street food a dead end?

I passed on the Street Food Fair this weekend. Considering the over-hype and media saturation, I thought it would be less casual and eclectic and more mob. That, and frankly I had lots of stuff that just had to get done.

PeeDee, Alert Reader and Street Food Aficionado, texted from the event that Street Food had definitely jumped the shark.

Judging by the write up at the SFist, I'm inclined to agree: "The first annual SF Street Food Fest went down on Saturday, and pretty much half of San Francisco showed up to the one-block-long festival. The thing got a ton of buzz, a piece on NPR, links on a hundred websites, and as we all know, street food and nonstaurants are all the rage right now."

While they note that a good time was had by all, the massive turnout tells me the trend will be a victim of its own success. It's gone from cool to commodity, and subculture to commercial. While popularity means success in some ventures, I think one that derives no small part of its value from a cool, in-the-know factor will not become more cool by being completely common.