Pharrell and Pusha T hand-picked local restaurants for Something in the Water
Source: The Virginian Pilot; April 25, 2019
There’s something new in the parking lot of Alkaline restaurant this week: a tractor-trailer full of food.
The refrigerator truck holds box after box of canola oil, chicken tenders, fries, tots, and Duke’s mayo — more than his Norfolk restaurant could ever use in a week.
“I think I ordered like 8,000 steamed buns,” says owner and chef Kevin Ordonez. “Maybe more. I can’t even remember at this point. A lot.”
His restaurant’s ramen and wings were once featured on Guy Fieri’s TV show, but Ordonez has never done anything like what’s in front of him.
Alkaline was one of the 10 or so local restaurants selected to sell food to the 35,000 daily attendees at the Something in the Water festival today through Sunday.
Professional festival vendors will handle most of the traffic. Places like Phat Daddy’s Cajun food and Mazz ‘a’ Mia’s pizza criss-cross the country to hawk their wares at massive events like Coachella and the Florida Strawberry Festival.
“I haven’t even done a festival with a thousand people,” Ordonez said.
To staff up, he’s enlisted help from friends at other businesses — Pendulum Fine Meats, The Cutting Edge Cafe.
He bought 10,000 business cards to hand out, because no branding is allowed from food vendors at their festival booths.
“This is the biggest opportunity we have to showcase our area in years, not just us but Hampton Roads,” Ordonez said.
Ordonez didn’t have connections with the festival. He sent an e-mail to the generic festival e-mail address, and filled out the application they sent.
But other locals were picked by festival luminaries Pharrell Williams and Pusha T.
Chesapeake Jamaican spot Island Jerk Hut was already a favorite of Williams and Pusha T. Owner Richard Downer has catered events for both. Downer said Pusha T’s management team reached out to ask if he’d like to serve his jerk chicken, which was judged best in Hampton Roads in a 2018 Virginian-Pilot taste test.
Downer closed his restaurant this week to prep for the festival.
“The whole week, the past two weeks — that’s what we’re doing. We rented out a refrigerator truck. We’re gonna be filling that truck up with some chicken. I think the truck is bigger than my restaurant.”
Downer is bringing 4,000 pounds of chicken, he says, alongside rice and salad and dumplings.
He plans to move into a larger restaurant space soon, and hopes the extra publicity from the festival will help him reach a broader audience in Hampton Roads.
Williams and Pusha T have long been fans of Feather N Fin, the 50-year-old, local chicken-and-seafood chain. Witness the July 2018 Instagram post in which Pusha T posed in front of the restaurant with a pair of Ferraris.
Owner Tim Roberts, who took over the restaurants from his father five years ago, knew the pair from his years doing production work in Virginia Beach for Gwen Stefani, Justin Timberlake and others.
Roberts said he had contacted Pusha T’s wife about an unrelated matter, and the rapper connected him with Something in the Water.
“We actually got a brand new food truck. We got it just for the festival,” Roberts said.
The truck arrived Tuesday.
“We’ve literally put this food truck together in 27 days. The wrap guys, the hood guys, the fire marshal — everybody was on it at one time. It’s been a real ride.”
Roberts bought 9,000 pounds of chicken, and said he’ll also serve his locally sourced fish sandwiches, because he knows that’s what Williams likes to eat.
“We’re gonna do a special event for Pharrell. He’ll host a party — a private gig. That’s the christening of our food truck.”
Then, just like Alkaline and Island Jerk Hut, Feather N Fin’s staff will sell food at the festival for three days, rain or shine — with a contractual obligation not to run out of food.
Other local vendors include K Squared Cupcakes, Miss Tea’s soul food, Fajita Express, Make Me a Plate seafood truck, Ohana Hawaiian Grill and Taste of Brazil.
Here’s a list of festival vendors, with Virginia restaurants marked with asterisks. The booth vendors will be in tents on the sand; food trucks will be on the boardwalk.
Booth vendors
- Alkaline*
- Black Angus
- Bombay Station
- Corn Dog Inc.
- Efe’s Greek Food
- G Baileys Concessions
- Grapevine Restaurant*
- Humpty’s Dumplings
- Island Jerk Hut*
- K Squared Cupcakes, LLC*
- Mazz ‘a’ Mia’s Pizza
- Mexi Grill
- Miss Teas*
- North End Juice Co.*
- Phat Daddy’s
- Bangarang
- Pretzel Revolution
- Shady Grove Wraps
- Sweet Blendz
- The Beet Box
Food trailers and trucks
- UberEats
- Fajita Express*
- Feather N Fin*
- Make Me A Plate LLC seafood & more*
- Ohana Hawaiian Grill*
- Taste of Brazil*
- Rita’s Waterice
- Mr. Softee
Carts
- King of Pops
VIP section
- Mazz ‘a’ Mia’s
- Mexi Grill
- G Baileys