Over the weekend, Noise Pop piled a handful of musicians, nine local chefs, and a crowd of locals into Public Works for an afternoon of culinary and musical arts appreciation. San Franciscan band, The Dodos rightfully headlined the event and each chef from fav local restaurants like Commonwealth, Monk's Kettle, and flour + water prepared a dish for every guest to taste. 

Luckily, instead of being trampled by locals following the scent of roasted pig, I only had to stand in line for a few minutes to get food – and even waiting in line was bearable because Taken By Trees soothed me by burning sage during their set. 

IMHO, this dish below by Namu Gaji was the runner-up for best dish. I thought my KFC days were over, but when I heard Dennis Lee was serving Korean Fried Chicken, I reconsidered. 

As a fish lover, you may think me biased for choosing Mike Selvera of Bar Crudo's plate of marinated mussels and butterfish with lemon corn puree, lobster mushrooms, and tarragon oil (seen below)as my favorite. But I did try to gather a census at the party, and many agreed this dish stood out. Not because it was the only fish served, but because it captured both sweet and savory flavors. 

No foodie event is complete without a little pork. Luckily Beast and the Hare provided a lot of pork. There was a consistent crowd of gawkers outside for two hours while Chef Ian Marks butchered a pig. Then, cuts of the beast was raffled off to a dozen lucky winners of pork dinners. (Check out more photos of this epic, public butchering on our Facebook.)

After four bands, nine taster plates, and two Speakeasy IPAs, I was ready for a nap... which later turned into a music-and-food coma. 

All photos by Erin Browner