Again, Kill The Taste
It's been dying for years - what purpose does it serve anymore?
- Taste of Chicago attendance dipped this summer compared with the last time it was a five-day event, according to city estimates released late Monday after the annual lakefront food carnival wrapped up.
Roughly 1.4 million people walked through the gates in Grant Park between Wednesday and Sunday, according to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. That's down slightly from 1.5 million who attended in 2013.
Last year, the food fest was just four days, drawing 1.1 million as heavy rain and standing water prompted the city to cancel the Saturday round of eating. Taste of Chicago used to run for 10 days, but in 2012 Mayor Rahm Emanuel scaled back the massive gut-buster of years past to a five-day, one weekend affair.
Revenues have not yet been totaled to see if the city broke even on this summer's event. Last summer's shortened cornucopia of turkey legs, ice cream and soul food ended up costing the city $169,404, according to Cultural Affairs estimates. The 2013 version turned what city officials said was a $272,000 profit. In 2012, the city lost $1.3 million.
Labels: events
posted by SCC at 12:01 AM
33 Comments:
Every year I drive to Milwaukee Fest. The minimal entrance fee keeps the savages out. Good bands, good food. It's worth the ride
Everybody spent their money at the Smokeout. All Country music
Even if it looses a small amount of money, Taste of Chicago is worth every penny. The sense of cultural awareness it brings, the culinary experience, and the racial melding that occurs are priceless. Not only should this event be continued, it should be expanded to seven full days. Do it for out youth.
Minneapolis moved theirs to the suburbs last year after the Mississississippi River flooded the usual spot. It was at the Chaska County Fairgrounds fifty miles from downtown. It was so successful, they did it again this year.
Move it to the suburbs? It might attract a different crowd.
Well if ya don't feel safe , why would ya go ??? I ya don't get mugged or harassed or Apple Picked. Then you get to pay double what the crappy almost warm food is worth. Then after that you can brave the public transportation gauntlet or drive the shooting gallery known as the Ryan. Yep not spending any time or money Downtown this year or in the near future.
"...the constant thunder of the helicopter and foot chases of wilding youths."
Not in my kitchen. There's food in there. No helicopters, no wilding youths, and I can get to a clean bathroom.
I guess some people like to pay to experience crowds and heat and sweat and grease.
Never been to the Taste once. Not going to start now.
Rahm: 'This was one of the most successfully years ever. Tourists are flocking to this event in record numbers!'
Yeah, the average tourist leaves with the sickened sense of trying to enjoy their over-priced food while watching 'teens' walk about with their shorts falling off, exposing their nasty boxers, while 'children' sit next to you and attempt a pickpocket move.
Rahm can point and say---Look. No violence.
I had no idea that it was even taking place.
I've been there over the past few year and this year seemed packed, I'm calling bs, however I don't know why they would lie.
I want Jane Byrne's ChicagoFest back.
Rahm will put his Rahmenomics spin on it and it will all come out looking rosy.
A million of those were asking directions cutting through the park.
Don't worry. The numbers are being handled by the very same accountants who gave us Chicago's current shining example of fiscal solvency. We are SO lucky to have them in our corner. Can't we give them a raise somehow ?
Made the mistake of stopping by. I felt like I was at a southside swap meet. Shit food, shit people.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Move it to the suburbs? It might attract a different crowd.
7/14/2015 01:35:00 AM
Yes, move the Taste of Chicago <<< CHICAGO, out of Chicago. Duh.
Used to live right on the beach, 1970s. Out the back door barefoot, shorts, T-shirt, shades, hat, and just sit down. Sky, lake, sun. Full cooler. Radio -- WLUP. Those cigarette boats running 'way out there, sounding like low-flying bombers.
Hadn't been a basketball court nearby, it would have been absolutely perfect, but nothing going on there in the morning, anyway.
Taste? Hell, rode out to the Foster Ave. Beach some years ago and it was like several foreign countries, all mixed together. Spectral women (I think) in full black burkhas wading one inch deep, everyone else speaking some other language. I could pick up that others like me were tense, too. No commonality, no chat, no relaxation. Unpleasant. Nothing there for me anymore. Turn it around, 90 minutes and back home.
You get older, you draw more on your nice memories...
"Even if it looses [sic] a small amount of money, Taste of Chicago is worth every penny. The sense of cultural awareness it brings, the culinary experience, and the racial melding that occurs are priceless. Not only should this event be continued, it should be expanded to seven full days. Do it for out [sic] youth."
7/14/2015 01:16:00 AM
This persona you affect is so utterly predictable, stuffy, lecturesome, and tiring.
Came out to hear that again, did you?
Oh -- could we have your "safe word?"
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It serves no purpose anymore. Years ago, before the internet, it gave citizens a chance to taste different cuisines, and ethnic foods. Now it's just like a cheap carnival, without the rides and games. I mean..how many over priced pizza slices and Chicago style hot dogs can one eat?
I go there and it's no different than how I eat during the week at work. I'm a true foodie! When It's my week end, I can surf dozens of Internet restaurant sites, look at reviews and menus, and even see mouth watering photos too. I make a hassle free reservation, get waited on and served by a dedicated hospitality industry professional, and don't have to witness the urban predator walking around showing his ass, and cutting in line!
Besides, I still remember the heat wave of 1995..and the La Grou "food service" refrigerated trailer trucks parked at the morgue, storing the dripping remains of the victims. You see these same trucks, parked at the Taste of Chicago, and all the patronage hacks running back and forth, retrieving the frozen foods, that you'll soon be consuming!
Fucking joke!
hey ssc f-ck the taste , naperville rib fest is where it is happening , also lisle balloon fest is grest too.
The taste has a checkered past.
Taste of Shit - cago is a failure. Only Lying News Media pumping life into it with their fake, distorted attendance figures and earnings. It's a Flop, financially.
Go to Taste of Robbins instead. Much better.
Thanks for the over time again!
"Besides, I still remember the heat wave of 1995..and the La Grou "food service" refrigerated trailer trucks parked at the morgue..."
7/14/2015 01:54:00 PM
Hand-carried a 5000 BTU A/C home for about 20 blocks to keep a family member alive...covered the windows with aluminum foil, shiny-side-out, to stop the solar gain, improvised a door on their room with Army blankets and plastic sheeting to keep the cool in...and then had to move the A/C to window closer to the outlet, s__t building wiring with fuse hanging by literally one thread (thanks, Clifford, we will always remember you but not in a good way)/Com Ed brownout low voltage was overheating the extension cord (fewer volts, more amperes, more heat until plastic is near melting).
People died in the next block from us... and a__hole Yuppers were still watering their tiny-shit lawns when the faucets ran dry on 3rd floor right across from them.
Poor cat was eventually found hiding in the bottom of an airless steel wardrobe. Dunked him in a bathtub of cool water. Pretty good trick for cat three feet long, nose-to-tail. He was a good guy, did not kill me.
Got it squared away at home, then loaded an LC-1 medium with water and salt and stuff and went out for a lo-o-o-ng walk through that 105 degrees and 100% humidity and hot sun. I'm like that.
Still remember newspaper photos of exhausted morgue attendants in pink disposables sitting by the loading dock with their heads in their hands.
Survival time, my friend. THAT was a bad one. What, 700+ fatalities? God help you if you were old and alone...
"This persona you affect is so utterly predictable, stuffy, lecturesome, and tiring."
7/14/2015 01:01:00 PM
I forgot "prissy and unbearably self-righteous."
Sorry.
'teens' walk about with their shorts falling off, exposing their nasty boxers..."
7/14/2015 06:30:00 AM
Seem to dimly recall that "saggin" came out of LA about 1983.
Time to move along? Naw. Leave it. Like the ones with the bandanna over their eyes, head tilted way back to see anything at all.
Tripping over yourself? Running into light poles and stuff? Good. Makes life a tiny bit easier on this end...
Did I include "pedantic?" No, but "lecturesome" is close enough.
Gives me the feeling of layin a 12 ga. into a barrel one-handed, covering my eyes with the free hand, and pulling the trigger in disgust.
A petty annoyance and get-the-garden-hose mess to the normal. Great sport, a frisson -- a thrill for the defective.
Face it.
"Go to Taste of Robbins instead. Much better."
7/14/2015 09:17:00 PM
What do they serve there -- "plastic cups" of years-unpaid-for City Of Chicago water?
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...to go with BBQ unclaimed dog pound detainees? The sauce is what makes it.
..and quit throwing your blown-bead HP skinnytires on the sidewalks. Someone could trip and fall.
Oh. Uh -- sidewalks? Sorry.
Went to Naperville rib fest last year and it was horrible. Terrible music, overwhelming security (felt like a prison camp), and the ribs were terrible-just garbage travelling carnival style ribs). And I thought the taste of chicago was lame.
to 7/1515 04:48am hey dickhead I don't know what rib fest you went to last year but it sure want nap
erville, you sure you weren't drunk at keegans or the bourbon street café, I went this year and last year and it was outstanding as far a security , better to be safe than sorry,
Yes, I remember my first Taste. The food was amazing and . . . different from what I was used to. Changed my life, really, as it it caused me to go look for other cuisines. Boring, now, save for the possibility of violence. Cops every ten feet make me feel safer, and I love you for it, but the fact that you're needed just puts a damper on everything.
End it, at least for a few years, then open it again with new restaurants offering new kinds of food. I love deep-dish and barbeque, but I can get them any time I want. Where's the turtle soup? First time I had it was back when Taste was still on the Pier, and it was amazing.
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