Just a few new food vendors will debut at Artscape, but no one's going to go hungry.
Crowds that flock to the festival to admire the art and — let's face it — eat and eat and eat will have nearly 60 concessionaires to choose from.
Some of their offerings will be deep-fried fair fare, like the beer-battered fish hotdog from one of the five new vendors this year. But there also will be plenty of healthful choices, such as vegan dishes, grilled chicken and fresh-fruit smoothies.
For the past two years, the good-for-you stuff had been consolidated in a "green food court" by the Charles Theatre. But this year, Artscape organizers decided to sprinkle those vendors among the cotton candy and cheese steaks so people don't have to schlep so far to reach them. The move is sure to be appreciated by parents whose children suddenly have to eat NOW.
"We did mix it up this year," said Tracy Baskerville, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts. "With Artscape being so large, sometimes trying to get up that way, you might not make it."
One of the new vendors this year is Josef's Country Inn in Fallston, which will serve flatbread pizzas. Two others offer products that sound like ordinary festival fare — hot dogs and roasted nuts — but with a twist.
United Franks of America, a Fairfax, Va.-based outfit that did its first festival in May, will serve a fish dog along with the more ordinary variety.
"Our fish hot dog is about a foot long — a piece of codfish — beer-battered and fried, put in a hoagie bun," said Katie Horvick, owner of United Franks. That is served with "Boom Boom Sauce," which she described as a spicy-sweet tartar sauce.
Not the most healthful way to get your omega-3s, perhaps, but a tasty option for people who don't want a beef dog, Horvick said. It sells for $6.
"It's great," she said. "It looks like a hot dog, but it's something new and interesting for people who don't eat meat. It's a different option."
A Florida pair who call themselves "A Couple of Nuts" are also newcomers to Artscape this year.
"We are selling cinnamon-and-sugar roasted almonds and pecans," said Nancy Fortwangler of Coral Springs, Fla., who runs the business with her husband, Jim.
The 62-year-old retirees — he from the mortgage banking field, she from advertising and giftware sales — decided after traveling the country for a while in their RV that they should make some money along the way. Last year, they started working festivals up and down the East Coast and as far west as Chicago.
Their nuts are not roasted in oil and only lightly dusted in sugar. And cinnamon is an antioxidant, Nancy noted. The nuts cost $5 for a four-ounce bag, or two bags for $8.
"It's healthier for you," she said. "Cinnamon's good for you, nuts are good for you and the sugar — you're walking around, sweating, seeing the rest of the show — it's a little bit of sugar. You might as well go for two out of three.
"We actually had a cardiologist stop at one of our shows and complimented us on what a good, healthy snack we were selling. It was the only one he would buy."
Not that the rest of the Artscape menu is all funnel cakes and onion rings (though those certainly can be had). Thai and turkey legs, West Indian and Indian Indian, vegan and barbecue, crepes and crab cakes, smoothies and sausages, falafel and gyros, Greek and Mexican will also be part of the mix.