Chicken Cone (ACL Fest food from Hudson’s on the Bend)

The first Austin City Limits Music Festival began in 2002—in Austin, Texas, of course. The Austin restaurant Hudson’s on the Bend began serving “chicken cones”—a similar concept to the “ice cream cone” made popular at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. A chicken cone consists of hot and crunchy fried chicken wrapped in a tortilla, with a jalapeño and mango slaw.
 
The chicken cone has quickly become an iconic ACL Fest food, similar to corny dogs at the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. 
 
 
Wikipedia: Austin City Limtis Music Festival
The Austin City Limits Music Festival is an annual three-day music and art festival in Austin, Texas’s Zilker Park. The Festival brings together more than 130 bands on eight stages, including rock, country, folk, indie, Americana, hip-hop, reggae, and bluegrass, and attracts a crowd of about 65,000 visitors each day. The festival is produced by C3 Presents, who also co-produce the Lollapalooza and Big State festivals.
 
In a very short time the Austin City Limits Music Festival joined Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, and Coachella as the United States’ premier rock festivals. 
   
News 8 Austin
First day of ACL a success
9/19/2003 10:30 PM
By: News 8 Austin Staff
Everything went according to plan for the second annual Austin City Limits Music Festival.
 
There were more shuttle buses, less lines to wait in, and with 40 food vendors and 130 acts on eight stages, people had plenty to choose from.
 
Chef Jeff Blank of Hudson’s on the Bend said he anticipates that the ACL Fest will become a national draw and wanted to get in on the action in the early stages. Blank’s booth is serving up venison sausage and hot and crunchy chicken cone and mango-jalapeno slaw with an ancho paste.
     
Austin (TX) Chronicle (September 14, 2007) 
ACL Fest Food Vendors
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11 Hudson’s – Hot and Crunchy Chicken Cones, venison sausage wraps, Hot and Crunchy Avocado Cones, Death by Chocolate
   
Taco Town
ACL Fest - The Mighty Chicken Cone!
Posted by chappy | Sep 15, 2007 · Filed under Austin, Reviews
I usually try to take care of my food needs before I hit a festival…if the lines and high prices arent enough, the food quality can be likened to a mall food court (think: $10 stir fry or $8 fajita wraps)..but all my preconceptions changed when I tried the chicken cone from Hudson’s on the Bend at ACL Fest…. Hot and Crunchy fried chicken, wrapped in a tortilla, with a base of jalepeno cole slaw.. and drizzled with a chipotle cream sauce of some sort..all nestled in a paper cone that makes it easy to eat and walk to the next stage… its the best festival food ever.. trust me.. and at only $6, I usually forget all about the music, plant my ass on a picnic table and eat chicken cones till the money runs out.
   
Maggie’s Austin
ACL Eats
Posted under Food by maggie on Tuesday 23 September 2008 at 3:30 pm
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Hudson’s on the Bend: Hot & Crunchy Fish Cone, Hot& Crunchy Chicken Cone, Hot & Crunchy Avocado Cone, Death by Chocolate
 
ACL Food Options—Austin—Chowhound
You simply can’t leave ACL without trying the hot and crunchy chicken cone from Hudson’s. It is, as they say, the only time you can eat at Hudson’s for seven bucks. El Chilito is there for the first time and they’re supposed to be having cochinita pibil, one of my favorites. Have fun.
pbeach Sep 24, 2008 09:52AM
     
Austin (TX) American-Statesman
Widespread love for the Chicken Cone
By Alex Daniel
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, September 25, 2008
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Breaded in a mixture of almonds, sesame seeds, corn flakes, chile flakes and sugar, then fried and placed in a tortilla lined with a slaw that includes jalapeño and mango, this dish has developed a following among fest crowds.
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Jeff Blank, chef and owner of Hudson’s on the Bend, said he developed the Chicken Cone specifically for ACL Fest by adapting Hudson’s hot and crunchy chicken dish into a food item that was easy to eat on the go.
 
“It’s really just a great combination of flavors,” Blank said. “It’s spicy, sweet, crunchy and cold with the slaw.”
 
This year, Hudson’s will offer different chicken cone variations, including avocado, fish and combination.
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Meeting demand for the product requires a lot of chicken. Based on previous years, Blank estimates that Hudson’s will sell somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000 cones this year, which will require more than 3,000 pounds of chicken and fish.
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Blank also confirmed the opening of the “Hot and Crunchy Shack,” a Hudson’s on the Bend food trailer scheduled to open next year in Austin that will sell the Chicken Cone and its many variations year-round.
   
As always, the Chicken Cone will be one of the trademark experiences of ACL Fest.
   
“It’s the only time you can eat at Hudson’s for $7,” Blank said.