The Governor’s Ball Music Festival took place on Randall’s Island Park in NYC from June 2 to June 4. I was expecting to see a few surprise artists grace the Gov Ball stage but the best surprise of all ended up being the stellar line-up of food. Here’s a list of a few Gov Ball eats that stole the show.
John’s Juice
The best beverage I encountered at Governor’s Ball came from John’s Juice. They specialize from juice straight from the source and there are no cups allowed. Juice options consisted of pineapple, watermelon, dragonfruit, grapefruit, and orange. I went with the ‘Pineapple John’ and chose to add sparkling water into my fruit beverage. Agave was another add in option. The juice was super fresh and tasty and John’s Juice was the longest beverage line on the island.
Big Mozz Sticks
Governor’s Ball coordinators aimed to bring New York’s best mozzarella sticks to this year’s festival and boy did they succeed. This dish lives up to Big Mozz Stick’s name with four XL mozzarella sticks fried to perfection. The batter was extra crunchy and was the perfect casing for the gooey cheese inside. The sauce was a great enhancement to the dish and was sprinkled with parmesan cheese just like the mozzarella sticks. Gov Ballers could also choose to add on extra red sauce or branch out and try ranch dressing with this amazing cheesy dish.
Magnolia Bakery
Moving on to my favorite part: dessert. There were a ton of options to satisfy your sweet tooth at Governor’s Ball. One of my favorite options was Magnolia Bakery’s famous banana bread pudding. They had six flavors of banana pudding to choose from which were S’mores, salted caramel, chocolate, rainbow, original, and peanut butter. After choosing your flavors you could add on toppings like fruity pebbles, chocolate chips, or crushed Nutter Butter cookies. I decided to go with salted caramel, rainbow, and peanut butter sans toppings. For someone who’s not a huge bread pudding fan, this dessert was incredible. The flavors were amazing and the pudding was creamy which balanced well with the sweet bread.
Wowfulls
Another great dessert at the festival was from Wowfulls. They were serving up Hong Kong egg waffles in the form of a cone filled with multicolored vanilla ice cream topped with sprinkles, chocolate sauce, crumbled Oreos, powdered sugar, and two strawberry Pocky biscuits. The warm, fluffy waffle melted the ice cream just the right amount and the two were delicious together. The toppings were also great additions to the ice cream and added a lot of different textures and flavors. The strawberry Pocky biscuits added a fruity note to the dish and the whole thing was surprisingly light despite its decadent ingredients.
DŌ
The final superstar dish on this list comes from DŌ which specializes in edible cookie dough. The flavors they had a Gov Ball were chocolate chip, sugar cookie, and cake batter. But their bigger location in NYC has other creations such as Fluffernutter, peanut butter snickerdoodle, and mint chip. I went with a small chocolate chip in a cup but the dough is also offered in ice cream cones as well. DŌ had by far the longest line in all of Governor’s Ball but it was well worth the wait. It tasted exactly like regular Toll House cookie dough just without the possibility of salmonella. It definitely did not disappoint.
The food at Governor’s Ball exceeded my expectations and satisfied any craving one could possibly have while at a festival. Having the best food in all of NYC at my fingertips was an amazing and delicious experience. Next time you’re in the city do yourself a favor and try one (or all) of these over the top dishes.