A section of SOMA (South on Main) was blocked off Saturday morning for the Cornbread Festival,
which was making its return after covid stopped it 3 years ago. It was a gorgeous day to be outside and it was a party atmosphere. There were vendors
along with 14 competitors offering a wide array of cornbread. Some vendors just served cornbread, while others accompanied it with beans or chili, and one really tasty one was a crabcake cornbread with a seafood topping. Early on they had trays available to make carrying the food around a bit easier,
but they did run out of those. Experienced attendees brought muffin trays from home. Anyone could come down and explore for free, but if you wanted to sample the cornbread, you had to buy a ticket and get a wristband. They had 1000 tickets and they sold out. Each taster also got a token to award to their favorite cornbread. We had three people in our group, so we divided and conquered, each standing in a different line and getting three samples, and then we met up and shared. I have to admit, I am not a huge cornbread fan, but we had great fun. Katie and I had our top two as the cornbread cookie topped with blueberry jam, whipped butter and a slice of mild jalapeno
from The Bagel Shop, and the vegan/gluten free option from The Root Cafe--which won. Clay voted for Trio's. The return of the festival was supposedly smaller than in the past. There were no "judges" just peoples choice voting. My guess is the festival will be bigger and better next year, since this one was such a success.