Restaurant Show…my calling
A good friend of mine approached me with an opportunity that excited me greatly. He invited me to the 2008 Restaurant Show in the Los Angeles Convention Center, and boy… was it a riot.
First of all, for those of you who haven’t been to the Convention Center, this place is GIANT. Upon arrival we spend a solid 20 minutes trying to find the part of the Convention Center that the show took place in. We ran into many sets of locked doors, and a few empty halls that gave us a very airport terminal-esque feel. We finally got to the right hall, and thats when I felt it. Restaurant shows were about to become my favorite thing ever.
I should give you some background on my identity at the restaurant show. You see, my friends dad owns a restaurant and had 3 extra tickets to the show. One in my friends name and two others in the names of other restaurant employees. I had the pleasure of assuming the identity of Rudy … Rudy Lara: Manager of Michael J’s Catering Kitchen.
Yea … that’s me.
Anyways. . we walked in the the show room and I was completely overwhelmed with restaurant… stuff.
We’re talking everything from industrial freezers to purified water taps. Automatic hand sanitizer despensers to knee pressure activated sinks. There were all sorts of samples from all different sorts of Asian dishes to my personal favorite: flavored popcorn. I had a hard time pick a flavor and finally went with aged white cheddar, which proved to be a great choice.
They also had a “Nightlife Corner”. It really didn’t look much like night over there, but they were serving various different alcoholic drinks and drink concepts. Here is Terry Wunder with his beer sample. Product name: Arrogant Bastard. (no joke)
Note the look on his face. I would say it fully represents the way Terry felt about the taste of the product. EWWWW
Not only were there weird things to look at there were weird things to be handed out. My favorite was the Aquadeco water. I know what you are thinking, “That sounds like Art Deco.” Yes reader … yes it does. It’s basically fancy looking water.
We also had a great time BS-ing the sales people about our restaurant. We went to see a coffee guy and try his coffee and he preceeded to drill us about the coffee we are using now in the restaurant. Luckily Terry, being quick on his feet, spilled out “Seattles Best is what we have now.” He then walked away to leave Alex and I to finish up the bologna-fest.
In the end, I think I was right. Restaurant Shows are for me, its soo much fun, and its free food and entertainment by means of crazy salesmen, which we all know is the best kind.
Plus I scored these sweet chopsticks that smell great and dont transfer the smell to the food.
AWESOME!! Put me down for 3 cases.
