Take a Bite Out of Dubuque’s Mac & Cheese Fest

Take a Bite Out of Dubuque’s Mac & Cheese Fest

Photo Credit: R Rob M Ferguson, Getty Stock

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dubuque's cheesiest festival returns this May!

The Dubuque Mac & Cheese Fest will be on May 19th, 2022 at the Grand River Conference Center in Dubuque from 6-8 pm. It's the time of the year when the area's top chefs and breweries unite to bring us two of the greatest comfort pleasures we could ever ingest: macaroni and cheese and beer!

Over 20 types of mac and cheese and over 50 types of craft beer are expected to be available for sampling at the festival. In the past, the event has drawn nearly 1,000 attendees. It also supports the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

What could possibly be better than eating mac and cheese and drinking a beer or two while simultaneously supporting a wonderful local cause?

According to the festival's website, some of the establishments serving up the favorite dish (and more) will be Dimensional Brewing Company, 1st & Main, Barrel House, J&D Catering, River Rock Kitchen and Tap, and Vesperman Farms.

Beverage samplings are to be provided by 7G Distributing, Dimensional, Potosi Brewery, 7 Hills, and Stone Cliff Winery.

Live music will also be there for fest-goers to enjoy. An announcement on the artists and bands is forthcoming.

Being new to Dubuque, I'm looking for anything to get me out of the house. This fest is not only an opportunity to do just that, but it's something you don't see in every city. Craft beer fests are ubiquitous. Throw in mac and cheese and you have a delicious concept that's hard to find and difficult to pass up.

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased on the official Dubuque Mac & Cheese Fest website. General admission is $39 in advance or $50 at the door: it offers all you can taste mac and cheese, beverages, a pint glass, and other swag. The VIP experience is $60: it comes with everything in general admission, some additional swag, and the opportunity to take advantage of the "VIP Hour" from 5-6 pm.

The Grand River Conference Center is located at 500 Bell Street in Dubuque. You can also learn more about the fest on their Facebook page.

LOOK: Best Beers From Every State

To find the best beer in each state and Washington D.C., Stacker analyzed January 2020 data from BeerAdvocate, a website that gathers user scores for beer in real-time. BeerAdvocate makes its determinations by compiling consumer ratings for all 50 states and Washington D.C. and applying a weighted rank to each. The weighted rank pulls the beer toward the list's average based on the number of ratings it has and aims to allow lesser-known beers to increase in rank. Only beers with at least 10 rankings to be considered; we took it a step further to only include beers with at least 100 user rankings in our gallery. Keep reading to find out what the best beer is in each of the 50 states and Washington D.C.
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