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Taste of Chicago

taste of chicago aerial view of food vendors and crowdsThe Taste of Chicago starts this weekend and it is going to be a rainy and hot couple of weeks. There are some great music performances planned for free at the Taste of Chicago and there is a new Taste of Chicago iPhone App to help you find the right food within a very crowded festival.

Parking: If you plan to drive in traffic, you can park directly under the event in Millennium Garages for around $23. $5 off coupon here 

Event Dates: Jun 25, 2010 – Jul 4, 2010

Event Hours: 11 am – 9 pm Daily Except Saturday, July 3: 11 am – 7 pm; Sunday, July 4: 11 am – 6 pm Ticket sales end 30 minutes before the Taste of Chicago closes.

Location: Main Entrance Michigan Ave. & Congress Dr. Chicago, IL 60604

Food Tickets: Food and beverages are sold with tickets and the tickets are sold 12 at a time for $8.  Each food vendor has the ticket prices posted on their booth. Over 200 food items are available at the event, and no food item costs more than 12 tickets. Credit Cards are accepted at the ticket booths. An I.D. is required when making a credit card purchase.

Free Music: Rob Thomas is singing on Friday July 2. Lots of others listed here at the end of the post.

Some new changes to this year’s Taste of Chicago are that the restaurants able to  and sell food there have to be located from within Chicago’s city limits. This has turned off a lot of suburban food fans who would have otherwise come out to the Taste of Chicago but since the emphasis is more on city boundaries and not Chicagoland as a whole a lot of suburbanites are planning on staying away. Many of the big well known restaurants and food brands known in Chicago are really located in the surrounding suburbs and they were always included before.

So, that said the mix of restaurants and food will be quite different this year:

  • Abundance Bakery 105 East 47th Street Chicago, IL
  • Adobo Grill 1601 North Wells Street Chicago, IL
  • Bacino’s Pizza of Lincoln Park 2204 North Lincoln Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Billy Goat Tavern & Grill 1535 West Madison Avenue (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • BJ’s Market and Bakery 8734 South Stony Island Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Bobak Sausage Company 5275 South Archer Avenue (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Carbón 300 West 26th Street Chicago, IL
  • C’est Si Bon! 643 East 47th Street Chicago, IL
  • Chicago Joe’s 2256 West Irving Park Road Chicago, IL
  • Churro Factory2214 South Wolcott Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Connie’s Pizza 2373 South Archer Avenue Chicago, IL  (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Cubby Bear 1059 West Addison Street Chicago, IL
  • Doreen’s Gourmet Pizza 13201 South Baltimore Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Eli’s Cheesecake 6701 West Forest Preserve Drive Chicago, IL
  • Franco’s Ristorante 300 West 31st Street Chicago, IL
  • Garrett Popcorn Shops(ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • The Grill on the Alley 909 North Michigan Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Guey Lon 3968 North Elston Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Harold’s Chicken #71 2109 South Wabash Avenue (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Harry Caray’s33 West Kinzie Street Chicago, IL
  • Hashbrowns 731 West Maxwell Street Chicago, IL
  • Home Run Inn Pizza 4254 West 31st Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Iyanze 4623 North Broadway Street Chicago, IL
  • JR Dessert Bakery 2841 West Howard Street Chicago, IL
  • Kasia’s Deli 2101 West Chicago Avenue Chicago, IL
  • La Justicia 3901 West 26th Street Chicago, IL
  • Lagniappe-Creole Cajun Joynt 1525 West 79th Street Chicago, IL
  • Las Tablas Colombian Steakhouse 2942 N. Lincoln Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Lou Malnati’s Pizza 805 South State Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Manny’s Cafeteria & Delicatessen 1141 S. Jefferson Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • The Noodle Vietnamese Cuisine2336 S. Wentworth Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Oak Street Beach Café 5700 South Cicero Avenue Chicago, IL
  • O’Brien’s 1528 North Wells Street Chicago, IL
  • Original Rainbow Cone 9233 S. Western Avenue (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Pegasus Restaurant & Taverna130 South Halsted Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Polka Sausage and Deli 8753 Commercial Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Reggio’s Pizza1339 S. Halsted Street Chicago, IL
  • Ricobene’s 252 W. 26th Street Chicago, IL
  • Robinson’s No.1 Ribs 225 S. Canal Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Sabor Latino 3810 West North Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Shokolad Pastry and Café 2524 West Chicago Avenue
  • Star of Siam 11 E. Illinois Street (ChicagoWeekendFun recommends!)
  • Summer Noodle & Rice 1123 West Granville Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Tamarind 614 S. Wabash Avenue Chicago, IL
  • Timothy O’Toole’s Pub 622 North Fairbanks Court Chicago, IL
  • Tuscany 1014 W. Taylor Street Chicago, IL
  • Tutto Italiano 501 South. Wells Street Chicago, IL
  • Vee Vee’s African Cuisine 6232 North Broadway Street Chicago, IL
  • Vermilion 10 West Hubbard Street Chicago, IL
  • Vienna Beef/Gold Coast Dog  Chicago, IL

I always have the same disclaimers about the food at the Taste of Chicago. Feel free to indulge but these are not foods I recommend eating on a regular basis. About 95% of them are high calorie high fat foods (fried chicken, ribs, sausages, pizza, burgers, sweets) and would be a poor addition to your diet on a weekly basis. The whole purpose of the Taste is for these companies to market to you and then you eat their food more regularly if you like it. Don’t fall into that trap. A day of indulgence is ok, regular weeknight meals are better off being salads in the long run.

** Edited June 24 – Humana Health Insurance Company emailed me to say that they have a program highlighting healthier choices at the Tase of Chicago, likley because I highlighted that there are almost no healthy choices at the Taste. They say that their qualification of entrees for this program are that they are under 450 calories and 500 mg sodium. (no fat limit???) 450 calories? for a sample of food? If someone is on a 1,200 calorie diet, that isn’t really a lot of help. You get a snack for dinner and thats it. Maybe that is what was intended by nature, but people won’t like it. An entire dinner should be under 500 calories (for most shorter women like me) and it still should be satisfying, so samples should be 200 calories or less.

The Taste of Chicago is an indulgence and pretending its anything else is just not very honest. You can look at their menu recommendations at humana.com/tasteofchicago if you are still interested. I understand why companies that are paying for your health coverage want you to make smarter choices, but I think the food companies and restaurants need to partner with them to actually make some healthy and appealing menu options that are available 24/7/365 of else something like this isn’t really going to work.

Taste of Chicago Petrillo Bandshell Free Music Schedule:

  • Friday, June 25, 2010 – Rob Base, Slick Rick, Doug E. Fresh, Salt-n-Pepa Bell Biv Devoe 5:30 pm
  • Saturday, June 26, 2010 – Gavin Rossdale Band From TV (opening act) 5:30 pm
  • Sunday, June 27, 2010 – Emily Osment Allstar Weekend (opening act) 3:00 pm
  • Tuesday, June 29, 2010 – Los Lobos Los Lonely Boys (co-headliner) 5:30 pm
  • Wednesday, June 30, 2010 Mat Kearney Brett Dennen (opening act) 5:30 pm
  • Thursday, July 1, 2010 -Trey Songz Teairra Mari (opening act) 5:30 pm
  • Friday, July 2, 2010 – Rob Thomas 5:30 pm
  • Saturday, July 3, 2010 – Steve Miller Band 3:00 pm
  • Sunday, July 4, 2010 – Robert Randolph and The Family Band special guest Carney (opening)

So, we’re off to the Taste and I hope you have a great time and wear comfortable shoes and bring an umbrella!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010 at 10:32 am and is filed under Chicago events, This Weekend in Chicago. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Taste of Chicago”

  1. Band From TV (www.bandfromtv.org) will be performing at the Taste of Chicago, but they will playing at a much more intimate setting — for charity — at the Vic Theater, this Saturday night (6/26). Greg Grunberg (star of HEROES and appearing this fall on the new series LOVE BITES) founded the band featuring your favorite TV stars, including Hugh Laurie and Jesse Spencer from HOUSE, MD, Chicago native James Denton from DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES, Bob Guiney from THE BACHELOR and Scott Grimes from ER and the new ROBIN HOOD movie. Tickets are available at Ticketmaster (http://www.ticketmaster.com/Band-From-TV-tickets/artist/1280758), and the event will benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Chicago… a charity close to Grunberg’s heart because his oldest son has seizures.

  2. [...] for great food, music and entertainment, it has gotten larger every year and keeps on growing. For the 2010 Taste of Chicago Schedule and map info click here. Taste of Chicago features some of the best food in the city as well as some of the fastest to make [...]

  3. [...] have some recommendations on great food at the taste here: Taste of Chicago | Chicago Weekend Fun! based on the restaurants at the Taste that I have been to before and enjoyed. None are healthy, but [...]

  4. [...] Parking is near impossible for less than $10 downtown. You may be able to find parking meters within a mile of the grant park location, but they cost $2 per hour or more now too. The millennium garages are what they recommend and there is a coupon for a $5 discount at this site here: Taste of Chicago | Chicago Weekend Fun! [...]

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