Taste of Syracuse

I'm sitting in my office right now, listening to people talk about Taste of Syracuse, so I thought I'd share my thoughts. The bf and I went on Saturday, because I asked very nicely if we could - I'm a foodie and he's an anti-foodie.

It all seems like a very good idea - lots of booths from local restaurants selling food; each of them required to sell one $1 sample item. I was definitely looking forward to trying samples from several restaurants I hadn't had the chance to visit yet.

Clinton Square was, unfortunately, packed to the gills, and the bf and I have occasionally different approaches to navigating among sardine-packed festival goers. The event planners definitely need to do a better job next year when it comes to the space, because I think a lot of people would have spent more and stayed longer if they had been able to, you know, move around and get to things.

I wish the restaurants had all approached the sample requirement as an opportunity to get people excited about their food. I had one sample that made me not want to ever go to that restuarant, and got out of line at a Greek place when I realized that the sample they were giving out was miniscule and not worth a dollar. Other places I tried the sample and wanted more of the food - which really, should be the point.

I had a sample of chicken wings at a place I can't remember - pretty tasty, with honey garlic sauce. Then I grabbed some chips and guacamole from Papa Gallo, which was NOT tasty - a guacamole disappointment. Then I bought two fried doughs and stopped at another booth that was selling chicken cooked in some special seasoning (I think the seasoning was what was for sale, not restaurant food), which was pretty tasty. After that I grabbed a sample meatball sandwich - tasty meatball - and then beelined as well as I could to the gelato stand, where I got three sample scoops. The gelato was by far the best deal, since gelato is normally expensive anyway, and this stuff was pretty good. I love lemon gelato! (And anything with chocolate, especially chocolate hazelnut!)

Then the bf and I escaped - I could still have tried more things, but I think we had lost our patience with the crowd. Overall, good idea, poor implementation.