![]() We had sloppy joes at the booth of the eponymously named Chicago Joe's, bites of world-famous Eli's cheesecake and jerk chicken with red beans and rice. We had spicy vegetable samosas still hot and crisp from the fryer, mango cumin-dusted french fries with rich and sour tamarind chutney and miniature versions of buffalo burgers and breaded Italian-style steak sandwiches. ![]() This was a great strategy for us: Our tickets went further and we could try tons of different foods without getting too full. The most expensive item we saw cost eight tickets, or less than $4.īut we concentrated most of our tickets on the Taste items, which ranged from two to three tickets apiece for a small, two- or three-bite portion of a restaurant's specialty. It's also cheap: no cover charge and tickets that, at 11 for $7, work out to about 45 cents each. There were garbage and recycling cans everywhere, a baby-changing station with free diapers and dozens of portable toilets with open-air handwashing stations. We were amazed at the cleanliness of the park, which was packed with thousands of people wandering among the food booths and other attractions. Grant Park, Taste of Chicago's home just a street and pathway away from the lakefront, benefits from these gusts and also from the grand old shade trees lining most of its pathways. But if you don't feel like walking, taxis are plentiful and, in this small downtown, not too expensive.Įven during hot summer days, Chicago often is blessed with the lake-borne breezes that give this "Windy City" its nickname. That meant we could leave our car safely parked (in a lot that, in typical major-metro fashion, cost almost $40 a day) and walk everywhere. When we visited the 2007 Taste of Chicago, we stayed at the downtown Hampton Inn & Suites, just a few blocks from the lake, Grant Park and other attractions. Now's the time to plan a visit to the 2008 Taste of Chicago, which is scheduled to run June 27 to July 6 (see Hotel rooms in Chicago's downtown are scarce as hen's teeth during the festival, so booking well in advance will pay off. Since then, Taste, as the locals call it, has grown to 10 days with more than 70 food vendors a "gourmet" tent cooking demonstrations classes on everything from gardening to home decor and fitness free movies celebrity appearances a July 3 fireworks display rightly counted among the nation's best and so much more that it's amazing they fit it all into just 10 days.īut at its heart, Taste of Chicago remains centered on food - the kind of hearty, blue-collar food Chicago has made famous - with, of course, a few upscale flourishes. Nearly everything the typical tourist would want to see or do in Chicago (besides catching a Cubs game) is corralled in a cheerfully crowded downtown that borders Lake Michigan and also is home to Taste of Chicago.įirst held in a three-block section of Michigan Avenue's Magnificent Mile, Taste of Chicago started in 1980 as a one-day event held on the Fourth of July.īut after enthusiastic response, organizers moved the next year's event to the more spacious environs of Grant Park, with its spectacular views of the city, Lake Michigan, the museum district and the park's own Buckingham Fountain, one of the largest water features in the world. Though the city has its share of world-class gourmet eateries, it's most famous for perfecting the kinds of food regular folks eat. ![]() It's cleaner than most big cities (if not cheaper), has a wonderfully walkable downtown and a no-nonsense, sensibly Midwestern approach to food. Visiting Chicago is like going to your hometown, only about 1,000 times bigger. ![]() This annual bash of good eats, relaxation and entertainment captures everything great about this most quintessentially American of cities. Salt Lake City's beloved Greek Festival, the Salt Lake Buddhist Temple's Japanese Obon Festival and Snowbird's Oktoberfest come quickly to mind, as do the food-rich Living Traditions festival, the Utah Arts Festival, the downtown Farmers Market and numerous local fairs and parties that showcase our state's love of green Jell-O, Dutch ovens, home baking and the like.Īnd every one of them owes homage to the granddaddy of all food fests, Taste of Chicago. CHICAGO - Utah's got lots of food-heavy festivities.
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