PHOTO: The Some Like it Hot Food Truck attracts a crowd at a Texas Avenue Makers Fair event. Photo by Mollie Walton Corbett.
The biannual Texas Avenue Makers Fair will return to downtown Shreveport’s historic Texas Avenue, 11 a.m.-10 p.m., Saturday, April 12. This edition of the popular arts and crafts fair, which is being presented in partnership with UNSCENE!, looks like it’ll feature nearly 250 vendors in all, as well as about 16 mobile food vendors serving everything from gourmet tamales to chicken and waffles. I spent about an hour calling, texting and Facebook stalking the proprietors of as many of these mobile food businesses as possible (some were unreachable), and rounded up a little intel on what’ll be on Saturday’s menu.
The best source of detailed information on the Makers Fair appears to be this UNSCENE! Facebook event.
Soumas Heritage Creole Creations (Facebook link): Chef Panderina Soumas will be selling her Creole Caribbean Cooler Drink, Creole Sausage Dogs and Down on Da’ Bayou Dirty Rice. I ate a Creole Sausage Dog at a recent event, and it was ridiculously good. It’s a smoked Louisiana sausage covered in Chef Soumas’ roux-based BBQ sauce and topped with spicy Creole coleslaw and, according to Chef Soumas, “havin’ a conversation with a pickle spear.” One word of warning: Walking around with this thing, you may attract a crowd.
Some Like It Hot (Facebook link): According to Ange, the affable owner of Some Like It Hot, “We’ll probably do a bacon-stuffed burger, as well as our Sriracha honey lime chicken burger.”
Garrett Got Tea: This time around, popular coffee vendor Kern Has Coffee will be joined in his booth by local tea expert Garrett Johnson, who’ll be vending as Garrett Got Tea. Here’s Garrett’s word-for-word list of what he’ll be vending: “For iced tea, there will be a limited supply of Assam Iced Tea and Jasmine & Green Iced Tea, and for hot tea there will be Longjing (Dragonwell) Green, Jade Oolong, Jasmine, Darjeeling teas, and a limited supplies of specialty teas!”
Private Chef Services (Facebook link): Chef Hardette Harris will be serving just one item at the Texas Avenue Makers Fair, but it’s a doozy. Her fried chicken and waffles with warm maple cream were all the rage at the March UNSCENE! event honoring Stan “The Record Man” Lewis. I didn’t eat any, myself, opting for a bowl of her collard greens instead, which were rich, smoky and bracing. Chef Harris is a fascinating new arrival to Shreveport-Bossier’s food scene, and these chicken and waffles are probably the item I’m most certain to line up for on Saturday.
Blue Southern Comfort Foods (Facebook link): Carolyn Manning will be serving up her popular smoked pulled pork over cheese grits, as well as the signature Blue burger, which Manning describes as “a fresh ground beef patty with candied bacon on top.”
Ki Mexico (Facebook link): According to Ki Mexico team member Rodrigo Mondragon, Ki Mexico will be serving “the usual suspects” (their fantastic taco offerings that include cochinita, bistec, verde and shrimp), as well as “our famous gringas” (guajillo pepper-marinated pork chop tacos that are to die for) and homemade Jamaica water.
Sounds like I’ll be eating lunch about three times on Saturday. The mobile food vendor area will be located near the Shreveport Memorial Auditorium parking lot. Tables and chairs will be provided.
