Green, creamy feast draws avocado crowd

More than 40 dishes with the fruit give fans plenty to sample at festival

Laurel Davis’ brother was flying across the country to visit her in San Francisco, so she made a list of 15 possible activities.

They could go to the beach, or watch the Giants play the Dodgers, or drive to Alameda to visit the Pacific Pinball Museum. Rick Davis — and his kids, Will, 11, and Abby, 7, — just had to pick. But what caught their eye was something that pretty much screams California: Avocado Con.

Even in New Jersey, avocados have a cult following. Maybe there would be bobbing for the fruit, like Will did for apples on Halloween. There would definitely be guacamole — one of Rick Davis’ favorite foods.

There was just no way to lose on this one for a real avocado fan. Which Rick just happens to be.

“It’s pretty exciting,” he said, walking into SPARK Social SF in Mission Bay, where the event was spread out like an open-air feast on Sunday. “I grew up in Las Vegas having a healthy appetite for all things Mexican, especially anything with guacamole and avocados.”

He was joined by nearly a thousand other aficionados of the green fruit — that’s right, it’s officially not a vegetable — wanting to sample treats from the 30 vendors dishing up more than 40 kinds of avocado-based dishes.

And yes, corny was on the menu too. “We’re avoca-doing it again!” event organizers wrote online. “Don’t get stuck envying the green.”

On this warm and sunny afternoon, parents played soccer with their young children on the lawn and posed for photos with shiny avocado balloons. A band played music while hordes of young people snapped photos of their dishes to post to Instagram. There were avocado crab sandwiches and avocado milkshakes, frozen avocado desserts on a stick and avocado doughnuts shaped to look like the fruit.

There was even a tent selling avocado chocolate cookie dough with a shot of milk.

And there was the classic crowd-pleaser: avocado toast. Sofia Pinzon, 27, mashed it onto fresh bread in a food tent near the outskirts of the park. She wore pink leggings printed with avocados. Her employees had aprons printed with the fruit. Pinzon opened Toasty — a restaurant serving nearly a dozen variations of avocado toast — six months ago in the Marina.

“This was never my plan,” said Pinzon, who was born in Colombia and lived in China for the past six years. “We grew up with avocados being part of our daily life. We always ate them, and there was nothing special about it.”

She gestured to the scene around her, adding:

“Here in California, there’s a huge craze. Avocados are like religion here. I mean, come on, we are at a food festival for avocados.”

Just then, Stephanie Baltazar, 21, and her boyfriend, Tony Lopez, 26, walked past the Toasty tent. The couple had woken up early and driven two hours from Los Banos — just for the chance to eat some unique avocado dishes. Baltazar held a green sheet of paper mapping the location of each vendor.

She learned about Avocado Con during its inaugural year in 2017 but couldn’t make the trip. So this year, they came prepared.

Lopez wore a black T-shirt with an avocado embroidered on the breast. Baltazar wore a

“Here in California, there’s a huge craze. Avocados are like religion here. I mean, come on, we are at a food festival for avocados.” Sofia Pinzon, owner, Toasty restaurant

gray one emblazoned with “avocado-holic.” They each held an avocado ice cream cone. It was a dessert after the fried avocados and avocado bacon burger, and a puffed pastry with the appropriate filling. They had sampled nearly everything — except sushi.

“Everything sounds pretty good,” she said. “I mean, they all include avocados. They’re smooth and silky; you can’t beat the texture. And they’re so cute.”

Baltazar turned to Lopez: “You really just can’t beat a good avocado.”