TheMuseum was packed on King Street in downtown Kitchener Nov. 17 for the fan-favourite and returning event, PickleFest.
Special events coordinator at TheMuseum, Zoe Campanaro, explains that this event, “stems from Pickle Day in New York, it has everything to do with pickles: eating pickles, creating special dill dishes, pickle themed games and activities.”
PickleFest was very much the same as the New York event but with a twist.
PickleFest was as Zoe described it, “three main events: a pickle eating contest where contestants try to eat as many pickles as possible in 30 seconds; pass the pickle where contestants passed the pickle between each other on toothpicks in two teams of ten; and lastly, guess the pickle flavour which is pretty self-explanatory.”
These events were scheduled throughout the night as it ran from 7-10 p.m.
The initial tickets bought contained eight drink tickets and eight food tickets and it even came in a souvenir Mason jar with TheMuseum’s logo on it.
Food and drinks were sampled from a variety of local KW restaurants: Abe Erb, B@THEMUSEUM, The Berlin, The Boathouse, The Bruce Craft House, Grand Trunk Saloon, Stark & Perri, TWH Social, Big Rig, Black Oak, Maclean’s Ales, Royal City, Stonehammer, Waterloo Brewing, Wellington, and FourAll Ice Cream.
Campanaro explains that the restaurants and breweries were picked as they have worked together in the past.
“They’ve been involved in some way before or they work on King Street like [TheMuseum]. They help support TheMuseum, [they] involve new restaurants to try and help [TheMuseum] branch out.”
Walking into the event you could easily step into the long line for TWH Social, whose store is located just across the street from the event.
They served a pickled beef tongue slider with a pickled mustard aioli which was a very good start to the food and beer filled night.
Or, you could easily turn around and grab scallop and pickle nachos from The Berlin.
There was even a pickle flavoured cupcake with burbon vanilla frosting.
Favourite foods of the night included The Boathouse’s battered pickle Rueben and FourAll Ice Cream’s serving of a cucumber-like sorbet.
As for the event’s future, Campanaro says she hopes to, “make it a returning event. It has exploded comparing to last year thanks to marketing efforts and like Mac n’ Cheese Fest — we hope to see it continue over the years.”
The Mac n’ Cheese Fest happens every year in late February through TheMuseum.
