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Cooking Outdoors

June 13 2011

There were times this past Saturday, as we wrestled our new tents into place against cold rain blowing in off the East River, the Coheed and Cambria soundcheck hammering away in the background, that we thought we might have gotten ourselves in over our heads: it was our first effort at providing food at the Williamsburg Waterfront concert series, and we were off to a tough start. One of our crew was out sick; the weather was about as bad as it could be without causing the concert to be cancelled altogether; and we’d never used half the equipment we’d be using: not the grill, not the tents, not the lights. A park staffer came by to tell us to straighten up and get ready because they were about to open the doors and we hadn’t even found a place to park our truck.

But after a brief adjustment period of getting used to flipping and assembling burgers, pork belly sandwiches, and lima bean salad by the dozens while hungry metalheads looked on, we got into it. The experience of cooking while looking out at a mist-heavy river as Manhattan looms duskily in the backdrop is hard to beat.

Evan enjoying himself

Happily set up.

Grilling with a view

The dining room.