UGH! A lot of sameness of mediocre food. Only a few vendors were ready when they opened. There was no ice for the warm sodas and water. The beer was cold though and the faux Beetle band was pretty good.

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I have attended other Drink Eat Play events and this by far has been my favorite. The vibe was very relaxed and not crowded at all. The portions were very generous in both the BBQ and beer. There were plenty of places to sit and it was very nice to be next to the beach. I really had no downsides to the event.

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I'm sorry, but we really weren't impressed by the barbecue served at this event.

There is a national BBQ chain called Famous Dave's; I consider it the "Marie Callender's" of BBQ, the best chain BBQ restaurant: My standard for excellence in an independent BBQ restaurant requires that it should *at least* surpass chain-store Famous Dave's in quality, for goodness' sake; just as a good independent family restaurant should at least be better than Marie Callender's, don'tcha think?

But not a single one of the eight or nine restaurants at this event rose to that level or even close. Bonnie B's in Pasadena (for just one example) would crush any of them in a taste test; for that matter, I had better BBQ the next day at the LA County Fair.

So why weren't other, better restaurants represented? How torpid were the promoters in getting the word out to the BBQ community that this event was going to be held? Had they been a bit more energetic, the better BBQ joints might have shown up.

Goldstar's discount was great, but the event itself really needed to recruit a better batch of representatives of SoCal BBQ. Most BBQ-curious attendees probably shrugged and said, "eh."

Probably should skip it in future -- unless this event starts publishing the names of the BBQ restaurants showing up, and you recognize some as being better than mediocre.

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It was a great time. Food was great. Would have preferred a bit more variety. There was lots of pork ribs and a couple of trip tip sandwiches. Plenty of coleslaw. However, there was no chicken, no beef ribs, no sides really other than the coleslaw, would have liked some corn or potatoes of some sort. Desert was really good and the drinks were great. Excellent beer selections. Music was fantastic. We saw the Beatles cover band on Friday and they really made the event for us.

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