Highwood’s Evening Market

Tonight was different from my last review. The first word that comes to my mind is *hassle*. The market was challenging to navigate, and it took a really long time to get food.
Not a ton of food vendors. Louie B, Toasty Cheese, Mean Weiner, La Casa De Isaac, and another truck I don’t remember. It took 20 minutes to stand in line and give our order for a grilled cheese sandwich, then another 20 to actually get the order. Brat stand ran out of brats — I know. A lot of waiting… and long waiting. Learning #1: Don’t come hungry. You’ll wait.
Note to presenters of the market… have more food vendors.
Once we got our food, we couldn’t find a place to eat it. There used to be a lot more picnic tables. Tonight I found 3 tables for a completely crowded park. It was hard to enjoy our time as a family until we found a place to sit and eat. On the ground was not an option. Learning #2: Bring your own chairs. Felt like a Ravinia concert.
Note to presenters of the market… have more picnic tables. Chair seating was all full.
Positives: Live music was great! Lots of play areas for kiddos.
Tip: Mean Wiener had the best value overall. $ 4.50 for burger with fries and $ 1 for water.
Tip: Toasty Cheese truck. Cheese on cheese fries = fake cheese. Yuck.
Tip: Get a funnel cake! Soooo good.
Truth? I don’t know if we’ll be back. Nice to get outside, but to wait for as long as we did in lines for food and then not find seating, the amount of $$$ we paid for dining would have been better spent in a restaurant. And, I could have done without the hairy ape guy standing in line behind me with his shirt totally unbuttoned and chest hair practically touching me.

Stopped by for Garlic Fest. I was expecting there to be more garlicky vendors but there was only a couple (from what i saw). Anyway, this was my first time here and it was not too bad. Although parking can be a hassle to find, especially during rush hour. There was a lot of beer venders, local restaurants, local shops, tons of people and a live band. Everyone seems to be having a great time!
I stopped by and grabbed a turkey sandwich from the fat shallot. My croissant was kinda burnt. Other than that, it wasn’t bad. In my opinion, $ 9 for this semi burnt sandwich was kinda expensive.
If the weather was nicer, (it was so hot, sticky and humid out) the boyfriend and i would’ve probably stayed longer. I was getting attacked by mosquitoes the whole time there lol

Any event thrown at Everts Park in Highwood is more than likely going to get a minimum of 4 stars from me. I LOVE this park, complete with circular walking path with complete access to all the food trucks and other vendors that line the outside. Throw a gazebo in the middle of it all with live music and a few good friends and it’s hard not to have a great time.
My sister invited me up here last night after work b/​c she’s good friends with Sarah from the Fat Shallot food truck. I quickly took her up on the invite b/​c the truffle fries from the Shallot are simply the BEST I’ve ever had from anywhere, including any brick and mortar restaurant. Seriously, they must have some magical machine in that food truck that just churns out amazingness! Well this time they had spicy sesame fries as well, and wouldn’t ya know it we had to order those as well as the truffle fries. We also split a buffalo chicken sandwich that was tasty as well. I’m still going to say that the salami sandwich is my favorite sammy I’ve had from them, although Sarah explained that you can add ANYTHING to the grilled cheese they make, including salami so that sounds like a winner in my book.
We walked around, sipped on a couple beers from Revolution Brewery and enjoyed the market as much as possible until the weather got just a bit too chilly for us to stay. While I noticed attendance was a bit low probably due to the weather, Highwood put on a better event on a Wednesday night than my hometown of Northbrook did with the St. Norberts block party last Saturday night. Our block party here in town had great music, but that’s about where the comparison ends b/​c Highwood just seems to have excellent local restaurants that are always willing to participate in events such as the evening market. They also attracted some excellent trucks last night, Fat Shallot, Toasty Cheese, Grillers, etc.
You’ve done it again, Highwood. I can’t wait to come back for the craft beer fest, inferno fest or any other fest they decide to host here in Evert Park!!!

Okay, let’s just get this out of the way… this is NOT a farmer’s market. And that’s probably one of my favorite things about it. This is a great place to grab a bite to eat, have a couple of cocktails and listen to some live music on a Wednesday night. This by itself shows what Highwood is all about. It is like no other small community on the North Shore.

It’s not really a farmer’s market. But I did read that you could buy some dinner there, and that there is music, so we went for that. After walking around the place, I even asked a vendor if there was a place I could buy tomatoes or zucchini and such, and he said no. But the Mexican food stand is great, and the crepes too, and we got some good wine by the glass from Cellar Gate’s booth. What’s so convenient is the chairs already set up for the band that plays in the gazebo, and other bar-​high tables scattered around, and even some small tables. So unlike other suburban music nights, you don’t have to bring a blanket or your own chairs to sit on. It does seem like there are more alcoholic offerings than food. There are also things you can buy to take home, like preserves, grass fed beef, baked goods, and candy. The music was good, and the lights strung between the trees makes it look so festive. I think it’s a great place to go with a few people for a Wed. night dinner because everyone can get what they want, and even go back for seconds.

I think Farmer’s Market is the wrong name for Highwood’s Wed night Gourmet Farmer’s Market (that’s the only reason for 4-​stars, it’s kind of misleading). This was our first time so perhaps I’m wrong and last night was a fluke, but I read the other post of Unilocal and figured it wasn’t your typical «Farmers Market» I say this only because there were no fruit/​veggie farmer stands, cheese makers, flowers, etc to buy. So if you haven’t been and you’re going to get these items, you’ll be out of luck. Now that all being said, this was very awesome and fun! It was huge! Took up the whole lot (Everts Park). There were restaurants from Highwood selling food, bars from Highwood selling booze (and some food), snack vendors, jewelry vendors, clothing vendors, even pony rides, petting zoo and bounce houses and a band! It’s like a fest every week! (again this was our first time so maybe last night was different). I’m glad we went and we’ll definitely go again. Esp as I said next week is called «Inferno fest» can’t wait to see what’s going to happen then. If you’re looking to get out on a nice Wed evening, I definitely would say come and check out Highwood’s «Gourmet Farmer’s Market» Just an FYI You’ll need to search for parking and may need to walk. It was packed and there are a bunch of restaurants that were full so parking is hard to find but don’t let it discourage you.

This was a farmers market maybe 3 – 4 yrs ago, now it’s more of a drinking fest, with food, trinket sales… and a few places selling produce. And not much parking with all the restuarants close by,