Hot Luck Fest, Aaron Franklin’s Homage to Austin Food, Drink and Music, Wraps Up

It has been an unusual but fun four days. The Hot Luck Festival is winding down to its final Sunday brunch at L’Oca d’Oro after a rousing beginning at Franklin Barbecue earlier this week. I’m not sure if this city really needs another festival, but after popping in to a few events I must say that it was well-executed and obviously well-planned. Hell, bring on next year’s … I’m ready!

The cool part of all of this was that it was manned by local and national chefs who exult in feeding hungry people. Franklin, Roy Choi (of the famous Kogi Korean barbecue restaurants and trucks) Rene Ortiz, Laura Sawicki, Bryce Gilmore, Andrew Wisehart, Nong Poonsukwattana (wildly popular Thai chef from Portland, Oregon), Ben Runkle (of Austin’s Salt & Time), Jennifer Rucker (of Jeffrey’s), and even more Portland chefs including Adam Sappington and Joshua McFadden.

Franklin’s co-founder of this adventure is Mike Thelin, who has some background in this area, to say the least. I’m not really sure how one pairs food with music, but they took a stab at it and it was fun.

Congrats to all involved. I look forward to more Hot Luck!