THIS PLACE BITES

Salem is having the Bite festival this weekend at the waterfront park. The waterfront park is a nice strip of land against the Willamette river which was converted from industrial buildings in the late 1990s. When Salem has big events, that's where they usually are held such as the International Festival and the July 4th fireworks.

The Bite is basically an advertising gambit, a fair of all the local restaurants who can afford the time and expense of buying and stocking a booth. There's music and some rides, but the main focus is on the booths and the food. When Portland held this I always wanted to go and wished Salem had one, but by the time Salem got one I was old enough to pay for my own food and saw how expensive it was.

The Bite is a neat idea, but its a rip off. The food is usually more expensive than in the restaurants and because most restaurants are not able to provide the bulk of their menu in the booth format you don't get to try much of their food. I think a lot of cities have this sort of thing and its too bad they can't work out a way to get the food to people cheaper, but the problem is restaurants have to charge a lot to break even.

Even if you consider the Bite advertising, they have to rent space for a booth, buy or rent a booth to set up, pay someone to man it and cook the food, people to sell the food, and often to do this the restaurants just shut down for the day. They have to make up that money somehow, so that 3 dollar burger is $3.50 or even $5.00 at the Bite. Which nibbles away at your wallet pretty significantly and reduces the joy of the event, in my opinion.