The majority of vendors at the Bite of Seattle are from California, not Seattle

TLDR: A California company bought out the Bite of Seattle and pushed out local Seattle vendors, replacing them with California vendors.

My family has owned and operated a food trailer that’s served at the Bite of Seattle since it’s inception in 1982. Last year, the Bite was purchased by a California festival company called FoodieLand. Since the acquisition, FoodieLand has successfully pushed out the majority of local Seattle vendors and replaced them with vendors from their own California circuit.

The Bite was originally created as a means to help struggling local restaurants that had been hit by the recession – the idea being that each restaurant would set up a food booth and sell a “bite-sized” sample of their menu to encourage people to try new and different food (and in turn, support local businesses). But it no longer caters to the Seattle restaurant scene nor the residents of this state, despite their claim that it hosts “250 local vendors” to “celebrate the rich food culture of the city.” Prices have increased, quality has decreased, and the culture of the festival has drastically changed.

This may be our last year participating as they shoved our booth into a corner at the far end of the venue, while all the California booths are center stage. Not only this, but FoodieLand has restricted vendors from selling beverages, and instead they’ve set up their own beverage booths, just to increase their own profit over the profit of local businesses.

I’m not sure what my goal is with posting this as I don’t necessarily want to dissuade people from going, as there are still Seattle vendors who need (and deserve!!) the business. But as a lifelong resident of Seattle, I thought others would like to know what’s going on. And I also just wanted to vent.

If you do attend, try to keep an eye out for local vendors and support them if you can. And please don’t buy those ridiculous “Baby Bottles.” Those are just dumb.