Eat & Drink
10 things you ought to know about Taste of the Danforth
Yeah, yeah, the "10 things" column is usually about a person, but when you've lived a stone's throw from Donlands station for seven years, local events like the Taste of the Danforth festival seem to take on a life of their own like a perennial visit from an old, dear friend. So, without further ado, here's all you need to know about one mother of a Greektown blowout - Opa!
- This year marks the 15th year the Greek community has celebrated Hellenic food, culture and music on the Danforth.
- The three-day bash was originally inspired by the windy city's Taste of Chicago festival, which started in 1980 and runs for ten days in July.
- In its first year, the Taste of the Danforth was only attended by 5,000 visiting the 23 participating restaurants.
- After three years, the city agreed to a partial road closure on the Danforth to accommodate the ever-swelling crowds.
- Organizers expect at least a million people to visit this year's festivities.
- While held in the heart of Toronto's Greektown, the festival includes restaurants from a veritable cornucopia of cultural backgrounds thereby allows visitors to sample food from Japan, India, Thailand, Italy and just about anywhere else you can think of (don't forget Licks Burgers, as well). My wife whole heartedly recommends the fresh Ontario corn often found outside Sun Valley Fine Foods (583 Danforth ), and I concur.
- Many non-restaurants also participate in the event. Just last year I picked up a cheap but very good penny whistle from Elite Music (822 Danforth). I sound terrible, by the way.
- Wine connoisseurs will have a chance this year to meet Greece's master of wine, Konstantinos Lazarakis, and Canada's master sommelier, John Szabo for a whole lot of wine chat, tasty treats, product sampling (Huzzah!) and cooking demonstrations in the Wine Garden.
- The festival's Wikipedia page is promising an "Iron Chef Greek" event sometime during the festival. No official word whether this is officially associated with the Japanese cooking show, but it could be a treat for the foodies.
- Parking is typically a nightmare for many, many blocks north and south the Danforth all weekend. Local residents tend to leave their cars where they are for fear of losing hard-earned street parking. The TTC is your best bet indeed. Come up at either Chester or Pape subway stations and you'll be right in the thick of things (as you should be).
The Krinos Taste of the Danforth Festival runs this weekend (August 8-10) on the Danforth (just in case there was any doubt) between Broadview and Jones.
Photo "Taste of Danforth ~ Megas Cooks" by blogto Flickr pooler ~EvidencE~
Discussion
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1) get a baby sitter and go out and have fun, there is very little for your kids to do at this thing except become cranky, especially if they are stroller age.
2) remember you are there for the street scene, the food, for the most part, sucks and is overpriced, and has very little to do with the food you would get here any other weekend of the year, the volumes are so great that very few of the restaurant kitchens are equipped to cope so many of them outsource the food prep to offsite catering kitchens.
3) Don't expect necessarily warm welcomes from the local residents and non-restaurant businesses. To locals it is nothing but a huge pain in the ass and lost business for most of the retailers. They should take another page from the Taste of Chicago and hold the event at a dedicated venue like the CNE grounds or Downsview Park instead of trying to wedge a growing crowd into a tiny neighbourhood with no infrastructure to support it.
Too funny. That should be #11 on the list.
cheers
To add insult to injury, noone's in those product tents. Can't they move them to the side streets? Who wants to order a cell phone at Taste of the Danforth anyway?
My tip is to go in the first couple of hours of each day. It's not so crowded then.
I would disagree with the comment made about the "venu" - I say keep it on the street: its accessible by subway, it brings us into urban areas where people meet each other face to face, eye to eye, as opposed to the suburbs where people only watch or judge each other through the windows of cars on roads and highways.
I loved the sign on Allen's last year: Closed due to taste of the danforth.
If you don't like people, fun, adventures, the idea of community or large crowds...don't go. It's that simple. Way to mar a successful and potentially fun community event for newcomers.
...although, using the potty before going to the Taste is a good idea.
What are we supposed to do?