Latest Article|September 3, 2020|Free
::Making Grown Men Cry Since 1992
4 min read
With the weather finally safe enough to go outside without freezing, being blown over or getting rained on, we have finally hit the season where Nob Hill is swarmed with street events. One of the big ones kicking off the season is the Taste of Nob Hill, the small food festival celebrating the latest and greatest in our favorite Albuquerque neighborhood (but don’t tell the other neighborhoods, they’ll get jealous.) Let’s dig into the meat of this, with some of the big names, what to expect, where to be and whether or not you need to be there. Taste of Nob Hill has been around for three years now, a product of continued efforts by Nob Hill Main Street. For those who don’t know about the Main Street program, it’s part of a national program to help revitalize communities around the US through the use of community action to help guide the direction of the neighborhood. For the last decade, the continued growth of the Nob Hill community can be attributed to the guidance and assistance of this organization, especially their focus on creating amazing events to highlight the neighborhood and drive more foot traffic to it. Touted as featuring 15 to 20 different food vendors, your options to truly “taste” Nob Hill are going to be many and varied. Currently, the listed vendors are Chocolate Dude, Flying Star, O’Niell’s Pub, Ragin’ Shrimp, Slice Parlor, The Last Call, Zinc Wine Bar & Bistro, The Farmacy, Safari Grill, Tractor Brewing and more, so you will be spoiled with choice on how you want to get your food experience. Worried about overeating and putting on weight while you’re getting that good-looking summer body ready? Fear not! This event has the whole of Silver Avenue between Tulane and Amherst blocked off to create the perfect thoroughfare of dining delights, so expect to get your steps in and burn a decent amount of those calories. Speaking of calories, drinking will be a big part of this event (not too big, there’s no napping in the middle of the street) featuring two of the largest breweries in Nob Hill, Tractor Brewing Company and Bosque Brewing. Both are known for some of the best local beer you can find, so have no fear about pairing your favorite drink with a newfound favorite food. Hops Brewery, which is still relatively new (two years young) to the craft brewing scene, is listed as pouring for the event. They recently won an award for their Hop Hill IPA, so if you’ve never checked them out before, Taste of Nob Hill is a great opportunity to do so. How does this all work? With the purchase of your ticket (more on that in a second), you’ll be allocated a number of sample tickets that can be used to purchase pretty much anything available to try at the event, with food being 1 to 2 tickets, beer being 5 and non-alcoholic beverages being 1 to 3 tickets each. Additional tickets can be grabbed at $1 per ticket. Thankfully, your ticket purchase already comes with sample tickets, so you’ll be set to jump in and go right from the start. Your entry fee is currently $15 (jumping to $20 day of) if you’re 13 or older, and it comes with 15 sample tickets right off the bat. Children 12 and under get in for free but they still will need sample tickets to try anything, unless they are super good at being cute and manipulating booth vendors (no guarantees on this working or being an effective eating strategy; results will vary from child to child.) You could also spring the extra cash to get a ticket for the HB Lounge, sponsored by HB Construction. For $75, you get 40 sample tickets, access to the lounge, sofa seating, table service (don’t tip them in sample tickets) and close proximity to the music stage.What music stage you ask? Oh, of course, the music stage we conveniently saved until the end to talk about! Featured musicians from Rock 101 NM Music Academy will be performing, as well as local favorite filthy mangy jazz band Le Chat Lunatique. If you’ve never gotten the chance to hear Le Chat Lunatique live, that’s reason enough to make the trip, as they are extraordinarily talented and fun to listen to. So, when is this awesome shindig going down? Much like the location off of Central, it’s right around the corner, May 4. It’ll be going on from noon to 3pm, so you can take advantage of the amazing weather, fantastic food, local drinks and local music. For more information, check out their event on Facebook.