Mac-n-cheese Bowl taking to the streets
Capitalizing on the city’s embrace of outdoor dining with its popular Eat in the Streets promotion that began during the pandemic and returned this year, the 12th timesunion.com/table Hopping Mac-n-cheese Bowl will take place on a blocked-off Remsen Street on Saturday, March 26.
The event, a fundraiser for the the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York, has brought in more than $400,000 since its launch in 2010. It features mac-n-cheese samples from area restaurants and was held most often in late winter or early spring at an athletic center at Siena College in Loudonville, attracting about 2,000 people annually. The 2020 event was canceled when the rising coronavirus pandemic prompted Siena to close the facility a few days before the Mac-n-cheese Bowl was to have been held, and a drive-through format was used earlier this year during the winter surge of COVID-19 cases.
Saying the food bank was determined to bring back the Mac-n-cheese Bowl as an inperson event, development director Caitlyn Krug said in a statement, “With the community’s continued support, the Mac & Cheese Bowl will raise muchneeded funds to help meet the increased need caused by the ongoing pandemic.” Krug said she believes the outdoor setting will help allay lingering health concerns about large gatherings.
“We are excited to welcome the annual Mac-n-cheese Bowl to its new home in downtown Cohoes,” the city’s mayor, Bill Keeler, said via email. He said,
“Historic Remsen Street is the perfect outdoor venue to celebrate and support the essential work of the Regional Food Bank.”
The revitalization of downtown Cohoes in recent years, centered on Remsen Street, has seen the opening of multiple restaurants and other dining options as well as breweries. Krug said bringing the Mac-ncheese
Bowl to the Spindle City offers a chance to help boost its businesses and grow the fundraiser beyond the size and opportunities possible with an indoor event, including with more vendors and perhaps entertainment from Playhouse Stage Company, which is headquartered at the Cohoes Music Hall on Remsen Steet. Krug said she envisioned a
thriving outdoor event analogous to chowder festivals in Troy and Saratoga Springs that, at least pre-pandemic, attracted far larger attendance than the Mac-ncheese Bowl.
The duration of the event, likely held in the afternoon, has yet to be decided, as has the pricing structure. In the past, a flat admission of $20 covered samples from all participating
restaurants, but, Krug said, that might be changed to ticketed samples, similar to the chowder festivals.
The Mac-n-cheese Bowl was suggested as a fundraiser for the food bank more than a decade ago by a reader of the Table Hopping blog. It was created and is run by food bank staff, with timesunion.com and Table Hopping as principal sponsors.