Taste of the Town Report

It would appear to us that the Taste of the Town event in Chestertown this past Sunday could be deemed a success, judging from the streams of folks filing past us at our post right in front of the fountain, at least.  This is not to say that our booth in particular was a success - we had some serving issues - but there sure were a lot of people there!  

I took a few pictures, but it's not a real representative sample, I am sorry to say...

The line to enter just before noon.

That's Erica, from the Health Department, doing her thing to insure the safety of everyone's food.  Brian watches.  You can't tell, but Erica is 8 months pregnant!

One of the first people we connected with was our good friend Jeannie, who was so incredibly instrumental in getting us open at Kennedyville many years ago.  It was great to see her!

Marlena - from our lunch crew - was there with her husband Chris.

Mike Johnson and Al Koblin wait for ravioli.

Jan and Gill Callahan want to vote!  Where do ya vote!?

Looking down past our booth, to Proc's on our right, followed by Two Trees.

Pete is READY!

Jeff's getting there...

It really was a good time.  We were conveniently situated between New York Deli's yummy knishes and Proccolino's classic garlic knots.  We sent Brian out with tickets at various intervals (mostly while we waited for ravioli to heat up) to get us some snacks, and what we tried was all good.  The smoked fish from the Imperial, that Todd brought over, was tasty and Robert Jester's panna cotta was delicous.  Kevin was eating a sandwich from Play It Again Sam before we even opened! We got cookies from Against the Grain and the Cuban from the Jeff's Fishwhistle, really tasty chicken salad from Village Bakery, accompanied by their addictive potato chips.  Sal's pasta and Frank's shepherds pie both made it to our back table.  Two Trees shrimp and grits was another highlight. We missed out on Abby's Osprey Point crabcakes, but I gather she sold out even before we ran out of ravioli, which was at about 2:15.  We would have had plenty, but so many broke in the beginning, due to our serving issue, that we lost quite a few portions.  We missed out on the CupCakes across the way, which were just about the cutest I'd ever seen, but we did score a cookie from the Chance sisters and scones from Danielle's Brampton booth.  I heard the crab soup that Lemon Leaf was dipping up was tremendously good as well.  We were so swamped at our table, what with the problems of getting the ravioli out to the people and the lines that never stopped, that we didn't get to socialize with our compatriots as much as we normally like to do at this event... 

Note to self - next year, something easier to serve please!

Overall, we had a great time and I hope all the attendees did as well.

Taste of the Town

The fourth annual Taste of the Town happens this Sunday May 1 at Fountain Park in DownTown Chestertown.  We'll be there offering up  SBF Veal Ravioli.  This year the promoters have opened it up to Restaurants countywide, and while the net is larger, the catch is not - only two out-of-Chestertown businesses seemed to have been attracted to this popular venue.  It's a pretty fun day, for participants and attendees alike, with the opportunity it offers us to smooze with our compatriots of the local Food World. I always end up with a tired jaw from all of the smiling...

We look forward to seeing you there!

Taste of the Town is Fun!

I hope everyone had as much fun at this year's Taste of the Town on Sunday as we did! The weather wasn't the greatest, what with that chilly damp wind that blew through pretty much all day, but the crowd was happy and the participants seemed excited to be there. I got a few pictures, although not enough...and I got to taste a few offerings as well. My vote for the best in show was that tuna tartare set up by the Imperial guys - I had three of those!! Jeff's crabcakes were mighty good too, and the gazpacho from Chef Rob was a perfect starter. Kevin and John had some of Frank's shepherd's pie (I'm not a lamb eater, so I passed on that.) which was a great choice for the day's temperatures! We managed to score one of Danielle's still warm scones - white chocolate and cherry - which was probably the best scone I've ever had. I missed out on Occasions salsa, but it looked really good, as did their classy set-up. I'm sure Pete's coffee was a big hit, and the garlic knots that Sal brought were going fast. There were other options too, but for the most part we were at our stations, sending John out for snacks when our line lulled.

Kevin and John are set up, ready to go, with our St. Brigid's Farm Veal sausage sliders.

Frank came by to share some laughs with us.

Here is Chef Rob from the Harbor House with Kevin.

An overview of the crowd; Kevin's head in the foreground.

Kevin sets this fellow up with his cheese sauced slider and pickled onion.

He mentioned he was a retired NYC firefighter,
and the taste of Kevin's bratwurst brought him a familiar taste of home!

Jeff was steady frying crabcakes;
it didn't appear as if the line in front of his station ever diminished!

Frank! didn't we have fun?!

The organizers of this event deserve a lot of credit for pulling it off so smoothly. I am sure there will be a few suggestions for next year, but hopefully the numbers of visitors justifies doing it again. I know we had a great time. It's a wonderful opportunity to mix with your fellow restaurateurs and to meet and greet your customers, not to mention market your business!

We collected more names for our 5 liter Banfi drawing and guess who won? Just before they began the auction we asked Mark to announce our drawing and with the help of a young lad who had moments before scarfed down a BT slider, drew the name of......

Robert Fry and Judy Gifford of St. Brigid's Farm!! Wasn't that appropriate! I immediately called them to let them know, and of course we will photograph the collection when it occurs. We'll be doing another during our Anniversary Week, so don't despair, there's one more chance to win! Meanwhile, thanks for everyone who came to ToT and we look forward to doing it again next year!

Win Me!

We are so excited about our huge bottle of Banfi that we decided to get a second one and do a raffle for it at this weekend's Taste of the Town. We've been collecting names all week and we will bring it with us on Sunday to give the "tasters" a shot at the huge 5 liter bottle too!

It's going to be a fun day inside the Big Top!

Taste of the Town Report

My pictures are just terrible...but we really had a lot of fun at Sunday's Taste of the Town. We were situated right next to Frank and Betty from O'Connors, so we couldn't have had better neighbors. Our Turkey Mole seemed to be popular enough, and while we didn't win "Best Of Show" (and I'm actually not sure who did, but I suspect it was the Front Room at the Imperial with their yummy scallop tacos), we did have some people come back for seconds, which was very flattering.

Kevin is sitting there enjoying a grilled pizza from Brix in second photo. It was so great to interact with all of our co-workers in the restaurant biz in Chestertown, all under one roof - that, to me, was the highlight of the day! And Jeff, from Fish Whistle, while not participating, saved our day by letting us keep our mole in his walk-in...thanks, Jeff!

I don't know how many people were there, but the layout was perfect and the weather, while hot for April, was pleasant enough under the Big Top. (We fortuitously brought a fan with us!) Standing for so long got tough on our feet though - we are all used to constant motion while on the job - and my jaw got a little strained from the nonstop smiling! Overall however, I would judge it a pretty good success and our crew is already signed themselves up for next year.

Taste of the Town

Chestertown's restaurant community is about to join hands in an effort to raise funds for the Kent County High School culinary arts program. Taste of the Town - the second annual - is organized and sponsored by the Downtown Chestertown Association, and I imagine this to be a pretty big job for someone(s). They suggest we prepare tastes for 1000-1500 people! Now, last year it seems that they oversold tickets and under prepared the restaurants. Basing the success of last year's turnout on this year's projections makes sense, but I have yet to hear how many tickets have been sold so we can determine how much we should prepare.

What is our "taste"? Kevin is making turkey mole. His recipe uses plenty of dried peppers, traditional spices and chocolate, with turkey (Locust Point Farm, of course) simmered in it, and we will be serving it on corn tortillas. He began the sauce yesterday. He is making gallons. If the turnout is not what they planned, we'll probably be seeing it on the lunch menu as a quesadilla... Todd and Pete will be helping us; we'll all be wearing BT T-shirts - that may be the extent of our decorations! I do have our signage left from last year...

No matter what, ToT this Sunday should prove to be a lot of fun. I am looking forward to yakking it up with my fellow restaurateurs, tasting their tastes and enjoying the crowds. It is supposed to be a gorgeous spring day. We don't know what to expect beyond that, so wish us luck!

Taste of the Town - Take 2

We are trying to decide if we are going to participate in the 2nd Annual Taste of the Town in Chestertown this coming April. The letter of invitation states that we should prepare samplings of a single signature dish for 1000 to 1500 people...Man, we can barely get ready for 80 people for New Year's Eve...what sort of signature dish could we do for that number of hungry mouths? Seeing as we are already on their WebPage - probably as one of last year's "participants" - the pressure to come up with a doable dish is enormous. In trying to get some sort of Idea, you can look and see what other towns do: Summerville South Carolina's is sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce and charges $350 for non-members to participate, expecting over 3000 guests! New Orleans is having one in March, which if the food is anything like what they serve at JazzFest, that would be the one to head to! Too bad you can't get a whole lot from their webpage... Or how about the Taste of Cape Town? Now that looks like quite an event! Expect 20,000 visitors! This TofT is run by a company that just does that, manages Tastes of a Town, and it is heavily marketed. One last example, in Santa Clarita California - that looks like alot of fun for a good cause.

The big problem is - what "signature dish" could we come up with to serve small tastes of to 1000 people in an outside environment that would taste great, transport well, serve efficiently?
BT Sliders? Mini oyster fritters? Tiny romaine salads? Hey, maybe egg roll sized Carolina crepes? We've got until the first of February...why do they give us so long to decide??

Taste of the Town

The Downtown Chestertown Association is sponsoring a "Taste of the Town" event on April 27th at Wilmer Park. It should be a good time - it's certainly something new - and we will be there. The web site gives you more info. We're going to do a short version of the Romaine Salad au Gratin - if we have a signature dish, that is certainly one of them! I was excited to see so many restaurants participating, with just about every one of the downtown spots joining in the fray and a few of our uptown peers as well. I look forward to seeing all of these businesses - who compete daily for the dining dollar - all together in a friendly setting, sharing food and talking shop.

Sunday, April 27th in Wilmer Park in Chestertown - put it on your calendar!