Best Of San Diego Magazine Party 2012

One of the charities/​battered women

Unilocal will not allow me to start a 2013 version of this, lame! Just like the event!
I mean really, I spent $ 60 for this? There was no Groupon like past years.
I go to a lot of food events, but I’ve never in my life encountered SO many rude event goers. Like other reviewers have said… wait in LOOOOOONG lines, only to have some idiot come up to the front and just grab samples. I said to one of these schmuck, how about waiting in line like the rest of us? He said really loudly… I’M SOOOOO SORRY! I said, NO YOU’RE NOT!
Way too many people, totally oversold, no respect for others. My other 3 friends and I found one of the VERY FEW tables and claimed it. While we were sitting there, people kept placing their empty plates right on it. I literally had to say, HEY, don’t you see we’re sitting here?!
One table became empty, and tons of peeps starting piling their plates a mile high on there with no regard for it falling over or finding a trash can. That means there weren’t enough trash cans event planners! And shame on the event for NOT putting out enough recycle containers NEXT to the trash cans. Some were there, but most WERE NOT!
The preview party a couple of months ago for only $ 20 – 25 was SO much better and not nearly as crowded.
I didn’t even think there was enough food booths there. Am so surprised at that. I think the shrimp and grits from The Oceanaire was great, so was the sausage and polenta from ??, but there were not many samples that were OOOOH, this is SO memorable. Not for $ 60. Roppongi… wow, talk about the toughest piece of meat ever for their Korean Rib plate. Not just mine, all of us at the table. Couldn’t even take a bite, we all threw ours away. I usually love their food, but this was really bad.
Bands were good, but too loud for talking. No rock… what’s up with that? Good funk band though.
I will NEVER go to this event again and I am telling others not to also. Go to the preview party, much better.

Heard about this for years and the concept sounded awsome, so me and a girlfriend bought tickets. Good location (Liberty station, outdoors on a warm summer night) great restaurant selections and lots of options… my only complaint was I didn’t get to eat very much because after standing in line for 10 – 15 minutes, I’d get to the front and discover a seafood or pork entrée being served (and since I eat neither, I felt disappointed that I’d wasted my time waiting in line)! the desserts were GREAT and the wineries good too, but you can’t drink too much if you’re going to drive. So after it was all said and done, my opinion is «great idea, good food (what I did eat) and loved the ability to try different restaurants around SD (and get coupons to go back to the restaurant).» But for future reference, maybe serve more options for vegetarians or have more than one choice at each booth… AND have more than one enterance so people are not standing in a mile long line to get into the event!

I go to this every year, and it seems like every year there is less and less food, and more and more sponsors and random tents of non-​food. Yes, I understand that this isn’t a wine and food festival, so this is purely subjective. But compared to previous years there is definitely less, so the diminishing returns on food greatness makes it less likely I’ll attend next year. Just one man’s humble and biased opinion =)

Love this event! Hott Summer night, sexy San Diegans! The shot callers and cream of the crop were out in droves… and I do mean droves, the line wrapped around the block at one point!
The vendors were generous and excited to represent themselves as San Diego’s best-​we enjoyed loads of beer, wine, and tasty treats.
I particularly loved: 50/​50, 20 Lounge, San Diego Fashion Week (can’t wait!), Rubicon Deli, Trulucks, PrepKitchen, the always generous Stella Artois, and the Bardot popcicles-​YUM!
The red carpet entrance with it’s dreamy hanging umbrellas was a lovely touch, SD Mag placed upscale seating throughout the event, belly bars, and the space held the crowd well. The partners really put their best forward. The ladies of Unilocal had the wheel spinning for prizes! See you all next year!

The SD Magazine marketing team need to know what a DISASTER Friday’s event was in Liberty Station. I’m sure I’m not the only one to complain, but the fact that people paid $ 65 a ticket to stand in line for an hour to GET IN, let alone get a drink, is OUTRAGEOUS. I have never seen an event so poorly organized and so painfully oversold. The coordinators of this event need to know that there has to be a limit on number of attendees (or increase in vendors) and that there needs to be more than one entrance for such a huge showing. In addition, given that people didn’t even get in until 7:30, one would expect that there would be sufficient food and drink until the posted closing time of 9:30 PM. This was not the case with at least half of the vendors being «out of stock» by 8:30 PM.
Personally, I spent at over 2 hours waiting in lines and had 3 food items and 3 drinks. This is the biggest waste of time, energy, and money that I have experienced in ages. I certainly will never attend this event again, but I hope this feedback will help you in future events.

This event was absolutely amazing. The best of the best was here and ready to impress. I enjoyed the following:
–Tailgate Beer
–Make your own bloody mary bar (BACON? YES!)
–Burlap
–The Beer Company
–Quality Social
–Café Coyote (Yummm, the tortillas are amazing)
–Stella (They gave away nice glasses)
–Rubicon (AMAZING subs)
This was one of the classiest events in SD. Everyone should give it a shot at least once. It’s something a San Diegan should experience. Oh and the live music was lovely. It was crowded but I’ve got to say it was worth it.

Worst business event ever. It was mismanaged, oversold, and fraudulently advertised.
They used Eventbrite to sell tickets, but the scanners were not working. The line grew to over a mile long and a 45 minute wait before they open the door and just took the paper tickets everyone had printed off. They never opened a second entrance. Nor did they provide updates or water to the people standing on line. Even airlines give you updates when you are stuck on the tarmac,
The eventual rush of hungry and thirsty people resulting in long (5+ minutes) lines at every vendor booth. It took over half an hour to get two small nibblets of food and a small taster of wine.
The overwhelming rush of the crowd stressed individuals civility, and eliminated the possibility of inquiry or education from the vendors. The best of San Diego were turned into carnival fast food vendors.
There was no where near the number of advertised food vendors, brewries or wineries in attendance.
Despite most people getting in late and standing in line for long periods of time, most vendors ran out of food well before the scheduled event closing time.
One of the things that bothered me the most was the complete lack of attention to basic environmental sensitivity. I saw no evidence of recycling. The waste management team was pushing all waste — food, plastic, glass into common garbage bags. The vendors were using un recyclable plastic. No separation of garbage was done at the garbage cans. I saw no evidence of any of the food vendors using recyclables — I am sure I missed have missed the couple who did. Too bad their efforts went in vain as all trash was shipped off to the landfill. As one of the people I was with said «even the San Diego dog parks have recycling»
In review of the Unilocal reviews of past year’s events it is clear that this mismanagement was not an unusual situation. I guess the jokes on me for going — and certainly for paying the full ticket price.
Clearly, on the «Best of San Diego» — the category of «event management» was left open.
(Note to others: There is a button your eventbrite account where you pruchased the ticket that says «request a refund.» I just wish the small business that got «played» could do the same. Additional update — friends of mine who submitted refund request of subsequently received them.)

Great event with all the San Diego big guns representing! The lines could get a tad long but every sip and bite was well worth it. I never encountered a line for the bathroom and the food and drink was not in short supply.
Highlights:
–Stone Brewery
–Tailgate Beer
–Stella (how about those glasses?!)
–Rubicon
–Burlap
–Slaters ⁵⁰⁄₅₀
–Lucky’s Lunch Counter
–Crow Thief (secret stash)
and of course… the Unilocal booth! Beautiful women passing out great prizes for spinning that wheel.
See you next year!

Amazing event. San Diego’s best vendors all in one place. Hot new designer Vee is definitely one booth to check out.

Waaayyyy too crowded and standing in long lines to get a measly small sample was no fun! I should have saved the money and went to get a nice steak dinner instead!
The line to just get in was over a mile long… next year they need to start checking tickets and putting on wristbands 30 min before the event starts that way at 6:30 sharp they can just let people walk in! Also a majority of the booths didn’t not have clear signage so a lot of the time you had no idea what you were standing in line for! This event needs to be more organized period.