Northeast Riverfeast highlights Northeast restaurants
1September 18, 2012 by Sarah M
//By Jeremy Zoss//
The first annual Northeast Riverfeast will be held this Saturday at the Grain Belt Brewery from 1 – 6 p.m. Hosted by the Northeast Chamber of Commerce, the event is intended to highlight the history of the area as well as its current food offerings and will raise money for charities chosen by festival attendees. Participants will be able to sample food and drinks from several vendors, including two new catering services from the owners of the Bulldog NE and Jax Café.
Bulldog NE owners Chris and Amy Rowland will debut their new company, Stray Dog Catering, at the event. Stray Dog is a separate business from the Bulldog NE, but will serve burgers from the restaurant’s menu.
“We’re going to have the same great burgers we have at the bulldog, but we’re also going to have these great flatbreads, porkbelly paninis and things like that too,” said Amy Rowland. “We’re going to try to do a food truck eventually and we’re just going to try to do some fun stuff with off-site catering.”
Stray Dog Catering’s offerings at the Northeast Riverfeast will include pumpkin-inspired beer cupcakes and homemade Ho-Hos.
Jax Café will also be highlighting its catering service at the event. Owner Bill Kozlak said Jax has been doing some catering for a while, but the Riverfeast will serve as “unofficial formal” debut of the service.
“We’ve been doing it for a little bit. We’ve been doing some concessions at TCF Bank Stadium and Mariucci Arena and some graduation parties and stuff,” said Kozlak. “So we added some equipment and a vehicle to make it official now.”
Jax’s offerings at the Riverfeast will include Polish nachos, bacon-wrapped hot dogs and tater tots. Kozlak said the catering service can provide dishes like those as others more suited to formal events, such as poached salmon and carved tenderloin.
“A lot of it is tailor-made menus for each event,” said Kozlak. “We’ve done informal parties and formal stuff like board meetings.”
Like Stray Dog Catering and Jax Café, each participating restaurant will have a festival-only item and highlights from its menu. Beverages include Grain Belt Beer and wine from Southern Wines. Northeast-based bands like Joey Ryan & The Inks and Romantica will perform.
Kozlak said events like Riverfeast are a great way to highlight the various attractions that can be found in Northeast.
“We’ve been here 79 years and I just love the direction the neighborhood is headed,” he said. “I love Northeast and I love people coming into the area.”
Tickets for Northeast Riverfeast are available now or at the door for $10. For advance tickets, visit tempotickets.com/riverfeast.
The Journal Mpls 
This was a great event and am delighted I was able to attend. I’m a self proclaimed “foodie”, so I enjoyed trying all of the different catering that was brought in. Looking forward to next year!