Culinary scene holds its ground at this year’s BottleRock | Local News

The culinary stage – sponsored by Williams Sonoma – also hosted food-centric acts, often with celebrity-chef pairings. Top Chef’s Voltaggio brothers and rapper Warren G made crab cakes using five pounds of crab, Too Short cooked up barbecue with E-40 and Ricky Henderson, and Sourdough Sam even made a guest appearance shooting t-shirts and plush loaves of bread into the crowd.

Each nook and cranny of the festival had its own set of food and beverage purveyors, resulting in a dizzying array of often-pricey eats to choose from.

But despite the jam-packed grounds, according to the folks actually prepping, cooking and serving the festival’s food, it is all just a matter of choosing the correct menu and employees to work the booth all weekend.

Loveski Deli, which made its BottleRock debut last year before its Oxbow Market location was even open, had not one but two separate locations at the festival this year; one in VIP, and one in the general festival. A steady stream of customers worked their way through the deli’s line over the course of the weekend, with a pickle, hot dog or pastrami-laden fries waiting for them.

“We learned a lot from being a first-year vendor last year, [because] we kind of came in late in the game because a space had opened up,” said Loveski’s Martina Kostow. “We were not open yet at the Oxbow, so we thought of it as a way to test out some of the things.”

“Coming in this year, we knew logistically that we could do two [tents].”

The Kostows pared down a best hits and handheld version of their menu, and proactively troubleshooted any technical issues that could arise without a full kitchen available. Luckily, as a deli, Loveski didn’t find that too challenging.

“They are the favorites of our deli,” said Christopher Kostow. “But, a lot of what we are doing is not super prep-intensive by design, other than the pastrami and a few other things.”

Worst case scenario, the Kostows say that not selling enough food is a vendor’s nightmare – “Although I don’t think we are going to have that problem,” – and best case looks like a whole lot of happy and full BottleRockers. Christopher says that the festival dose have a negative impact on his other restaurants upvalley, the nearly next-door deli included, “But as far as operations, things here are pretty straightforward and that is just because we have really great people.”

“And, it is fun for the team,” said Martina. “I think everybody enjoys being out of our normal day-to-day routine, so we get to interact with people in a different way.”