Tasteless Taste of Chicago
Why…Would Anyone Want to Go to the Taste of Chicago?
A good number of years ago when I was a regular panelist on the Bruce DuMont radio show, the show would go one night to the Taste of Chicago and broadcast from the WBEZ booth. The first year we were there, I was sickened as we talked of public affairs on the mike, watching the army of vandals chewing, spitting and mulching, here a gross woman in gingham chomping her jaws on something, the juice trickling down her chin; there an oaf pulling on a chicken leg shouting to his fellows with a monotonous, unintelligible chant, now a child being tugged along by a mother unaware that her charge has just emptied her bladder. Following the show, I took a walk around the grounds. It was about 90 degrees with nary a breath of air stirring. What I saw was enough to cause my stomach to recoil. First there was the sight of an overweight chef in a grey undershirt preparing meals supposed to be exotic, bare tattooed arms with huge tufts of sweaty black hairy underarms, perspiration rolling down from his underarms and dripping onto the skillet, while he rubbed his nose to brush away beads of sweat that plopped onto the plate he was holding…the crowd waiting patiently to be served by this performer; a woman, tired and angry at her small child, giving it a demoniacal smack; a central casting rube with a W. Clement Stone mustache carrying a latte with five expresso shots. I asked myself: why? Why?
Long lines, moving very slowly, were lined up before the booths where tiny portions were ladled out by unshaven servers (and these were the women) is desultory fashion, the recipients having to nibble from their fragile, half cardboard half paper plates which fold up in the heat, all the while standing. That was enough for me and so I decided to leave. Leaving itself was a torment, fighting echelons of sweaty people who all seemed intent on going in the opposite direction I was struggling to get. I admit I have a tendency to grow panicky in crowds and for a half hour I could hardly breathe as I battered my way through the suffocating armies marching toward me.
In all of entertainment…even with things I am not interested in, like the ballet…I have never uttered a complaint when forced to go. But I am extraordinarily fortunate to have married a woman 49 years ago who without any importuning by me has come to the same happy conclusion about Taste of Chicago. If I were to name one thing that eludes me about contemporary Chicago it is the strange success of Taste of Chicago…a sad trampling of civility which reduces the finest event of western civilization-a savory dining experience-to ashes and banal barbarism.
I am in total agreement. I visited the Taste of Chicago once, in 1989, and have never returned.
Overcrowded, overpriced, inconvenient and unsanitary are the descriptions that immediately come to mind. The lack of proper facilities caused me to wonder how many people might need to be hospitalized if a food poisoning outbreak occurred. Garbage can be seen everywhere and there only portable toilets for the thousands of patrons.
In comparison, the summer festivals held in Milwaukee at the Summerfest Park are far superior: adequate parking in close proximity to the grounds, permanent restroom facilities and proper sanitation on the grounds of the park, permanent kitchens used for food preparation with access to clean running water. No persons are admitted to the festivities without paying a nominal admission fee which helps to keep out the vagrants, loiterers, panhandlers and pickpockets.
Taste of Chicago is a bad hangover from the Chicagofest created by Mayor Jane Byrne. It ought to be reorganized or scrapped entirely. Apart from the profiteering that takes place for the select few, it serves no useful function. It is an unclean embarrassment.
it’s espresso, snob
Yeah, Taste of Chicago is gross to behold, but some people seem to enjoy it. Sorta like Tom Roeser.
Must be fun to pooh-pooh the obese and destitute from your lanky, intellectual pedestal.
I have bad memories of walking around full handed, looking for a space on a curb where I could finish a pizza slice and warm beer in the dust.
Taste of Chicago is about the music, too. If you get to the park early enough you might be able find a patch of dry weeds to sit on, not too far from the outhouse lines but not sight-obstructed by the tent colonies.
Occasionally, I’ll go to see a musical act. I’d never go to eat…
I go, becasue it is a festival for the people, which I happen to be. I go once a year for periogis with sour cream and a little cup of rainbow cone. I live on the north side, don’t own a car, so it is the only way I can get in my rainbow cone fix. If you go early, the crowds aren’t too bad, and it can actually be a good time. When I camp, I use the great outdoors for a loo, so a porta-potty is not that bad, bring some baby wipes, prepare yourself for the crowds, and enjoy some street food. Eating good food does not always have to be about presentation and pretense. Street food is good stuff, have a good time enjoying it and getting a little dirty. The taste is about enjoying little bites of your city, hearing music, how can you be to pretentious to enjoy some periogis?
yeah, thom, it’s “espresso,” no “x.”
that said, you wonder why people go out for this? because trash goes out for this kind of crap. i’ll admit, i’ve been to taste plenty, but have boycotted in recent years–overpriced food that makes me say, “eh.”
I go to Taste of Chicago to eat turkey leg and rainbow ice cream. I used to live in West of Chicago and take a blue line to go there. Now, I moved to superb and it will cost me more to go to T of Ch.
Either, I will cook my own turkey foot or I will sell my pant to get some money for gas, parking and ticket.
I can’t help but agree with the spirit of this article, if not the author’s haughty tone. The same restaurants year after year, many serving essentially the same food. (The Taste website lists 7 new entries this year out of about 70.) The crowds, the heat, the lack of tables, the overflowing fly-ridden trash bins, the port-a-potties: it’s a bit like dining in a Chicago alley on a humid 90-degree day. This event needed to be re-vamped years ago.
For those of you who are unable to attend the Taste of Chicago in person, you can always recreate the entire experience by dining out of a restaurant dumpster on a hot and humid day while throwing your money away recklessly. Yuck!
Four people shot, one dead and three wounded, seriously call into question the continued viability of this event. It is like the Rolling Stones concert at Altamont Speedway with gangs of undisciplined youths loitering and arguing with other festival goers while the ineffectual police fear being sent to mandatory diversity classes or being tried for police brutality if they intervene on the side of law and order.
If Daley cannot control this food sampling orgy, how can he hope to host the Olympics in Washington Park? End this civic embarrassment now.
I moved to Chicago two years ago but still haven’t made it to the Taste. My husband (born and raise here) highly discourages me to go. With all the bad publicity and the negative reviews of the place, I wonder…should I even consider going next year? If so…does it make a difference when I go (time of day) and day I go? Just curious…..???
The most embarassing event held in Chicago…. I have yet to figure out who would go back a second time.
I hope the Olympic comittee was far far away.
Mayor, its time to clean up this vulgar spectacle.
It’s not that bad… “banal barbarism” … LOL
Although I certainly only go for the music, the food could be worse.
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T.S.
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