Curiocity: Locavores Unite For North Coast Nosh
When it comes to local meats, cheeses, beer and more, let's face it -- we, Minnesotans, are pretty spoiled. Not only do we have some incredible vendors and highly talented artisans right in the heart of the Twin Cities, but thanks to various events, we have optimal times to experience them all at once.
Off the heels of a highly successful initial event, Heavy Table has announced plans for a second North Coast Nosh on Friday, Sept. 30. Coined as a "locavore smorgasbord," North Coast Nosh prides itself as a hub, of sorts, for the best in local eats and drinks.
Heavy Table Editor, and event organizer, James Norton was kind enough to give us a sneak peek of the event.
Q: Tell us a little bit of what North Coast Nosh is all about.
A: The original inspiration for the event was an annual awards feature that we do on Heavy Table, called the Silver Whisk Awards. One of the aspects of that is recognizing local purveyors in Minnesota and Wisconsin who are making good food locally. So we were just sort of chatting with Peace Coffee about this and had the idea of 'Oh, wouldn't it be fun to get these people together and just do sort of a sip-and-sample with good local beer and cheeses and honey and baked goods and stuff like that, you know, being made in the area, looking for craft stuff and artisan stuff. We did the first one a few months ago and it went really well, so we thought we'd do it again.
Q: For this next event, food trucks and food carts are being added to the mix?
A: Yeah, we didn't do it last time but it occurred to us this time that it'd be a lot of fun. So we're getting four food trucks and two food carts. They're all people who are doing really exciting food and it should add a really fun component to the event. People can do their meat and cheese and beer sampling and then kind of wander outside and try some of these food trucks and food carts that everyone's been talking about.
Q: Street food has certainly been a big topic around the Twin Cities. Is that something you guys wanted to capitalize on?
A: Yeah, we're excited about it and we're excited that other people are excited about it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that Minneapolis and St. Paul have both changed their ordinances and been much more permissive of street food, which I think is fantastically smart. It's really enriching the local scene and it's giving people a lot of different ways to express themselves with food. I think it's really been a wonderful bonanza of new flavors around here.
Q: What would you say to get someone to come and check out North Coast Nosh?
A: I would say, you're just going to have a tremendous value of experience. I think for $16, you're going to eat your fill of fantastic local meat and cheeses and honey and food truck food and local brews. It's just the sort of thing where you'll be blown away by the quality of food people are making around here. And it's just going to be a ton of fun. The last one was great. People were really laid back and people were having really great conversations about the food and about the beer. It's sort of a different event. We're not trying to pack it with the most number of people that we can. Actually I should mention that, we'll only have about 36 tickets at the door. We may sell out again. We sold out of our 160 pre-sale tickets pretty quickly, so it's a popular event.
Q: Do you find that people are surprised at these events to discover the kinds of quality local food we have here?
A: I would say it's maybe 50-50. I think the people who attend are real, long-standing locavores who have been going to the farmers markets forever and really keeping tabs on this. But we get other people who are maybe more casual readers of our website, and I think for them it can be really eye-opening and just it's a terrific experience. And a terrific conversation.
North Coast Nosh starts at 5:30 p.m. and goes until 9 p.m. Friday, Sept. 30 at Peace Coffee's cafe, 3262 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis. Tickets are $16 and can be purchased at heavytable.com. A few tickets for $20 will be available at the door, as well. Attendees must be 21 or older.
Purveyors
The Beez Kneez Honey of Minneapolis
Bogart Loves Bakery of Minneapolis
Common Roots of Minneapolis
Faribault Dairy of Faribault
Green Ox Meat Co. of Minneapolis
Joia Soda of Minneapolis
Peace Coffee of Minneapolis
Sweets Bakeshop of St. Paul and Minneapolis
Potent Potables
Bittercube of Milwaukee
Crispin Cider of Minneapolis
Harriet Brewing of Minneapolis
St. Croix Vineyards of Stillwater
Summit Brewing of St. Paul
Street Food
Hola Arepa of Minneapolis
Natedogs of St. Paul
Saucy Burt's of Minneapolis
She Royal Deli of Minneapolis
Vellee Deli of Minneapolis
World Street Kitchen of Minneapolis
