Food Sonic 2019

Suntory brewing decided to have a beer and food event in Central Park over the weekend. It was a lot like similar events up at Amu Plaza, except that the foods weren't as meat and grease-heavy as one would expect. Specifically, King of Meat Man wasn't there with sausage, grilled chicken and steak platters. That, and there was no musical entertainment. The only song at all was Betty Boop's "I want to be loved by you," on infinite loop, at the Suntory beer booth. That must have driven the workers there loopy.



In fact, with no musical guests, there's the question of what the "sonic" part of "food sonic" was supposed to be. Well, there's a 2-city (Tokyo and Osaka) musical concert event in Japan called Summer Sonic, and my guess is that Suntory was trying to trade on a connection to that as a kind of "food concert bonanza."



There were quite a few people out picnicking on both Saturday and Sunday, while Saturday had the clearer skies all day (Sunday started out more overcast, but things cleared up in the afternoon).


(Tempura-fried chicken, edamame, cheese sauce on fries, and chili sour cream chips.)

But sales were spotty at the food booths. I didn't bother counting, but I think there were about 20 tables (selling ramen, fries, shaved ice, yakisoba, and other stuff not really associated with binge-drinking, and some of the booths had NO customers either day while I was there (some of the neighboring tables could at the same time have lines 20-people long). That had to be frustrating.



In addition, the Suntory booth (above) was set up to handle massive lines which again didn't materialize while I was there.


(Yakisoba with black pork and egg, and something I'm not sure of from the sign. Two lines, no waiting.)

I had to work most of Saturday, with a 1-hour break from 5 to 6. I couldn't justify getting beer with two more classes waiting for me from 6 to 8, and all of the foods were in the $8 to $10 range, which was more than I wanted to pay for the serving sizes. Things ended Saturday at 7 PM, well before the end of my last class, so I couldn't get any beer on my way home that night.

Sunday, I had plans for going out to Hirakawa Zoo, down at the opposite end of Kagoshima. I did get back to Tenmonkan at 5:30 PM when I was done looking at lesser pandas, which gave me just enough time for 1 beer (last call for food was 5:30 PM, and Food Sonic itself shutdown at 6 PM.



Suntory, The Premium Malts, draft, one cup for 400 yen ($3.75 USD). It was actually pretty silky, with just a hint of bitter hops. Pretty good. But after that, I had to go to an oyster restaurant for dinner, and drink more The Premium Malts from a bottle, which wasn't quite as good. Still, lesser pandas.