Mark Your Calendars for March 18, 2017 from 11am-7pm in Hemming Park, because GastroFest is back and better than ever!
GastroFest celebrates Northeast Florida food culture! In both 2015 and 2016, more than 30,000 people came out each year to Hemming Park. This year’s GastroFest will feature some great tastes from area restaurants ($1-3), a homebrew competition, locally brewed beer, chef demos, informative talks, and more.
“Gastrofest puts our brand and product right at the center of the most happening, well-attended, food-related festival event in Jax.” – Charlotte Tzabari, Co-Owner Olive My Pickle
GastroFest is a cash based food and alcohol festival. Please make sure to bring CASH! Each tasting vendor is required to have sample sizes available for $1- $3 throughout the festival. We’ve encouraged taste vendors to have options for carnivores and vegans alike! GastroFest 2017 is an all-day celebration of the culinary world in and around Northeast Florida. Pet-friendly, family-fun for all ages! Sign-up, volunteering options here: http://signup.com/go/
“Gastrofest is one of the coolest events that we at Blue Bamboo participate in all year. Being at Gastrofest allows us to connect with our customers in a much more casual, non-restaurant setting. It helps keep us top of mind for their next restaurant experience.” – Chef Dennis Chan, Blue Bamboo
GastroFest Tasting Vendors
Here’s a short list of tasting vendors this year and growing:
Kitchen on San Marco
Sliders Seafood Grille
The Perfect Pear Catering Co.
Bellwether
bb’s restaurant and bar
Nomi’s Cheese Bar
The Soul Food Bistro
South Kitchen & Spirits
Funkadelic Food Truck
Blue Bamboo
Restaurant Orsay
Native Sun Natural Foods Market
Black Sheep Restaurant
BLK SHP at Intuition.
Ovinte
Bistro Aix
IL DESCO
Ibex Ethiopian Kitchen
A Taste of Jacksonville
“We have been a vendor for the past two years, and at both events we sold more product than we ever anticipated…even had to make runs to our warehouse to pick up more honey. We look forward to participating at the 2017 event. The turnout of serious buyers was impressive.” – Stew Irwin, Partner, Bee Friends Farm LLC
“GastroFest means serving customers looking to be wowed by our product. Attendees care that we pick our own citrus and use strawberries grown by farmers we know. As creators, it is rewarding to share the stories and ingredients in each ice pop.” Suzanah Raffield, Bold City Pops
What is GastroJax?
GastroFest is presented by GastroJax Inc., a non-profit organization created to foster and preserve local cuisine by educating the public about local food and beverage sources, local restaurants, and North Florida dishes. www.gastrojax.org
Vegan Guide to GastroFest
Here at GastroFest, we embrace different kinds of eating. Most of the selections at a tasting fest like ours tend to be omnivorous in nature. We’ve gathered all the vegan selections together so that you’ll know who to hit, where they’ll be, and when, if you are looking for plant-based options during the fest on March 18, 2017 at Hemming Park.
Since plant-based selections have less of a carbon footprint, to reward those fest-goers committed to Greening GastroFest, there’s a hashtag campaign with a chance to win rewards for greening the fest. Anyone posting a picture of a plant-based selection on social media (Twitter, Instagram, Facebook) with the hashtag #greeninggastrofest gets a chance to win one of our Greening GastroFest prizes!
Vegan Tastes at the Fest
11 a.m.-3 p.m.
Native Sun, Tent A in Hemming Park
Blue Bamboo, Tent A in Hemming Park
Black Sheep, Tent B in Hemming Park
Ibex Laura, Street Tasting Zone
The Pear, Laura Street Tasting Zone
3 p.m.-7 p.m.
South Kitchen, Tent A
Orsay, Tent B in Hemming Park
The Pear, Laura Street Tasting Zone
Ibex, Laura Street Tasting Zone
Green & Plant-Based Events
Noon-1 p.m.
Chef Kurt D’Aurizio of Provision will be demonstrating vegan dishes featuring local produce from Down to Earth Farm and Urban Folk Farms and his FauxMage Cashew Cheeses and farm-driven sauces and marinades. Fresh, local, seasonal, and delicious! Sawyer Gas Cooking Stage at corner of Laura & Monroe within Hemming Park. Free.
Noon -3 p.m.
Recycled Arts Repurposing everyday materials into personalized works of art with a focus on environmental sustainability, with crafts and activities for all ages. Inside the Jacksonville Main Library Makerspace on Laura Street. Free.
1 p.m. Clean Green Kitchen Join The Organic Adventurer for a workshop where you can learn to make your own sustainable, nontoxic cleaning and personal care products from common pantry staples for a truly clean home and better health, plus savings! Inside the Jacksonville Main Library Makerspace on Laura Street. Free.
2-3 p.m. Healthy Eats Join Heather Borders with Kailo Nutrition as she demonstrates how to prepare creative plant-based dishes that are deceptively filling, quick to prepare, easily modified to match taste preferences, and prove how delicious healthy can be. Sawyer Gas Cooking Stage at corner of Laura & Monroe within Hemming Park. Free.
2 p.m. Fleet Farming Riverside With legal consent from the homeowner, Fleet Farming constructs, maintains, owns and operates a portfolio of highly productive small farms (farmlettes) within a neighborhood’s network of front, side and backyards. Fleet Farming “sharecrops” with homeowners, offering a small percentage of each harvest to the host family. Inside the Jacksonville Main Library Makerspace on Laura Street. Free.
Vegan Wine Tasting
6 p.m. Vegan Wine Tasting Vegan nibbles from Orsay and Black Sheep to go along with your vegan wine! Not every wine is free of animal products, but they will be at this tasting! Republic National Distributing Company will supply a flight of four wines, with an explanation as to what makes a wine vegan. $23.40 cost includes Eventbrite fee, taxes and gratuity. Cost at door is $21.14 including taxes and gratuity, but this event sells out, so we recommend buying on Eventbrite.
Greening sponsors include the Jacksonville Transportation Authority; Native Sun, our Green Plates Sponsor, who helped to fund eco-friendly plates for our events; Orsay and Black Sheep at the Vegan Wine Tasting; Apple Rabbit Compost, which will be handling the composting for the fest, in partnership with Celestial Farms; UNF’s Environmental Department, which will be providing the colorful recycling cans for the fest; and The Organic Adventurer, our sustainability sponsor.
GastroJax thanks Friends of Hemming Park and all of the GastroFest sponsors, who include EU Jacksonville, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, Cheney Bros., Sawyer Gas, All About Events, Jacksonville Magazine, D’land Productions, Chamblin’s Uptown, and I Know Jax.
Follow FOLIO!