Fork and Cork

Money wasted. First you pay to enter the festival and then pay separately for each food item.

I thought Fork and Cork was great. My fiancée and I each paid $ 15 to enter. Then, there were lots of really great food vendors. Sure, you still had to pay for food, but everything was really cheap. I got to try food from so many restaurants that I had been planning to visit. I’m pretty sure the music was put on by The Range, which was awesome. It’s great to hear local country bands. I didn’t see many kids there. So I don’t understand that complaint. I also appreciated the liquor tastings put on by Goody Goody and the food education tent.
My only complaint was the beer selection. It was run by Anheuser Busch. So, there was no decent beer. It would have been really nice to be able to use my drink card to get local brews from Lakewood, Franconia, Deep Ellum, Rahr, and others. That’s the one area that Fork and Cork could really improve upon.

Don’t waste your money on Fork and Cork in Addison. It is $ 30 a couple, entrance fee, before buying tickets to purchase food from restaurant venders. We waited to buy ice cream from Henry’s, we stood there 45 minutes, 2:15 to 3:00, no one was there to sell us ice cream, although a chalk board read, we will be «right back». Eighty percent of the venders were not set up to sell food until 1:00. The small food samples averaged $ 6 a piece, for TINY bites. Smoke was the only vender, smart enough not to charge anything, he won me over as a customer forever… what class. This event is the best advertising for restaurants, right in the public eye, and they are dumb enough to charge for tiny, embarrassing samples? No interesting art or jewelry vendors there. Instead, go to the Deep Ellum Arts Festival, they do it right, there is NO ENTRANCE fee, this is a smarter way to go.

I live next door at Addison Circle, so I walked over to check it out. $ 65. To walk inside. Then you wait in line and the vendors act like they do you a favor by giving out samples you paid for. Half the available booths were empty. This is branded as a food event, but the only value was the wine and I wasn’t drinking. They passed out tiny, one bite, potato laden (CHEAP) appetizers, mostly vegetarian, while carnival barkers at booths try to get you to sign up for stuff. The live music was lousy. I was ticked off enough to ask for a refund.
I didn’t drink a drop, or eat a bite, and was in maybe 10 minutes max. I finally was met by Keila, who told me she’d call me on Monday to see «if» they would give me a refund. I overheard one worker suggest that I ate and drank and was now asking for a refund. Also unacceptable.
If you’re reading this and just as disappointed as I was, post a 1-​star review right now. And no, the website did NOT accurately advertise. I understand it was a TASTING, but waiting in line behind 20 people for one bite is unacceptable.

Can I give zero stars? Why take one of the best festivals in D/​FW and change it? This event is pompous, expensive and boring. Save your time and money folks. The only good part is how easy it is to get around since the crowd is so small. Please admit this experiment is a failure.

Worst event in north tx, bring back the taste of
Addison! Was one of the best festivals my family truly enjoyed. Don’t know why you changed to cork the fork better drop who is in charge of this
Poor decision ! Will be attending wild flower fest
In Richardson, much more enjoyable… bye Addison !

I don’t really understand all of the poor reviews for this event. I personally had a blast and was introduced to some restaurants that I wasn’t familiar with. The food was delicious, the drinks were a little small (oh well!), and the concert was fantastic.
I like the idea that they raised the ticket price because it kept out some of the riff raff and crazy party people. I also liked that it was an adults only event and that I wasn’t constantly tripping over children. I’m only 28 and can appreciate a calmer event with better food and decent drinks.
No one tried to mask this event as the new ToA. It was meant to be something totally different, and my boyfriend and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Let me start out by saying that I attended with free tickets I won at the Dallas Iron Fork. They did a a terrible job explaining the five restaurant free tastings from Abacus, Belly & Trumpet, Casa Rubia, Oak, and Pakpao are in the the southeast corner not in the grand tasting area. They packed everyone into a tiny area and gave you cards limiting your drinks. And the drinks were not even drinks. Their were 3 vodkas and they would pour you a ¼ oz in a tiny shot glass and that was it. No mix drink, nothing. The beer was served in taster cups.
They had ice cream and mixed nuts as the food in there. It was so sad the layout. I am just thankful I found the free tastings that were in a completely different area. The restaurants there said no one was coming over there and I let them know they needed to tell people where it was because we found it on accident.
They either need to lower the price and have you pay for food or raise it and offer all free food. They way it is now it awful and unless I get free tickets I will not be going again next year. Not to mention now it is 21 and up so no families allowed.

Let me start out by saying that I attended with free tickets I won at the Dallas Iron Fork. Not that I was a particularly big fan of Taste Addison, but them replacing that event with this event was a horrible idea.
We got there around 1, got a beverage & attempted to enter a spirits tasting only to be told I couldn’t bring my drink in because of TABC rules?
My free tickets were only the general admission which had a face value of $ 35. My theory on the reason for the price increase is that food would be included as there were 5 guest restaurants & an area called the Grand Tasting Area.
The guest restaurants did have free samples of one item each but I never got to try Abacus as it seemed they were always out & Casa Rubia brought in Strawberry Gazpatcho… WTF?
The Grand Tasting Area was another TABC restricted area that you couldn’t bring outside drinks into. We also got a tasting card that had check boxes for beer, wine, & liquor. You were allowed 12 2 oz beer tastings or 6 1oz of wine/​liquor. The lines were long & the pours were short & even got carded once by a tequila rep at an event that was 21+. They were also selling more cards when you got into this area but you could not leave and come back in. The «free food» they had in this area mainly consisted of nuts, bread, & dips.
Bottom line, it sucked bad & had I paid I would given less than 1 star. Addison should have never gotten rid of Taste Addison… it sucked less.

Fork and Cork was branded as an adult only culinary event intended to replaced Taste of Addison. I assume a marketing agency was paid big bucks to rebrand and refresh Addison’s Taste but unfortunately Fork and Cork fell flat.
For starters the event was held outside in Addison Circle (the same location as Taste) and was setup in a very similar manner. The only thing missing was the carnival rides and kids. Secondly the price of Fork and Cork was $ 35 — $ 100 compared to the $ 5 — $ 10 for Taste. The general ticket price included «coupons» referred to as «gift certificates» to restaurants such as Chamberlain’s and Texas de Brazil. Ticket prices also included entrance to a tasting area which was primarily beer vendors handing out up to five small samples per person. Everything else cost additional money (prices similar to Taste). Missing were funnel cakes and corndogs. The restaurants that participated are usually at Taste and the selection was limited.
So what was new? There were cooking demo tents and Chef Marcus Samuelsson was on the main stage for a demo. Marcus’ demo was enjoyable but cumbersome. VIP ticket holders (those who paid $ 100) were guaranteed samples and four people from the VIP section were invited on the stage briefly. For those of us in the general section, samples were limited so people were rushing to the stage to grab them and depending on where you were seated, getting up was difficult if not impossible. I never even tried. To his credit, Marcus Samuelsson was very personable. He hung out after his demo and took pictures and shook hands.
If there was no Taste of Addison I may have given this event four stars but comparing it to Taste, I think Fork and Cork was worse and I ultimately saw no reason not to continue it as a family event and allow children. It would have been nicer to keep Taste as is and add the cooking demos to beef up the culinary experience.
Overall the experience was ok. I visited the restaurant booths that I always visit at Taste and enjoyed the food. However I won’t be returning until the Taste of Addison returns.