Unexpected crowds, changed plans
/Today was the first Seattle Ice Cream Festival, so Melody and I decided to check it out, grabbing lunch beforehand.
Once we got to Capitol Hill, we walked up the stairs to Vostok Dumpling House, since I hadn't been there. Unfortunately, it was closed (apparently they sometimes aren't open when they normally would be; may be due to lack of business during some hours), so we ended up next door at Marination Station; Melody had a taco, and I had a couple sliders.
The festival was supposed to start at noon, so it was hard to know how many people would be there. By the time we got to Chophouse Row at 12:30, the block in front of it was already packed with people.
Chophouse row is on the left of the photo, where the shorter building is. I got into line while Melody walked around to figure out what was going on; within about five minutes another 20–30 people got into line behind me. Ends up the line I was in was for Parfait (the brown truck), and there were other lines for other stands.
Molly Moon and Full Tilt were the other trucks out front. Molly Moon also had a woman giving out samples along the buildings.
Chophouse Row is an alley between a couple buildings; it's been partially covered over and there are storefronts inside, one of them being Kurt Farm Shop, which sells ice cream and cheese.
This view is from the back of the alley facing towards the street where the food trucks were; Kurt Farm Shop is past the open doors in the middle of the photo, and the line into the store was long. Gelatiamo was on the right side right near the opening near the top of the photo. That, plus the people moving towards the stands near where I was standing made for very slow going.
These stands were just past where I was standing for the photo above. Fewer people ventured this far back, but there were still impressive lines.
This set of vendors was around the corner from the main alley; for the previous couple photos I was on the landing on the left.
Not feeling like waiting in the lines for ice cream, but still wanting some, we started seeking a place to get some.We knew that Cupcake Royale would be crowded, since it was a few storefronts away (and has a back door into Chophouse Row), so we decided to walk up to Bluebird, about a block up. Also crowded.
We ended up going yet another block to Gnocchi Bar, which serves D'Ambrosio Gelato. As you can see, it wasn't crowded, but when we arrived, almost all the tables were full, so it was pretty tight navigating towards the gelato case.
It seems there were many more people than the even organizers anticipated, and I'm sure that for all the people who stood in lines, many more people went elsewhere. We weren't one of the die hards to wait, but in the end we had our ice cream, and that's what counts.