Last night we went to our neighboring town’s National Night Out event because I saw Pasatiempo BBQ was providing free pulled pork sandwiches at the event. I was super excited because we had them a couple of years back when they gave out the same sandwiches at a local business open house. They were amazing then, and amazing last night too.
National Night Out is an annual community-building campaign held on the first Tuesday in August (or the first Tuesday in October in some southern regions like Texas). It enhances the relationship between neighbors and law enforcement while promoting a true sense of community and local crime prevention awareness
We were shocked upon arriving at 5:30ish how packed it was. Even more so than the summer concerts held there which we’ve been attending on some Thursday nights. We had never been to this particular event so we were confused about where to get the food, so we had to ask the woman handing it out and she directed us to the police station’s tent where they give you a ticket.
After grabbing our food tickets we walked around the grounds to see what else was going on. There were booths from several local businesses including a rescue I’m familiar with. One of the women was holding the cutest little Yorkie whose name was Charlie. He immediately licked my hand when I approached. She explained how their fostering worked and that you could foster to adopt which is something I’m really interested in doing; I’m just not sure when.
They had four huge inflatable obstacle courses and bounce houses set up for the kids and a band playing music which switched to a DJ temporarily while the band members got something to eat. The weather, while hot, wasn’t bad, especially in the shade.
In addition to the pulled pork, they were giving out free hot dogs, pizza slices, water, and soda (I saw Signature Select cola and root beer). We grabbed a root beer, pulled pork sandwiches, and Cape Cod potato chips, then made our way over to a park bench in the shade to enjoy our meal. I had thought about bringing plates but decided they would probably provide those. Wrong! Technically there were some in the back of the car, but neither of us felt like walking back to get them so we balanced the foil-wrapped sandwiches on our laps. There wasn’t any sauce on the sandwiches, so Joe set out to find some. Apparently we had completely missed the condiment station! They didn’t have containers, so he got a slice of pizza since it came with a plate and then poured sauce on the plate for us to dip our sandwiches in.
This photo of the sandwich (prior to adding BBQ sauce) does not do it justice.
It was so incredibly flavorful, I wish I could share that taste with everyone.
A view from the less crowded area of the park we chose to sit down and enjoy our food.
As were were eating we started discussing the times the other towns around us were doing the same event. The one we were attending was from 5-9, our actual town’s was only 6-8, and another close by town was 5-8 at a park we’ve visited often.
So we came up with a funny idea – next year act like influencers and do a National Night Out challenge and hit up as many towns as possible to get free stuff (in addition to the free food and drinks they were also giving out little tchotchkes like chip clips, bracelets, keyrings, etc).
Oh, and for some reason they had someone flying an actual helicopter pass over the event twice rather low and turn on police sirens. Who knew the helicopters even had sirens? That was quite the sight, ahem, sound.