Cultivate Festival Deliciously Took Over Lincoln Park
By Amy Cavanaugh in Food on Sep 16, 2012 4:00PM
We headed down to Lincoln Park yesterday to check out Chipotle's Cultivate Festival, which brought together food, drink, and music to help spread ideas about sustainability. There were four tents offering food inspired by Chipotle recipes, a beer and wine tent, and an artisans' hall to eat and drink through, so we made a plan and got eating.
First we tried the tacos, which were available with chicken, steak, and tofu. We opted for the chicken, and got two corn tortillas stuffed with salsa verde, cheese, and escabeche (pickled vegetables like cauliflower and carrots). The verdict? Escabeche needs to be a regular Chipotle topping—the tangy and crunchy veggies provided some acidity and texture to the tacos. We intended to take a few bites of each dish so we could try more, but put both of these back easily.
Next we headed to ShopHouse Southeast Asian Kitchen, Chipotle's Asian concept, which is located in D.C. While our visit to the D.C. restaurant last year left us underwhelmed (we got the banh mi) but were looking forward to trying it again. The jasmine rice bowl topped with pork and chicken meatballs, green beans, and a pile of fresh herbs was totally delicious. We're already adding a trip to ShopHouse to our D.C. itinerary next month.
After that it was time for a stroll through the Artisans' Hall, but our late arrival meant that some stalls were closed and others only had a few items left. Jo Snow Syrups, Truffle Truffle, and Rare Bird Preserves were all there, but we went to NessAlla Kombucha. The company is located in Madison, and we had the peach kombucha. The line for Black Dog Gelato never abated, so we decided to skip that in favor of more savory food.
Finally, we tried the carnitas torta, which came with a layer of black beans, pickled onions, queso fresco, and cilantro. This was also good, but put our stomachs over the top—report in the comments if you tried the barbacoa chili, the fourth of the Chipotle dishes. We also decided to nix the beer tent, even though Five Rabbit Otono was calling our name.
We left before it happened, but tomato pickers were gathering outside the festival to call on Chipotle to join the CIW’s Fair Food Program, which is a partnership between farmworkers, tomato growers, and food retailers that promotes rights for farmworkers and the Florida tomato industry. Chipotle has not signed a Fair Food Agreement, and the protestors were trying to convince them to join.
The festival also included performances by G Love and Special Sauce and others, and we took a peek at a chef demo by Chris Pandel. The lines to learn about Chipotle's sustainable actions were long, so we skipped those in favor of people-watching. The crowd was about half families, half twentysomethings stuffing their faces, and we're already looking forward to next year's festival.