According to KRQE, the vendor prices for food during the Balloon Fiesta 2012 will be up quite a bit, thanks to a change in the vendors’ contracts. Instead of a fixed rate to allow them to serve food, each vendor must now pay 30% of profits as their fee. Ouch.

That means that an average food item cost could be up about $1.50 – that already kind of crazy hot dog for $7.50? That’s now $9.

But with 18 new vendors, at least you won’t go hungry. If you don’t get skinny in the waist, you might get skinnier in the wallet.My recommendation? Don’t eat at anything you recognize to be a chain. Eat Sadie’s. Eat Road Runner Foods. But don’t eat

Don’t forget to read the VENUE in the Friday Albuquerque Journal to find other options for your dining experience once you leave the Balloon Fiesta Park.

1. It’s right next to the Balloon Fiesta, easy strolling distance to start preemptively working off those chocolate calories.

2. It is cheap: $10 for tons of chocolate samples and mingling with other sugaraholics.

3. C’mon! The name is AWESOME. Chocolate Big Top!

Here’s their own description of what’s happening:

It’s the 5th year for this awesome festival, and it is coming up soon – October 14th, to be precise. The theme is “A Celebration of History, Culture and Farming” to align with New Mexico’s Centennial.

There will be pie. And judgement.

There will be bicycles making the trip to the site at the Hubbell House.

There will be kids’ entertainment like cooking, sack racing and planting. I hope there are farmy kids that are entertained by that.

There will be cooking demos by tried-and-true guys like Jason Greene of The Grove, and “new talent” like Cherie Austin of Farm & Table.

There’s even a fermentation demonstration. Woooo to fermented food!

As is now the annual custom, the New Mexico State Fair has crowned their 2012 Green Chile Cheeseburger Challenge winner – and they ain’t from around these parts!

According to the story in the Alamogordo Daily News, the local BZ Rockin’ Burgers is all but four months old and using a ground chuck preparation to keep customers happy with juicy beefiness. The owners are thrilled, both for the culinary honor, and for the potential local impact, “It kind of puts Alamogordo on the map,” the owner said.

Adding to the spectacle of all those fancy Santa Fe and Albuquerque spots losing to this small town wonder, the trophy spelled the word Chile as Chili. Oh, the humanity! An uproar started, as you’d imagine, and the cutout trophy will be adjusted. Who’s to blame? Why, spell check, of course.

It seems like just yesterday that Julia Child turned 100. Oh yeah, that was last month. Sorry.

But now I’m back and have all the latest news and gossip that my ears and googlers have turned up. First up, minimum wage hits a stall? Looks like a new minimum wage act might either be stalled by restaurant owners who are reluctant to have someone else dictating when they give raises to staff, or it could be stalled by something as simple as a typo. Not just any typo, mind you – a typo that says that restaurant owners have to pay themselves more but not necessarily their employees. Weird. Here’s the story from HuffPo and referencing an Albuquerque Journal article (if you have access): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/06/albuquerque-minimum-wage-typo_n_1862240.html

Next, great news for foo-foo salad lovers – You’d better veg out, you’d better not cry. You’d be foolish to pout – I’m tellin’ you why: Vinaigrette is coming to town! It’s like Santa Claus but with lettuce and beets, nearby in Old Town. I’m excited and hope that the quality is the same as in Santa Fe, regardless the price point Erin needs to hit to make a go of it here in the Duke City. Read the scoop on the NM Business Weekly: http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/news/2012/09/06/vinaigrette-restaurant-to-open-near.html

Want to know which restaurants did OK on their inspections and which ones had complaints? The city is making things even more transparent (though not by going to a letter grading system like many cities use) by putting all historical inspection data online. It is not pretty, yet, but the full spreadsheet of data is yours to download, right here (look for restaurant inspections): http://www.cabq.gov/abq-data

Finally, your local restaurant association is holding a hospitality banquet to honor those that kick ass in their field of providing excellent service and giving back to the community. On September 24th, the event takes place in Old Town at the Hotel Albuquerque. It’s not cheap but is a chance to meet and greet the players in the local food scene. https://m360.nmrestaurants.org/event.aspx?eventID=54120&instance=0