The bad, the calories - Ripert & Bourdain at the Hippodrome part 2

The draw for the Foodie Experience at the Hippodrome Theatre were the stars of the show, No Reservation’s Anthony Bourdain and Le Bernardin’s Eric Ripert which I wrote about in Part 1 of the Bourdain & Ripert – the good, the bad and the calories – (Read HERE). When purchasing the tickets you had choices for just the show for approximately $29 or $49, $89 for the show and a post party with gourmet offerings from local restaurants and city food emporiums. If you were flushed and had $250 you get the foodie experience and get to meet the stars of the show (which I think about 60 people paid for that privilege – the number is from one of my sources.)

The bad - When 900 people converge all at once

Part one of my story talked about the good – the show, but where do I begin about the post party which was set in the Hippodrome’s M & T Bank Pavilion, its lobby and the north lobbies.

From what I can gather, it was approximately 1800 people who attended the show, my guess more than that with capacity being 2280 at the Hippodrome Theatre. Assuming a huge number of those people signed up for the full foodie experience because there was no way you were getting near much of the food. The capacity of the M & T Bank space is 800 and they literally closed it off for a period of time because they couldn’t squeeze in one more person.

We were able to get some of the food from the north lobbies and what little we had was delicious, numerous pork offerings but surely wasn’t sufficient for the $40 up charge which didn’t include any beverage whatsoever - I couldn’t even find  a FREE bottle of water. If there was a free beverage at the event, I didn’t find it or couldn’t get near it.

Woodberry Kitchen was cooking ala minute and what I heard it was soft shell crab which probably was quite delicious but slowed the flow. More than one vendor/restaurateur advised that they were not compensated for their tastings that they brought, it was all out of pocket. Write it off to advertising and having your food in front of Eric Ripert and Anthony Bourdain who I was told made it around to the booths somewhere around 11:30 p.m. with little food left to taste. It isn’t that often you would have so many food people in one space and understand the cache that restaurants saw in this opportunity.

There were some purveyors who were out of food after the first hour. Rod Henry from Dangerously Delicious pies was out of his 500 required and requested samplings by the Hippodrome within an hour and fifteen minutes. Per Henry, he stacked his boxes on the table when he ran out for the advertising value and ventured out of the room. When he returned he said “people were in the boxes looking and eating the remnant crumbs.” Henry said, “the Hippodrome people advised me that there 900 people who paid for the Foodie Experience but did not communicate that prior to the event.” He was very unhappy with the Hippodrome and the promoters. He concurred there were no FREE beverages and I don’t mean alcoholic. He said the Gin Mill was running the cash bar for the Hippodrome.

Did we really need a band

Can you tell I’m pretty grumpy about this event and I usually don’t rag on anyone? Why did we need a band? It took up valuable floor space in the M & T Bank venue at the Hippodrome and you couldn’t hear yourself think over the drone of voices plus let alone add music. Know that I advised the public relations department at the Hippodrome of my feelings and got an answer that they would pass it on to the organizers and thanked me for my input.

Common sense had my husband and I eat prior to the show that started a bit after 8 p.m. and the foodie experience somewhere around 9:45 p.m. We weren’t starving but we wanted to be able to taste all that was being offered in “the experience.” Of course we ate light prior to the show so we were ready to eat as were others. One friend and her husband couldn’t get near any of the food and left to go out and get something to eat.

Had the event been for charity, I wouldn’t be so grumpy but the money went to the organizers and of course Hippodrome.

What I did taste was excellent, a caliber above the usual charity walkabout

Mr. Rain’s Funhouse – suckling pig – still smacking my lips
Baltimore Pho – yummy
A. Kirchmayr Chocolatier – always excellent
Diamondback Tavern – Bangers and Mash
City Café – Cream of Crab – delectable but passed on their chef’s signature watermelon salad thought I would come back to it but didn’t
Roy’s – more pork
Sascha’s – can’t beat her glazed breadsticks but they had other offerings as well
Alizee – something foie gras, berry and chicken liver – very interesting

They were out

Max’s Empanadas – out of food
Antrim 1844 – out of cups for the food
Dangerously Delicious Pies – out of food

Just couldn’t reach because of insane lines of people

Taverna Corvino
Brewer’s Art
Rayleigh’s Oyster
Aldo’s
Portalli’s
Woodberry Kitchen
LaScala
The Wine Market
The Rumor Mill
Ale Mary’s
Spectrum Catering

To end my rant, poor planning, poor execution and pure greed made the second part of the evening a HUGE disappointment. Once burned, I will never BUY into any of their “foodie experiences” in the future. I’ll come for the show but be a NO SHOW for the food events. That's my rant and I'm sticking to it.

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