Devour Phoenix - Thoughts?

[ToneRanger]

Curious to hear everyone’s thoughts on the Devour Phoenix festival. I went a few times pre-pandemic and I remember it being miles better than any other food festival.

The restaurant list seems a little weaker this year (though Cafe Lalibela and Lom Wong will be there) but I’m still thinking about going.

[Skillet Doux]

Of the upscale festivals, Devour is the only one worth doing, IMO. There was a time when Azcentral's was pretty good too, but the latter completely faceplanted post-pandemic.

Devour pre-pandemic was an awful lot of fun. Expensive, but worth it, I think. Particularly if you're a boozehound.

Last year... ehhhhh, maybe not up to what it was pre-pandemic. Fewer participants, less variety. Much more booze, much less food. Starts making the price performance a little rough. But it was also their first year back after two years off, and the restaurant industry was at the peak of a massive staffing crisis, so I think it's reasonable to conclude that it might take them a year to get back into the swing of things. I'll be curious to see how it is this year.

[exit2lef]

I haven't been since the days when the event occured at the art museum, so my knowledge may not be the most current. I enjoyed going the first one or two times, but after that, a certain sameness set in. It seemed like everyone was trying to outdo everyone else with pork belly and other rich, meaty dishes. I left wanting more variety. I know some of these restaurants can do great things with vegetables, fish, and all sorts of ingredients, but most of them seemed unwilling to stand out at this event.

[honartvandelay]

Completely agree with Dom. I’ve been almost every year it has been held and last year was one of the weakest. It has gotten quite expensive but when it’s on, it’s amazing. But even when it’s not, it has always been a very enjoyable afternoon. And the location at the Botanical Gardens is perfect.

[ToneRanger]

Thanks everyone! Hm, think I may give it a shot and report back. As Honart noted, any day out at the Botanical Gardens is a pretty pleasant one.

[chowhokam]

I think for me, the experience peaked during the time when the event was at the Phx Art Museum. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed the couple that I've been to at the DBG, but food-wise, the earlier iterations just seemed to have a higher density of good-to-great offerings. I still look back fondly on being blown away not only by the usual suspects, but also by teams from various resort restaurants, which definitely would not have been on my radar otherwise. The more recent events have yielded some pleasant surprises of their own, but usually in the form of a lesser known outfit seeming to punch above their weight. I guess this is the kind of thing that keeps me coming back.

PS. Does anyone else remember the silent disco thing at one of the DBG events, or was that just a weird dream I had?

[Skillet Doux]

I still look back fondly on being blown away not only by the usual suspects, but also by teams from various resort restaurants, which definitely would not have been on my radar otherwise.

This is always an interesting phenomenon to me. One thing is that resorts have a lot of resources (money, people) to throw at festivals that indies generally don't. And you see some toeing the hotel restaurant line — a chunk of meat with sauce (however pretty and tasty), while I think some others see the festivals as their opportunity to have a little fun and do stuff that would be harder to make a regular menu item at a hotel restaurant.

[honartvandelay]

You thinking about the spread from The District at the Sheraton downtown? I can't even recall now what they had but I remember it being a lot of fun.

[BillBuitenhuys]

We haven't been for years (like 7?) but we got tix for this year.

[JimBoyle]

Bumping this thread back to the top to see if there's any interest in a follow up.

Attended VIP entry on Sunday only this year, and boy, Dom's criticism above was still dead on. Lots of booze, fewer restaurants, particularly independents, and while most of the food was quite good, it really felt like there should have been more of it. It probably wasn't helped by the DBG going through some major remodeling which changed the flow of the event, and maybe they didn't invite as many participants because of that, but they also could have easily replaced some of the 'food vendors' (popcorn stands, etc) with actual restaurants.

Looking over the award winners, Saturday's restaurants edged Sunday's in the awards, so maybe there was disparity between the days. But I did largely agree with their medal-winners. Just like last year, the Gastronomic Union of Tucson really did a great job with some excellent Mexican dishes, and a whole series of them (Birria pasta, calabazo tacos, and a great jamaica & limoncello cheesesteak). Chilte wowed everyone with grilling some huge and tasty pork chops with mole. The Camelback Inn's octopus was one of the best dishes by far, and their giant paella was visually impressive (and good, but not great - but I admit I'm a paella snob).

Other dishes that I liked, and in some cases went back a few times for (again, there just wasn't enough restaurants) were Clever Koi's short rib curry (did not get seconds of this because it was practically a whole meal), Uchi's Big eye tuna crudo, Sandfish's sushi rolls, Frite's Streets fried smelt, and PV Pie & Wine's spicy meatballs.

There were a few clunkers as well, but that may be my own taste buds at work, as a few of them were on the Silver medal list.

Lots of cocktails were being slung, most were good, but it's also annoying when a restaurant opts out of a food dish (or brings nowhere near enough) and just serves a cocktail. And I'm definitely a booze-hound, but it was just a bit too much.

Big highlights though were chatting a while with Pavle Milic, who was working his wine booth, and catching up with some of the brewer's I've come to know over the years. Most of the restaurant staff were pretty busy to talk to much, but the wine and beer folks are usually up for a good conversation.

All in all, I had fun (we went with about six friends and made a day of it), but it's still struggling to be what it was at the Phoenix Art Museum. Interested to hear other's thoughts.