Summer may be finally giving us a break from the heat, but Columbus Fiery Foods Festival is here to heat things back up! 

The inaugural Columbus Fiery Foods Festival was this past Saturday, August 10, 2019 from 2-10pm at the Columbus Commons showcased the fiery side of life with restaurants, hot sauce and salsa vendors, and exhibitors from around the country. All while benefiting the children’s charity CD102.5 for the Kids.

With 35 vendors that brought their hottest foods, sauces, and salsas, attendees were able to sample BBQ, salsa, hot sauce, sweet treats with a kick, and other specialty items to challenge even the toughest taste buds. If you are one of the brave, you could also participate in the Amature Hot Sauce and Salsa Competition, Hot Pizza Eating Contest (Fiery Death with Hate Sausage from Mikey’s Late Night Slice), Hot Wings Eating Contest, Hot Pepper Eating Contest, and Chili Cook-Off. I witnessed the hot pizza eating contest and you couldn’t pay me to eat that thing, but I was impressed by those that tried!

Tickets to the event included two (12 oz) Yuengling golden pilsners (or two nonalcoholic beverages), a commemorative fork, six spicy food truck samples, and unlimited samples from the hot sauce and salsa vendors.

Vendors Included: SH’ That’s Hot, Elijahs Xtreme Hot Sauce, The Latin Flair, Katies Premium Jerky, Spicy Mikes Hot Sauce, Double Comfort, Fetty’s Street Food, The Spicy Shark, Cupzilla, Ena’s Outaroad, Rising Smoke Sauceworks, Mayhem Foods, Clamlube Hot Sauce, Momma Can Cook Food Truck, Jeni’s Ice Cream, Yes You Cayenne, Flavor & Fire, CaJohns Hot Sauces, Smokin Js Hot Sauces, Porketta, Sauced and Glazed, Tactical Tacos, Allegheny City Farms, Angry Irishman, J&K Specialty Foods, Pepplish Provisions, Chicky Chicky Waffles.

As the name suggests the samples from the food trucks were just that, samples. But as someone with a medium to medium-high heat tolerance it was nice to be able to try a little bit of the fiery menu items they had to offer before buying a full order. I tried hot fried chicken and a hot fried Oreo from Chicky Chicky Waffles, chipotle caramelized peach BBQ pulled pork from Porketta, a spicy spring roll from Cupzilla, green chicken curry, chili paneer, and phall from Fetty’s Street Food, jalapeno popper grilled cheese from Momma Can Cook Food Truck, and peach-habanero salsa from The Latin Flair.

After a full order of Fetty’s Street Food green chicken curry I dove back in to check out the sauce vendors. I definitely stopped at every one on display and tried at least one thing from each, however I met my threshold of heat about halfway through and had to pause as I wiped spicy tears from my eyes. True to form, my husband marched on to the beat of the fiery food drum and even picked up bottles from Clamlube Hot Sauce and Pepplish Provisions.

You can thank Mike Gallicchio for this fiery festival and many more. Nine years ago, he co-founded the Columbus Food Truck Festival (coming up this coming weekend August 16-17, 2019) and now also organizes other festivals such as the Columbus Summer Wine Festival and Ohioana Book Festival.

Interested in collaborating on a meetup or becoming a member of the Columbus Food Bloggers group? Please email us at: cbusfoodbloggers@gmail.com.

Blog Post & Photos by:  

Erin, The Spiffy Cookie