Get the best taste of Taste Edmonds with our guide to the festival’s food

EDMONDS — This year’s Taste Edmonds festival puts the emphasis on “taste.”

For four decades, the city’s best restaurateurs and food trucks from around the region have set up shop in downtown Edmonds to offer attendees just a little bite of what the town has to offer. Stroll down 5th Street and take in local musicians, pop into one of the quaint shops that lines the main drag, or just revel in all the delicious smells that swirl around you.

This year, visitors will be treated to selections from three of the region’s hottest chefs under one roof. At the heart of the festival’s three days of deliciousness is the Chef’s Tent, where these local stars will be cooking up signature dishes inspired by their disparate roots and Edmonds’s burgeoning food scene.

Festivalgoers can look forward to burgers crafted by Seattle culinary legend Ethan Stowell and Chino-Latino fusion fare from rising star Jose Garzon, as well as fan favorites from longtime Edmonds empresario Shubert Ho.

The one thing the chefs share, besides menus that’ll make you want to drop everything and buy tickets right now? A desire to spotlight Edmonds as an up-and-coming destination with a growing food scene that’s all its own.

For Ryan Crowther, president and CEO of the Edmonds Chamber of Commerce, the Chef’s Tent is all about bringing Edmonds foodies together under one big, well, tent. He sees the annual fest, expected to bring up to 12,000 people into the city’s core over the festival weekend, as a prime chance to show off what Edmonds is made of.

“An important theme that took a lot of our focus this year was how to get back to making this event about Edmonds,” Crowther said. “I think the food scene in Edmonds has really become a strong identity for the city, and I think Taste Edmonds is a great event to showcase some of these amazing things happening in this space. That’s not something that will be perfectly done in a year or two, and while we’re proud of this year’s additions, we feel like this year’s success will build interest and confidence for other brands and businesses.”

Want to start planning your route through the Edmonds culinary odyssey right now? Read on to learn more about the fest’s featured chefs, food truck options and more.

Chef Shubert Ho

As head of FeedMe Hospitality, the driving force behind Edmonds mainstays like Fire and the Feast and Salt and Iron, Shubert Ho has been an integral part of the city’s food scene nearly from the very beginning. This will be his first year participating in Taste Edmonds as a food vendor, serving up favorites from Bar Dojo’s menu under the Chef’s Tent all three days of the fest.

Ho’s concepts never made it to the fest before this year due to the relatively high cost of participation for smaller restaurants like his. But this year is different thanks to the investments made in local spots by festival organizers, he said.

“Ryan and his team at the Chamber have brought some new life to the Taste, and created a new energy that has piqued our interest,” Ho said. “I think the Chef’s Tent really brings in focus to what the Taste of Edmonds used to be, which was an actual sampling of local culinary arts.”

The menu for Ho’s tenure under the tent features Asian-inspired nachos, a perennial elevated bar-food staple for Bar Dojo regulars. It’s the perfect canvas for the creative, playful twists on classic flavors Ho is known for — plus, it’s portable enough to savor as you stroll through the rest of the fest’s offerings.

For a taste of the ocean, give his poke nachos a try. Marinated ahi tuna and unagi top wonton chips drizzled liberally with sriracha mayo and cilantro aioli. Furikake, a Japanese seasoning blend featuring dried seaweed, adds another layer of briny marine goodness, along with sliced red jalapenos to awaken the taste buds.

Or stay landlocked with the pork belly nachos, which hew a little closer to nacho tradition without ever approaching the ordinary. Tortilla chips serve as the base for lemon-honey glazed pork belly and cheese sauce, and a slaw of pickled cucumbers and chilies is a refreshing, crunchy garnish blanketing the whole thing.

For the less adventurous among festivalgoers, Ho brings a simple favorite — kids’ nachos, adorned simply with gooey orange cheese.

Chef Jose Garzon

Jose Garzon knows he’s courting controversy when he says he hates tacos.

But wait, don’t start writing your hate mail yet! A former traveling musician who toured the globe before settling down to launch several restaurant and pop-up concepts in and around Seattle, Garzon just wants diners to know there’s more to Latino food than burritos and tacos.

His four dining concepts all revolve around Latin American street food, the kind of meals you eat quickly between bar hop stops or after the club closes. His original pop-up, Garzon Latinx Street Food, now has a permanent home serving papas fritas and choripan sandwiches in Seattle’s Black Cat Bar, and you can occasionally score grab-and-go fare at Everett’s own Scuttlebutt Brewing.

Many of his dishes marry components of Chinese and Latin cuisine, a byproduct of Asian immigration to South America that Garzon grew up eating in Ecuador. His most recent launch, Chifa Baby!, centers this fusion through a tradition known as chifa. The word comes from a Cantonese root meaning “to eat rice,” Garzon said, and it fuses Chinese cooking techniques with traditional Latin American ingredients and traditions.

“I didn’t grow up eating burritos or tacos, I grew up eating noodles and rice and fried bread that came out of this tradition,” Garzon said. “I want Western Washington to get a taste of this kind of food because it’s just so exciting in a place that’s more used to the same kind of cookie-cutter Latin cuisine.”

The chef’s menu at Taste Edmonds will feature two comfort food staples of chifa-style cuisine, each with Garzon’s signature twist.

The soba noodle saltado bowl, a veggie-heavy take on the Peruvian chifa classic lomo saltado, will feature fresh tomatoes, cilantro, scallions and red onion tossed with Garzon’s own umami bomb jus sauce. A rice bowl topped with crispy pork belly, savory stewed lentils and salsa criolla, a chunky Argentinian condiment featuring bell peppers, onions and chilies, will satisfy anyone seeking something a little heartier after a long day of concerts and cornhole tournaments.

Garzon got his start taking his pop-ups between Seattle and Edmonds, Everett or Lake Stevens, so he sees his stint under the Chef’s Tent at Taste Edmonds as a chance to reunite with his earliest fans and supporters and show them he’s made good.

“Edmonds just has a huge place in my heart because it’s such a unique place where the food community is so welcoming and supportive, and the people who come out to eat expect something really good every time,” Garzon said. “I’m excited to show them what we got.”

Chef Ethan Stowell

To most Western Washington foodies, Ethan Stowell needs no introduction. The chef and cookbook author’s company, Ethan Stowell Restaurants, helms 21 locations centered around greater Seattle with outposts in Spokane and New York City. Choose from an artfully plated fine dining experience at How to Cook a Wolf, casual beers and pizza at Ballard Pizza Company or handmade rustic pasta at Tavolàta, but you’re practically guaranteed a memorable (and delicious) experience.

Stowell is currently planning a new Victor Tavern location for Edmonds’s own downtown at the Main Street Commons — his first venture into Snohomish County — expected to open by early 2024. So the chef’s featured role at Taste Edmonds is the perfect way to introduce the brand to locals and get some buzz going, said Sennen David, ESR’s vice president of marketing and culture.

“Edmonds has had a vibrant and inspiring food scene for a long, long time and it just keeps getting better,” David said. “We consider ourselves to be extremely fortunate that we will soon have a place alongside so many restaurants that we think the world of.”

Under the Chef’s Tent, Stowell will be slinging the Victory Burger all three days of the fest. It’s elegant in its simplicity, like so many of Stowell’s finely tuned offerings: A juicy beef patty between brioche buns slathered with secret sauce and topped with lettuce, onion, sweet pickle and American cheese. A summery cucumber salad will round out their menu with a refreshing crunch.

The burger is the namesake offering at the upcoming Edmonds tavern and its two existing outposts in downtown Seattle and South Lake Union, said David, and the perfect entry point for those new to Stowell’s concepts or just anyone looking for some quintessential summer fare.

“The Victory Burger is central to the Victor Tavern’s modern Pacific Northwest tavern menu,” David said. “We thought this would be an ideal introduction for our new neighbors and obviously a great thing to eat at a festival on a summer day.”

Food truck fare

The three culinary giants under the big tent have you covered for all kinds of savory delights, but food trucks from near and far will round out the roster with more amazing food than you could ever hope to sample in three short days. Read on for some highlights.

• Ryan’s REZipes: The Tulalip-based food truck has gained a cult following for its sumptuous burgers, kalbi beef street tacos and of course, its famous frybread — served with a sweet and fruity topping or pulling double duty as hamburger buns. Try the cheesy pulled pork tacos (3 for $10) for a truly over-the-top treat.
• Seoul Hotdog: This counter-serve stand with locations in Lynnwood and Federal Way takes its show on the road with Korean-style hot dogs loaded with crispy potatoes, gooey cheese and sweet-spicy gochujang sauce. Get an all-beef hot dog on a stick encrusted with spuds ($7.50) or go for broke with their mozza dog ($7) — the same concept, but replace “hot dog” with “melty, stretchy stick of mozzarella cheese.”
• Browned and Toasted: Take cane sugar and toast it to bring out a complex, caramelized essence, then whip it into feathery, bouncy marshmallows and mix that with browned butter — the nutty, toasty nectar of the pastry gods — and you’ve got Browned and Toasted’s handcrafted marshmallow crispy treats. The Lake Forest Park-based truck melts their scratch-made marshmallow base into flavors like mint chocolate, orange cream and peanut butter, but don’t sleep on the original recipe for a true taste of its quality ingredients.
• Sweet Wheels: When homemade cookies and freshly churned ice cream get together, it’s hard to go wrong. Sweet Wheels has the ride for you with their Corvette, a classic chocolate chip cookie sandwiched with vanilla ice cream, or the T-Bird, a buttery shortbread round with huckleberry ice cream filling. Ask for the Malibu, a vegan and gluten-free chocolate-on-chocolate confection, for all the flavor without any dairy. Or recaffeinate sweetly with the truck’s cold brew ice cream float.

Riley Haun: 425-339-3192; riley.haun@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @RHaunID.