Fans of the celebrity chef Guy Fieri braved the hottest day of the Stagecoach Country Music Festival on Sunday, April 28, to get a taste of what he had cooked at his Stagecoach Smokehouse.
Before the daily cooking demonstrations, Fieri and his esteemed guest chefs took the time to engage with their fans. They posed for photos, autographed cowboy hats, and even shared fist bumps with the eager crowd, patiently waiting for grilled and smoked delights.
Sunday’s cooking demonstrations featured Chris Conger and Rashad Jones and later invited country stars Hardy and Bailey Zimmerman for their evening demo. The smokehouse has become a tradition at the country festival, where chefs talk shop and give fans some insight on how to season, cook and shop for different cuts of meat.
“I’m a big fan of Guy’s show, and I watch everything he does,” Joseph Evans said. “I think it’s cool that we can get to taste the food of all these different chefs who come out here and cook for this festival. When I think of country food, I mostly think Southern food, but some of the people I’ve tasted here and from the years before have been from other parts of the U.S. that I don’t have the means to visit.”
This year’s layout and the locations for the other barbeque spots complimented it were different. The smokehouse was housed next to the Craft Beer Garden, which was great for fans who wanted to drink and get samples. However, the new location had little shade, and the fence for fans to wait behind as samples were passed out was more limited, making it harder to get to the front.
If attendees didn’t get a chance to get more than a few barbeque samples and instead opted to find a plate or a sandwich, they’d have to go on a little bit of a hunt. There were three different locations for food booths, not including in the VIP section, that had various options mixed into the fray.
Some of the food offered at the fest can be described as barbeque adjacent, meaning the dishes had some barbeque meat toppings on sides such as fries or mac and cheese, that cost an upwards of $20. If festivalgoers were looking for more traditional barbeque brisket and ribs, on its own there was only a couple of booths serving it.
There was Porky’s, the more sit-down style restaurant curated by daily chef Aaron May, which included deep-fried baby back ribs ($18), a pulled pork sandwich ($18) and a smoked brisket taco ($16). The restaurant did serve these more traditional options, but it was still somewhat limited.
“I heard that there was going to be barbeque here from friends who came to this before, so I did want to try Guy’s food, but I wish there were somewhere we could go buy the food he was giving out,” Marcus Estrada said.
Another spot that had some variety was Da Big Show, which served a chopped brisket sandwich ($22), a pulled pork sandwich ($22), deep-fried bacon-wrapped pork belly on a stick ($25) and pork belly burnt ends ($25).
The festival had lots of vegan and vegetarian options that seemed to be popular, with lines rivaling other meat-focused booths. Anthony and Stephanie Navarro were looking for a place to grab lunch and stood in line for Monty’s Good Burger without realizing it was plant-based.
“Wait, this is vegan?” Anthony Navarro asked. “I thought it was just a burger or a sandwich we could grab.”
“I don’t mind vegan food,” Stephanie Navarro said. “I was just looking to get something more barbeque style here.”
“I guess we have to find another spot to eat,” Anthony Navarro said before stepping out of line.
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