El Dorado Food Festival returning in September

The fourth annual El Dorado Food Festival is less than a month away and all area eateries, local residents and out-of-town visitors are invited to participate. Don Hale -- president of the Diamond

The fourth annual El Dorado Food Festival is less than a month away and all area eateries, local residents and out-of-town visitors are invited to participate.

Don Hale -- president of the Diamond Agency, the ad agency of record for the El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission -- said Wednesday that plans are on track to present the nontraditional festival, which is set for Sept. 1 - 30.

Originally a two-month festival, the food fest was launched in 2020 by the El Dorado Insider -- a quarterly magazine that highlights people, places, events and other points of interest in the city and is published by the Diamond Agency --, with help from the El Dorado Advertising and Promotion Commission.

The aim was to stimulate business and increase customer traffic for the local food service industry in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Insider staff introduced the concept for the festival after local restaurants sought out promotional ideas in response to a statewide mandate that temporarily suspended indoor dining at bars and restaurants during the global health crisis.

Additionally, the festival offers foodies the opportunity to celebrate and explore the variety of eateries that are available in El Dorado and includes contests and prize giveaways for participants.

Organizers touted the success of the first El Dorado Food Festival, which ran from Sept. 1 until Oct. 31, 2020, and told A&P commissioners that several restaurants who participated in the inaugural event asked to continue the food fest.

With some tweaks, including the shortening of the event to one month, the festival has been held each year ever since, with more restaurants participating.

Hale said there have been a few more tweaks since last year's festival.

Thirty restaurants, mostly local, participated in the El Dorado Food Festival in 2022 and 24 have signed up so far this year, he said.

The fall edition of the Insider will be published next week to help foodies pick out their favorite restaurants and discover new ones they'd like to try.

"It will be a 32-page celebration of El Dorado food," Hale said.

In the past, the Insider has included printed coupons offering discounts for participating restaurants.

Hale said festival organizers have done away with the coupons, noting that the space in the magazine has been filled with QR codes that diners may scan to access restaurant menus online.

"Any visitor, even if they don't have the magazine in front of them, can scan the QR code and go to the menus for any of the 24 participating restaurants," Hale explained.

"QR codes seem to be gaining momentum, as far as providing links to more information, especially if it's information that changes quite a bit," he continued. "A menu can change and a QR code will link to the most up-to-date version of that menu."

As with the previous three EFFs, the 2023 installment will offer contests and prizes for diners who participate.

Prizes will be awarded to winners who enter weekly drawings and at the end of the festival, a drawing will be held for a $1,000 cash prize.

Winners of weekly drawings will also be entered into the drawing for the grand prize.

Hale said participants may enter the drawings as many times as they wish during the month of September.

To enter the Dine-out in El Dorado contest, participants must take a photo of their meal, post the photo to Facebook with the name of the participating eatery and tag @ ElDorado-Insider.

Hale said the eldofoodfest.com website will soon be updated and available for more information, including a list of participating restaurants and weekly prizes for EFF 2023.

Sponsors of the event include The El Dorado Insider, Murphy USA, Hepco Inc., Glenn Mechanical, Bud Light, Standard Lithium and KTVE - MyArkLaMiss.

Arkansas Towns

The EFF and local eateries were featured last month during an hour-long special that was presented by Good Morning Arkansas.

The segment was part of GMA's Arkansas Towns series.

The series, which promotes in-state travel, highlighted several components of the local community, including events, entertainment, the Murphy Arts District, Main Street El Dorado, the El Dorado Conference Center, Mystic Creek Golf Club and the South Arkansas Arts Center.

The El Dorado episode aired on July 14. Five days later, Hale told A&P commissioners that GMA hosts said the episode was one of the most popular of the series.

"They said they had more feedback on that segment than any one they had ever posted (online)," said Hale.

GMA spoke to the late Alexis Alexander during a segment that focused on the local dining scene.

As a self-proclaimed "resident foodie," Alexander had also been featured on other GMA segments discussing favorite food stops in the city.

On Wednesday, GMA, which airs on television station KATV in Little Rock, re-broadcast a foodie segment featuring Alexander as a tribute to the dedicated community volunteer, who is fondly remembered as "El Dorado's biggest cheerleader."

Alexander, 50, died suddenly on July 29.

A funeral service was held Wednesday for Alexander in the El Dorado Municipal Auditorium.

Other memorial services and a reception have also been held in celebration of her life.

"That was really nice of them to do. Nobody called Channel 7. They saw the outpouring of love from the community and they decided to do that to honor Alexis," said Hale.

To view the Arkansas Towns series, visit https://katv.com and click on the Community tab.

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