing with those toys would fill the largest ravine when written down.