Agreed. We arrived early, which seemed to be key to not spending the whole day in line. Took us *only* a little over an hour to get through the gate and then another 40 minutes or so to buy beer. Even though the crowd was smaller than at Dark Lord Day, by not having timed beer purchases, they couldn't let folks in until there was room in the beer buying line. When we headed out to FOBAB around 5pm, the line to enter was still extremely long and the temperature was quickly decreasing.

The event highlight for me was the fun plate of food from Cleveland's Greenhouse Tavern. For $5, they served a plate of pig's head, blood sausage, cotechino, duck, bread, kraut, and a bevy of housemade condiments. Big Star, on the other hand, offered perfectly fine food plated by Paul Kahan, but the line was horrible and they (like Lillie's Q, which I didn't sample) closed down for a long time mid-event. It took about 45 minutes to get a few tacos. Yes, I realized it would have been faster to just drive back to Wicker Park for tacos.

The beers on offer is a whole other story. I'm no expert, but it sounded like a lot of folks were really disappointed in the offerings on tap. And the beers at FFF were a stark contrast with the beers at FOBAB, where so much was unusual or otherwise noteworthy.

Ronna