T.U.M. serves up their 2nd Year Anniversary

I finally made it out to the Toronto Underground Market (T.U.M.) as it's known as held at the Evergreen Brickworks every month or so for the past year.  They celebrated their Second year anniversary with a double event day.  They had an early day session for families and after 5 version for 19+.

In a very last minute decision while talking to a friend we decided to go and check out the evening version.  We got there pretty late, I think it was probably around 8:30pm when we arrived.

I did try and go to one other T.U.M. and purchased tickets online in advance and when I got there I couldn't find any parking after driving around the lot for 15-20  minutes I gave up and left.   This time I took a chance to get tickets at the door after I saw a facebook post that they still had tickets available. Code for we haven't filled the place so please come.

For the first time T.U.M. teams up with Gastropost/Financial Post to promote attendees taking pics for this week's Mexican Challenge for Gastropost.

It is a fun event and I met some super friendly vendors like these guys from HOLY CRAB, great name and really nice guys.  My friend tried their lobster nacho or something like that.  She thought it was great.







We both tried the Kanga (Australian) Meat Pies.
We had the Zucchini and Caramelized Onion Pies.  They were very filling,  I probably should have just had a half of one.

There were a couple of really delicious things that I tried.   One was the Arepa from Mango Pinton.  It had black beans, sweet plantains that balanced the steak.  It was a full burst of flavour in a little hand pocket Arepa.

On the sweet side I tried some Oma's Dutch Delights. Small pillows of pancake batter served with chocolate or maple syrup, icing sugar and strawberries, all optional.  I had them with strawberries and icing sugar.  It was a pancake batter and cooked in what looked like a snail pan so they were little round golden brown pancakes.  Very tasty since there was more surface that was browned from the smaller sized pancakes.

On the whole it is a fun event and a great place to go with a group of friends and to meet some new people.

My caveat is that it does get very costly since you have to either drive there and pay for parking,  I paid $3 for parking for an hour.  Then you have to pay $20 to get in.  You pay individually for each food and beverage vendor with the average price from $4-$9 per item.  Then add your drinks which were limited to some craft brewers, I saw one wine vendor and one alcohol vendor.  So if you plan on driving bring a bottle of water or a designated driver.  It's easy to drop about $40-$50 at a T.U.M. night.  They had a few tables set up in a area to the side but you pretty much stand on concrete when you are chowing down on your food. Because I went late there weren't line ups for food but I know that generally if you go early you will experience lineups to get in and for each popular vendor.

If you like to try new things and like to sample many different foods at one location then this is the place for you.   The evening T.U.M.  had a D.J. who played good but loud music giving it a very club feel and making it a bit difficult to chat with the vendors.   This is a great event for the young and hip club people that want to try the latest food trends and hang out with friends.

I wouldn't say it's a great value for the money as you generally are eating things like pulled pork sandwiches, appetizer foods and smaller portions.   I would still suggest checking it out because a lot of these vendors start at this event and build their clientele and then open up bricks and morter restaurants. Think of it like an Indie Band scene.  It kind of works the same way.  They learn their craft and see what people like at these events and they fine tune and grow their fan bases and then when they are ready they join the big leagues with their own restaurants.

Check them out and remember the ones you liked and you may have a new destination restaurant to go to sooner or later.

Food event locations

When I took my Special Event Management Course one of the first rules to Event planning is Location.  Just like Real Estate, in Events is all about Location, Location, Location.   When is it time to re evaluate your venue location... umm maybe when people that have paid to get in can't get in because there are too many people.  That might be a good time to rethink it unless you like to see people walk away dissappointed like I did at the Toronto Underground Market which was held at the Evergreen Brickworks.   I finally had a chance to go and check it out but I was going there from another event at the Distillery District so I was driving there.  I got there before 7 pm and drove all through the parking lot and couldn't find a parking spot.   I stopped in the zip car spot while my friend attempted to see what she could do.   She spoke to one of the event staff who told her that we should drive away and back to where the shuttle departed from and then take the shuttle to the event and then have to return by shuttle.  That process would probably waste at least another half an hour if the shuttle departed right away.  By the time we drove around there were already about 50 plus people in line trying to get into the event and the actual enclosed event was jam packed.    Keep in mind that this is a ticketed entrance fee event that you have to pre purchase tickets for at a cost of $10 and that doesn't include parking or the cost of food.   It hardly seems worth it to pay a fee to stand in line for an hour to get into an event that you had to also drive around and find and pay for parking only to then stand in lineups to get and pay for your food.   You could probably just go to some of the vendors restaurants where you can park and order stuff that will be served to you at a table.   I couldn't even gather if there was any seating at this event even.     This is an extremely popular event where the entrance tickets get sold out within days.  It's like an exclusive club you want to get in to but have to stand in a lineup on a cold day and hope the bouncer lets you in.   Maybe I am getting too old to waste my time at an event like that and decided that my time was a lot more valuable than the $10 I wasted buying the entrance ticket.   I won't be going back and think it may be time for other people to make some changes in food events if this is the way of the future.

I may decide to finally put my Event Management Certificate to good use and construct a better event.   Who knows...

so if you have lots of time and money to waste you can try and go to the next TUM event and see if you get in.   Tip... don't take your car.   http://yumtum.ca/