2011 San Francisco Street Food Festival

Ask anyone who has been to San Francisco’s Mission District, and they will tell you how much it reminds them of Chicago. Plenty of ethnic food, great grocery stores to source inexpensive ingredients and a food culture that it so diverse you will never run out of places to explore.

Both San Francisco and Chicago were recently voted the most walkable cities in America. Both are a city of neighborhoods and I am eager to discover the neighborhoods of SF when I am there next month.

I’ve already googled my hotel to the world famous Farmers Market in the Ferry building to the Third Annual San Francisco Street Food Festival. It’s a lot of walking but I’m sure that I will see the real San Francisco that I missed out on the last time I was there.

One thing that amazed me is that the Mission District contains more Zagat rated eateries (58) than any other neighborhood in San Francisco so it’s no wonder that La Cocina would select this location to host their annual San Francisco Street Food Festival which includes 25 of the Bay’s best owner-operated restaurants, formerly informal entrepreneurs formalized for the day, the best food trucks from the growing mobile movement locally and, as special guests - mobile vendors hand-picked from cities across the country.

It’s no secret that my passion has always been street food and La Cocina has helped more than its share of street chefs. La Cocina provides reasonable, shared, commercial kitchen space, a variety of industry-specific technical assistance, and access to marketplace opportunities, and works with entrepreneurs as they start, develop, and formalize successful food businesses.

The Third Annual Festival is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 2 from 11 a.m.-7 p.m.

The festival also features the Second Annual National Street Food Conference, with panel discussions on street-food culture and for me - writing about them.

Stay tuned for coverage next month.

Bon Appetit and celebrating a labor of love and food that is La Cocina.