A Sausage Party Goes Down in Midtown
LowBrau took over the MARRS building to host its inaugural Sausage Fest on Oct. 21, showcasing music, fashion and, of course, sausages.
It’s October 2017 and Oktoberfest has started. The downtown/midtown area is lively with the standard Oktoberfest vibes that is lederhosen and beer. But entrepreneur Michael Hargis, co-owner of LowBrau, and his team at This Is Midtown didn’t think that was the way to go.
“Just to do a traditional event didn’t seem very much like us, didn’t seem very much like Midtown and definitely didn’t seem much like Lavender Heights,” said Hargis referring to the LGBT neighborhood surrounding LowBrau. “We wanted to do things that are German but put our own fun spin on it.” And that’s how Sausagefest came to be. “Just a way to celebrate the independent spirit of Midtown,” Hargis added.
The event included a hot dog eating contest and fashion show, but the main event of the day was the sausage creations made by 10 executive chefs. “They will be battling for tubed meat supremacy,” Hargis said. “And I think we have an amazing cast of bad-asses that are gonna bring it with their sausages.”
The local chefs included Dane Blom from Hawks, Tyler Bond from Kru, Keith Breedlove from Culinerdy, Brad Cecchi from Canon, Jonathan Kerksieck from Esquire, Matt Masera from Hook and Ladder, Eric V. Miller from V. Miller Meats, Oliver Ridgeway from Grange, Adam Schulze from The Waterboy, and Mike Thiemann from Empress Tavern. Each chef was given a pork sausage to use as a base for creating a unique sausage for the competition. Prior to the start of the event you could walk by and see Hargis and his team scrambling to organize last-minute tasks: pacing back and forth between Lowbrau and trucks; pulling out tables and itineraries; distributing ice, sausages and other items to the chefs.
The chefs were very laid back and could be seen prepping their grills and their stations for the incoming crowds while talking to their fellow chefs and grabbing a beer or two. Through socializing and beers, the chefs gave the appearance of friends getting together to grill rather than, to compete. But actually, some just came to win.
“I am definitely here to compete,” Schultze said. “But with that being said, every one of these guys in the booth I know. We are all friends, we all know each other. We all know that once we see each other’s names on the list that it is not gonna be an easy win.”
Other chefs were just excited to be there. “We’re a food truck,” said Breedlove, of Culinerdy. “We do not get invited to these cool stuff,” insisting that it’s just fun to see his fellow chefs that he has worked with before and that for him, Sausagefest is all just for fun. Breedlove’s dish was Thai inspired, his way of trying to break away from boring things. He blended rice into the sausage, which he says is how they decided on calling it the Boo Dan and created a vegan, gluten-free sauce to go with it.
Others tried to add international influences on the simpler side. Kerksieck said his sausages were designed from his love of Calabria chilies and Italian food. “I’m doing an Calabria chili and fennel sausage on a [homemade] ciabatta roll,” he said. “Clean — no mustard, no mayonnaise, no ketchup, no dressing.” Schulze said he got more of his inspiration from his family life: “I have two young boys, so they’re eating hot dogs, and I always had this dream of making a foie gras hotdog, and so that’s what we did. It [Sausagefest] was a perfect opportunity for me to have fun, ” he said.
Ridgeway chose a path closer to his English roots, saying that he wanted to not only represent where he’s from but also Sausagefest itself. So, he created a sausage roll: “A Banger sausage-bang, which is British-wrapped in puff pastry and baked,” he said. “We have some English mustard, and we have some HP sauce… and my inspiration was home and growing up eating lots of sausages.”
As the event started and onlookers, as well as LowBrau guest, traveled into the event grounds, things picked up fast. The crowd grew, and walking and sitting room diminished, and more smoke seemed to fill the air as the chefs tried to keep up with customers. But getting to stuff a few sausages in your mouth didn’t come for free. To try each chef’s dish and get two free beers, guests had to purchase a $25 ticket. However, it was free to get in and enjoy the other activities that were being held throughout the day.
As the night grew on, more and more people joined in, as it was hard to miss the numerous Sausagefest banners of a personified sausage wearing a crown and toting a glass of beer, as well as the loud music and posted law enforcement by the entryways. Later on into the night, festivalgoers got a chance to see the hot dog eating contest, but not just any-old hotdog eating contest. This one was between local drag queens like Mercury Rising, Apple, LezHe West and Jenna Clyde, as well as LowBrau executive pastry chef Edward “Ed” Martinez. They had three minutes to eat as many hot dogs as they could. Martinez, who won the competition by chowing down eight hotdogs, joked, “I haven’t had this many hot dogs since I was locked up.”
Not long after the hot dog eating contest was over, the chefs were running out of sausage and they were packing up which signaled that it was time to hand out trophies to the best sausage maker. The winners were decided by those in attendance who purchased a ticket, upon entry they were given tokens to hand out to their favorite sausage creator. After the tokens were counted, Dane Blom had come in third place, while Cecchi won second prize. The winner was Adam Schulze.
Schulze said the win was a complete surprise that blew him away, especially since he had some doubts before the competition. He added that he knows the perfect place in his house to put the trophy: right next to his other trophies. Before Schulze left, he gave some last words to future competitors, “They should be scared if my name is on the list,” he said.
For the unlucky ones who missed the event this year, it is not the end just yet. Hargis said he intends to make it an annual event while also maintaining creativity — switching things up each year and bringing out more artists and chefs. “Ultimately our plan is to produce the best party we know how to produce, for free, on the street and give back to the community,” Hargis said.
