The weather may be cooling down, but downtown heated up this past weekend with the first annual Sriracha Festival.
The event was organized by a devoted fan of the hot sauce who wanted to create a one-of-a-kind event for Phoenix, highlighting the endless possibilities of Sriracha sauce in food, desserts and drinks.
The celebration of the famous hot sauce, made from a paste of chili peppers, garlic, distilled vinegar, sugar, and salt, took over Heritage Square on Saturday evening. It was the culmination of months of work by Fabian Chavira, a businessman who has worked in the hospitality, restaurant, and business industries in Arizona. He credits his lifelong love of Sriracha for inspiring him to pursue this project.
Impressed by similar festivals in other metropolitan cities such as Los Angeles and San Diego, Chavira set out to create a festival environment to bring together different creative people, specifically for Phoenix. Originally, he tried to get started by working with the creators of the California events, but was unsuccessful. It was then he decided to go all in and organize the event on his own, calling the shots as he planned a large, public festival with the intent of bringing people together for Sriracha-infused dishes, treats and cocktails.
With his business background, Chavira knew he needed to bring the right combination of people together, with each person bringing something new and different to the table.
His research and planning eventually led to a meeting with the owner of the Sriracha Hot Sauce found in American grocery stores Chavira said he respects that the company is very hands on, making everything besides the green bottle cap.
To ensure quality and variety at the festival, Chavira reached out to local restaurants and food vendors, and had 28 food trucks on hand for Saturday, including local Valley restaurants such as Malee’s Thai Bistro and the newly-restructured Noodle Bar — formerly known as the two restaurants Otakumen and Pat and Waldo’s — on Adams Street and First Avenue. The fusion restaurant serves both Italian and Japanese dishes and was on hand at the event, offering Sriracha-infused dumpling wrappers for their shrimp dumplings with caviar lime and a butternut dipping sauce.
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“We are a from-scratch kitchen, so we make almost everything in house,” said Marco DiSanto, corporate executive and head chef of Noodle Bar.
One of the popular booths at the event was Teriacha, a new brand of hot sauce that is a mixture of teriyaki sauce and Sriracha sauce.
“I think the event is great,” said Alissa Sabatino, who works with Teriacha. “There’s a lot of local companies here that I don’t think get the opportunity to showcase their sauces in other ways, so it’s kind of nice to have this event downtown.”
Another local business Chavira enlisted is SirHotcha, a local hot sauce company, founded by Shannon Kirkpatrick to introduce a new, diversified hot sauce to the market. They were also at the event, offering their new product to a large crowd of enthusiastic guests.
“SirHotcha is made with ghost peppers, a big difference,” Kirkpatrick said.
While the event certainly celebrated Sriracha sauce in all it’s forms, whether that be in savory food, desserts or drinks, Chavira included a variety of entertainment and activities. Attendees enjoyed Sriracha-infused dishes, desserts and drinks while taking in a mixology competition with renowned judges, live music from Arizona-based cover band Rock Lobster, and games.
Five dollars from each ticket sold was donated to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Phoenix. Chavira, who has volunteered at the charity, specifically chose the charity because of its concept — providing homes for families that are facing serious illnesses and injuries.
In the future, Chavira and his team plan to keep the festival downtown while expanding the concept to other cities.
“This is their first year, and basically, we’re gonna iron out the kinks,” said volunteer Nilla Miranda. “We didn’t expect it to be this good of an outcome. I’m really happy, the vendors are happy, everyone is really happy.”
Contact the reporter at Olusayo.Akao@asu.edu.
