Forward Festival, Madison’s annual technology and entrepreneurship festival, continues to grow its food events. Here’s a look at Yum Yum Fest and the Edible Startup Summit.
Yum Yum Fest
The Madison Area Chefs Network will feature 24 area restaurants at this end-of-summer celebration taking place 3-8 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 23 at Central Park. Admission is $10, and food and drink tickets are $5 each.
“We view the Madison food scene as a part of the startup/entrepreneur community, and Forward Fest allows us to be part of the conversation in a very concrete manner,” Event Organizer Jonny Hunter said.
Sardine, Heritage Tavern and Grampa’s Pizzeria are among the participating restaurants. Hunter and his team expanded the beverage options this year to include more area bars.
Yum Yum Fest, which saw more than 3,000 attend in 2014, will close with musical performances by Lizzo, GGOOLLDD and DJ Lauren Franchi.
“We were super happy with how things went last year and are excited to have the festival back again,” Hunter said.
Edible Startup Summit
Last year’s inaugural event was so popular (it sold out) that this year’s version takes place over three days, Aug. 24-26 at Goodman Community Center. Registration for the first day is $35-$39; all three days costs $100.
“Some attendees wanted more from the event, including one-on-one consultation, more details on the subject material and more about the governmental aspects of building a food business,” Event Organizer Philip Crawford, in explaining the reason for adding two days, said.
If you’re looking to start a food-related business (retail or wholesale, no restaurants), this is definitely for you. Topics include raising money, marketing and licensing, with speakers such as Tera Johnson of Tera’s Whey and Adrian Reif of Yumbutter.
New this year is an “Ignite Talks” session in which eight early stage food companies will each have five minutes to share their stories.
The owners of the Argus Bar and Grill bought Amy’s Cafe and eventually reopened it as 
The meat also was perfect in terms of flavor and texture on the lamb pizza ($16), which also was topped with garlic, pine nuts, onion and garlic cream. Even better was the crust, which tasted like perfectly toasted pita bread. Speaking of which, the homemade pita that comes with the falafel ($8) was much different; in fact, it was quite bland. The four pieces were strangely paired with three pieces of spinachy-tasting falafel.
It’s easy to drive on Highway M in the Town of Westport and not see 
Unfortunately, neither the Janethan (porter) or Verily (dubbel) were available during my visit, but I did have two other beers: The Hop-Bearer (IPA) for sure sported a strong hoppy bitterness, and the Grainne’s Special Bitter (seasonal) had a slight sour note to it.
