Bite of Bozeman

Last night was the Bite of Bozeman, and we got to share it with my mom this year! We strolled down Main Street, eating yummy delicacies including... the Turkey Leg! Turns out we're not the only ones who love the Turkey Legs, because this article was in the paper when we got up this morning:

By MIKE GERRITY Chronicle Staff Writer

Spritzing rain showers had Bite of Bozeman coordinator Will Natsues fielding calls from nervous nellies all afternoon Wednesday.

Would they have to reschedule?

“No, man. The show's gonna go on,” Natsues said. “It's Montana, man.”

And sure enough, after the sun crept back out and the air had cooled, a line of over 50 people was building outside the Best Western GranTree Inn's white tent trying to get their hands on a massive, juicy red turkey leg.

Every year, the Bite of Bozeman brings hoards of food freaks downtown to eat their way through the city's favorite local offerings, getting good and stuffed for the weekend's Sweet Pea Festival of the Arts.

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Tim Erfle took a step off to the side of the tent into the middle of the street and started gnawing down his turkey leg.

“It makes you feel like a man and you get it once a year,” he said.

Along with the famed turkey legs, Natsues said that at least 13 new booths made it to Bozeman's annual taste of the town.

Combing through the crowd Wednesday evening, he made sure to note what he saw as the best turnout yet.

“The street is packed,” Natsues said.

Sitting on the curb with a few of her friends, a few blocks down from the Baxter Hotel, Mariah Talbott said she finished the famed turkey leg already and was getting ready to score her next eats.

But the popular snack was not to be underestimated, she warned.

“I can't even eat a whole turkey leg. I have to take it home for lunch the next day,” Talbott said.

Sitting next to her, Vicki Patrack was working on a pl ate of noodles from the Taste of Asia vendor.

“I'm just trying something different this year,” Patrak said.

Caroline Casolava came up to join them, ecstatic about the deserts coming out of the Over the Tapas booth in front of the Baxter Hotel. That afternoon, the restaurant flooded the streets with bacon-wrapped dates and designer-looking cupcakes.

“They're only $1 a piece?” Casolava said, eyes beaming. “Bite of Bozeman is my favorite Bozeman holiday.”

Andy Bouwman also had a seat on the curb, recollecting himself after a barbeque sandwich from Bar 3.

“That was pretty good.”

Perhaps the only catch to surviving the Bite of Bozeman, Bouwman said, is to pace yourself.

“It's easy to fill yourself up before you see everything there.”