Karen Ditkowsky might just have the best-kept secret in town.
Only she and her assistant manager at the Covered Bridge Cafe know the recipe for the chilled strawberry pear soup that drew raves from some of the hundreds who flocked to last weekend’s 13th annual Long Grove Strawberry Festival to her doorstep.
More than 100 stores and restaurants welcomed visitors from Friday through Sunday during the festival-a boon for business in the village’s downtown historic shopping district, marked by cobblestone streets and quaint early 19th Century farmhouses and buildings.
“We find that people have a good time at the village and they often come back,” said Ruth Rashman, public relations director for the festival since its inception. “It seems to get bigger and better every year.”
A total of 40 vendors, 20 of them local, featured food and other items in red and white-striped tents.
And festgoers stood in long lines to buy strawberry barbecued chicken, non-alcoholic daiquiris, doughnuts, pies, yogurt, chocolate-covered strawberries and other concoctions. They also toured the shops, at least one of which displayed clothes with strawberry designs in the front window.
