NYC Food and Film Festival on Water Taxi Beach & More Room Service

View of Manhattan from Water Taxi Beach

After J and I dined at Jean-Georges, we headed out to Water Taxi Beach to attend one of the NYC Food and Film Festival events. 

The event happens annually and combines film with food in that you get to taste what you see on the screen.  Ingenius!  There were a couple of free events, and this one "Edible Adventure #1: Smokes, Ears and Ice Cream" was one of them, featuring a series of short films and tastings:

Event menu

I had never been to Water Taxi Beach before, but I am an instant fan.  It's not a beach in the actual sense, but more of a huge area filled with sand and wooden picnic tables.   People take off their shoes and drink, and there's a lovely breeze that blows across the river on a nice night.  It's just lovely.

The event was an absolute scene.  The system for delivering samples was not quite efficient, and before the servers could barely exit the kitchen area, they were MOBBED by ravenous humans and all samples would be gone in a matter of seconds.  This is a video I took of a server trying to deliver to some tables in the back.  Special attention to the first couple of seconds with the woman diving for the platter.

So, because we did not want to participate in ths craziness - where is your dignity, people?!, J and I only got to sample a few items:

Coriander bacon with a special mustard from Fatty'Cue.  I really liked it, but what's not to like about any bacon!  We watched a film about how they barbecue their Heritage meats, and I want to go back sometime and try some dishes (and eat more pie!).

Cheese from the Burrell Group

More cheese from the Burrell Group

Red rose sausage sandwich from Big Apple Inn in Mississippi.  Apparently they only sell red rose sausage in MS, so the chef behind Big Apple Inn had to bring like 60 lbs of sausage on his carry-on.  That is dedication!  I really liked this sausage (so spicy!!), but it creeped J out not knowing what kind of meat this was.  They also served pig ear sandwiches which creeped J out even more.

Unpictured are the drinks we sampled, a variety of flavored sodas that were not that exciting, but one which was absolutely delicious: Manhattan Special Espresso Soda.  I only got a few sips, but it was fantastic.  I need to find where it's carried here in NYC and drink myself silly.

The samples were definitely not enough to tide our hunger over, so we grabbed some quick Thai food from Room Service:

Massaman curry with chicken.  Potatoes were the best.  Lots of strong curry flavor.

Chicken pad thai.  Not very good.  Don't eat this.  Stick with the pad chili.

And that was our night!  I do hope that the NYC Film Festival has a better strategy for samples next year because this year was ridiculous!  It was still fun watching how awful people can act when free food is involved.

Room Service

166 8th Avenue

New York, NY 10011-1603

(212) 691-0299