Taste of Chicago is just part of the neighborhood

and part of my past....

07/01/2009 5:45 PM

By Bonnie McGrath

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It’s nice living in the South Loop during Taste of Chicago; in spite of the little crime up tick in the neighborhood everyone always talks about due to all the visiting riff-raff from who knows where.

It’s nice because things like this happen: last night Robin Walker rang the bell about 6-ish so we could gallivant over to see what was going on and get something to eat. Robin and I moved in our houses on State Street the same month 15 years ago; her husband had been my accountant--and still is.

“Should I bring a rain jacket?” I asked Robin. “Nah,” she said. “If it rains we’ll just walk home. Why have two layers getting wet?” I asked her what would happen if we got cold. “We’ll walk home,” she said.

So we went in our shirtsleeves. We went from one end to the other watching the riff-raff and I got tepid spinach pizza from Bacino’s and strawberry pecan salad from Home Run Inn. She got a well-barbecued turkey leg from Manny’s and a roasted corn on the cob dipped in butter. We stuck pretty much with old-fashioned time-tested favorites.

Then we got a couple of Buds and settled in on picnic tables near a La Grou truck that hummed, interfering a little with the music of the Barenaked Ladies that emanated over from the Petrillo Band Shell.

I thought about the first Taste I ever went to. It was on Michigan Avenue about 30 years ago--and I lived on Michigan Avenue. All I really had to do was walk out my door. Jane Byrne was mayor. The tastes were really tastes back then and they went for a reasonable amount of money; no rip-offs. The whole thing was run by the late restaurateur Arnie Morton, the scuttlebutt being that if this thing caught on members of the restaurant association could really clean up on a portion of the beer sales.

The whole thing is pretty much run for the sake of the beer sales today. Whoever has the beer distributorship for Taste and the other official Chicago street fests I would love to know. It’s also fun to spot the most politically connected restaurants; they get to serve the big sellers--like the turkey legs, the corn, the spinach pizza and the fried dough (a moneymaking standby for ward healer-types--a business developed by Byrne’s bodyguards when she was Queen of Taste).

A lot of the stuff the restaurants serve at Taste they don’t really serve at their restaurants. It’s processed, frozen food with a gimmick--like fried ravioli. Years ago, I ordered some guacamole from a place that served guacamole at the restaurant that was out of this world. But I ended up getting a little cup of mass-produced avocado sauce or something instead. So I demanded my six tickets back--and the guy in the booth admitted they were serving guacamole provided by the Taste people and not their own version.

Robin and I did get a little chilly--and I thought about another Taste memory that happened in 1982 when I was extremely pregnant and it was very hot. Some friends had come over to our house on Michigan Avenue and they wanted to go. And I was a little wary. But my husband said, “my mother didn’t even have air conditioning and she always went out in the heat when she was pregnant.”

So I went. And everyone got hot and tired and dizzy--except me. I wanted to stay longer and listen to music and eat and watch people.

I thought about that when Robin and I passed the Ferris wheel on our way back to Dearborn Park, after sitting on the massage chairs in the Sensodyne tent for a half hour, where they also gave us some free toothpaste to take home.


4 Comments - Add Your Comment



By claudea from United Center
Posted: 07/03/2009 1:03 AM

It's a great place to people watch. And the Bare Naked Ladies rocked!!!


By judy marcus from palatine
Posted: 07/02/2009 5:22 PM

The Taste is too big. Too many people, too much sweat, too much garbage. If you want good food, go to the actual restaurants.


By Robin from South Loop
Posted: 07/01/2009 11:18 PM

Wow, you saw all that? Amazing! I was too busy making sure I didn't walk into someone's sandwich. Still, I love walking thru the Taste and sticking to the South Loop code: go when its not crowded, travel light and leave before you have to pee!


By Paul from Wrigleyville I
Posted: 07/01/2009 10:15 PM

We used to have a kit -- sort of a picnic basket with silverware, napkins, plates -- that we culd take next door to Taste for lunch or dinner. The original idea was restaurants would sell small portions of their trademark dishes as a promotion. The "riff raff" clientele aren't going to be patronizing the better restaurants, so they give them junk.