There will be links and drinks for all at Sausage Fest 2 in Sacramento
LowBrau’s Sausage Fest 2 on Sunday caps off a week of cocktail drinking in Sacramento with a block party from 4 to 10 p.m., an 8 p.m. set from throwback hip-hop DJ A-Trak and a sausage-making competition featuring “Sacramento’s best chefs competing for tubed meats supremacy,” as announced on the restaurant’s calendar.
“It’s going to be a cool event,” said Zachary Dierdorff, LowBrau’s general manager. “We’ll have German beerhouse-style tables set up on the street, two satellite bars pouring beer and cocktails, then of course all the cool chefs. I think there will be a sausage-eating contest, and we’re going to have some cool music as well. It’s gonna be a great time.”
The event will be held in a blocked-off area of 20th Street between J and K streets in front of LowBrau Bierhalle, a popular midtown restaurant with a modern take on German-style beer houses.
The main stage, which will be set up near K Street, is where A-Trak will play. Originally from Montreal and based out of New York, A-Trak is founder of Fool’s Gold Records.
“A-Trak is an old school hip-hop DJ,” Dierdorff said. “He’s one of those that mixes decks instead of just playing off a computer. He’s been around for a long time and he’s really well known.”
As many as 1,500 people are expected to attend, according to LowBrau owner Michael Hargis. Admission is $15. Tickets for $45 include admission and a sausage from each participating chef. There are VIP ticket packages available that come with a patio table and tableside service.
“It’s a little different format this year,” Hargis said, “We are blocking off the street and making it a little bit of a bigger deal. It’ll be a kind of a different crowd. It will be more family friendly. We’ll have foodies and music people alike.”
Hargis hopes to make Sausage Fest an annual event. The first one was in 2017. Chef Adam Schulze of The Waterboy won the contest with a foie gras hot dog. LowBrau took a break last year to open sister restaurant Beast + Bounty.
Brock MacDonald – head chef of LowBrau, Beast + Bounty, Milk Money and Block Butcher Bar – will judge alongside other big names in the Sacramento food scene.
There is Tim Beeler, owner of Beeler’s Pure Pork Farm in Iowa. Beeler is the main sponsor for the event and provided all the pork, according to MacDonald. Also judging is Rodney Blackwell, founder of Sacramento Burger Battle, and Darrel Corti, owner of Sacramento’s fine foods mainstay Corti Bros. grocer, who is “probably the most knowledgeable food person in Sacramento,” MacDonald said. Chefs Tyler Bond, formerly of Kru, and Oliver Ridegway of Camden Spit & Larder will also be judging.
“Because I have close relationships with a lot of chefs here, I really feel like we have a stellar lineup as far as the chefs in Sacramento,” MacDonald said.
Other establishments with chefs listed participating in this year’s competition include Cannon, Grange, V. Miller Meats Craft Butchery, Empress Tavern, Hawks Granite Bay, Binchoyaki, Nixtaco, Nash & Proper, Urban Roots and Hook & Ladder.
This story was originally published October 15, 2019 at 3:12 PM.