Taste of Chicago, the city’s largest outdoor food and music festival, returns to Grant Park and the surrounding area for the 26th time in 27 years.
(If you remember the year that the city skipped Taste of Chicago, you’ve been at this almost as long as I have.)
Running Friday through July 9, Taste of Chicago features 62 food vendors, music acts spread across four stages, rides, activities, demonstrations and more. Begun in 1980 as a one-day food fest on Michigan Avenue, Taste now attracts more than 3 million visitors over 10 days.
Taste’s format and basic layout haven’t changed significantly in years (you buy tickets, exchange them for food and drink, and the live music is free), and some of the food vendors have been part of the festival for 20 years or more. And yet every year, Taste manages to come up with a few new touches.
There are always some first-time vendors, for instance. This year’s newbies are C’est Si Bon, Chicago Chocolate Company, Lagniappe–Creole Cajun Joynt and Pompei. At The Daily Special, the renamed Gourmet Dining Pavilion (which features a different restaurant every day), the new players are Big Bowl (July 4), Deleece (July 5), Friendship (July 6) and Vermilion (July 7).
And, perhaps in response to critics (myself among them) who each year gripe that Taste of Chicago doesn’t offer enough variety, this year features more vendors offering intriguing new dishes. The dedicated contrarian can bypass the pizza and hot dogs in favor of chicken vol-au-vent (think pot pie with a French accent) at Grill on the Alley (booth 51), beignets at Lagniappe (booth 59), collard green egg rolls from C’est Si Bon (booth 16), seafood in a crispy-noodle nest from The Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine (booth 15) and chocolate-covered Rice Krispie Treats at Chicago Chocolate Company (booth 60).
The annual fireworks show held on July 3 isn’t new, but the name is: This year it’s the “Macy’s Independence Eve Fireworks Spectacular.” Highlights of the pyrotechnic display will include an illuminated Marshall Field’s logo exploding into the night sky, never to be seen again. And yes, I’m kidding about that last part.
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10 TASTE PICKS
Because Taste of Chicago doesn’t open until Friday, I can’t tell you which food items will be the best. But based on past performance and my sneak peek at the vendor menus, I can predict which foods are probably most worth your attention.
In next week’s At Play section, a team of staffers will analyze the Taste offerings and point the way to the best of this year’s Taste. For now, however, here are my preview picks:
BBQ turkey leg, Helen’s (booth 26). If a single food item can be said to embody Taste, this dish–comically oversized, messy and yet somehow irresistible–is it. Certainly you won’t get more protein per ticket at any other booth around. Even if you don’t indulge, watching people try to eat this thing–gingerly pecking at the hot-from-the-grill meat while maintaining an exaggerated posture to prevent barbecue sauce from staining their clothing–is riveting street theater.
Crab legs, Grazie Ristorante (booth 11). Another messy dish, though with less clothing-stain potential than the turkey leg. Grazie has been offering this dish for years, and usually does it quite well.
Collard green egg rolls, C’est Si Bon (16). First-time Taste participant C’est Si Bon (the restaurant is in Hyde Park) weighs in with an intriguing Asian-Southern fusion item.
Fresh fruit, Dominick’s (booth 42). No cooking going on here, but the big portions make the fruit offerings (bing cherries, seedless watermelon, seedless grapes) one of Taste’s healthiest options, and cost-friendly as well.
Crawfish boil, Lagniappe–Creole Cajun Joynt (booth 59). Crawfish with sweet corn and potatoes practically screams summer; a first-time Taste vendor.
Persian BBQ, Pars Cove Persian Cuisine (booth 2). Grilled chicken or beef with a pomegranate barbecue sauce. Sounds good to me.
Grilled lime chicken salad, The Grill on the Alley (booth 51). Actually it’s the chicken that’s grilled, not the lime, but I’ve had this dish before and it’s a great refreshing treat on a hot summer day.
Rum-battered tilapia, Polo Cafe & Catering (booth 33). Polo Cafe’s salmon was the highlight of my Taste visit last year. That’s reason alone to check out the dish that supplanted it on this year’s menu.
Cheese pizza, Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria (booth 29). One of these years I will spend a day at Taste and not treat myself to a slice of cheese (not sausage) pizza from Lou Malnati’s. This will not be that year.
BBQ beef pizza strudel, Pompei (booth 39). I think that Pompei came up with this item by feeding a food dictionary into a random word generator. BBQ, beef, pizza and strudel don’t belong in the same sentence, let alone the same plate. And yet I will try this dish because professional duty demands it. If I don’t make it back, speak well of me.
–Phil Vettel
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TASTE TIPS
– Public transportation is by far the best way to get to Taste. If you must drive, arrive early; the Grant Park and Monroe Drive parking lots fill up quickly. Or consider parking in a remote lot and riding one of the free trolleys to the Taste site. Consult www.transitchicago.com or www.metrarail.com.
– Taste of Chicago runs Friday through July 9 in Grant Park, along Columbus Drive between Monroe and Balbo drives. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily, except July 3, when Taste closes at 9:30 p.m., and July 9, when Taste closes at 8 p.m.
– Admission is free to Taste, but to eat or drink anything, you must pay with Taste tickets, which are sold in sheets of 11 for $7. On Thursday, however, you can purchase tickets at any Dominick’s grocery store (with your Dominick’s Fresh Values card) for just $5.50 per sheet. Starting Friday, tickets will be full price at Dominick’s stores and at the on-site ticket booths.
– For more Taste information than you can possibly use, visit www.cityofchicago.org/specialevents. It’s a well-organized, easy-to-use site.
– Bring some cash. The ticket booths do accept credit cards, but if the credit-card system crashes (and it has in previous years), visitors without cash are temporarily out of luck. At the very least, bring an ATM card; several ATMs are on site.
– There are 62 vendors at Taste this year; most items cost between five and nine tickets. Each vendor, however, sells at least one food item in a Taste portion, for one to three tickets. It’s the most economical way of trying lots of different food without going broke or exploding.
– Another way to economize is to share full-size Taste items. A small paring knife is a useful tool for divvying up ribs, pizza slices, hot dogs, etc.
– The Daily Special Pavilion, formerly known as the Gourmet Dining Pavilion, is essentially a Taste booth that changes identities each day. It’s also where you’ll find the most reliably good food. Friday it will be wagyu-beef sliders (mini burgers) and banana-bread pudding from Saloon Steakhouse; Wednesday you’ll find grilled pesto-shrimp skewers with grape tomatoes and garlic crostini from Deleece; and on July 7 there will be blackened tamarind ribs and mango cardamom flan from Vermilion.
– Also check out the Dominick’s Cooking Corner, next to Buckingham Fountain, for cooking demonstrations by local chefs. Not into the cooking thing? No matter. There’s room to sit and plenty of shade.
– Get a map and plot your strategy. The maps are available wherever tickets are sold.
– The best way to avoid the crowds is to visit between peak lunch and dinner hours. This advice is not valid on July 3, Taste’s busiest day, when the only way to avoid the crowds is to stay home and miss the fireworks display.
– When my children were young, I always toted a Radio Flyer wagon to Taste. It’s great for holding picnic blankets, bottled water, umbrellas and various sundries. And when the kids got tired, they could ride. (I realize that this tip is incompatible with my first tip. Sue me.)
– Bring hand sanitizer. Soap is the first thing to run out at those wash stations by the portable toilets. Premoistened towelettes come in handy, too.
– Don’t forget the sunscreen.
–Phil Vettel
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How big is our appetite?
Food eaten at the 2005 Taste of Chicago
225,000 pizza slices
216,000 cheesecake slices
168,000 ice cream servings
140,000 turkey legs
105,000 servings of ribs
Source: Mayor’s Office of Special Events
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pvettel@tribune.com
