When:
Memorial Day Weekend: Saturday and Sunday, May 28 and 29, 2011, 12 noon to 12 midnight; Monday, May 30, 2011, 12 noon to 9 pm.
Where: On six blocks of Fifth Street, from Race Street
to Broadway in Downtown Cincinnati.
Cost: Free!
Parking: Convenient parking can be found in the Fountain
Square Garage.
Please note: Pets, (unless used for handicap assistance), bikes, skateboards, rollerblades,
poles and sticks are prohibited in the event site during operating hours. No coolers,
bottles, cans, alcoholic beverages or weapons can be brought into the event site.
Twenty-five
area restaurants served more than 60 dishes to some of the most
discerning taste buds in Cincinnati USA on May 2. They were competing at
Best of Taste, the region’s most prestigious annual culinary competition and precursor to the P&G Taste of Cincinnati.
The judges--celebrities, foodies and the epicurious-- named the Prime Rib Cannelloni from Bella Lunaas the Best Damn Dish, one of fiveawards won by the restaurant. The award is for the most votes via blind taste tests of all the dishes entered into the competition.
About Taste of Cincinnati USA
Taste of Cincinnati USA is held every Memorial Day weekend in
downtown Cincinnati by The Downtown Council and the Greater Cincinnati
Restaurant Association. Started in 1979, it is now the nation's longest
running culinary arts festival.
Taste of Cincinnati USA started as a one-day fest in Piatt Park, then
known as Garfield Park, with approximately 5,000 attending the first
event. The event expanded to two days in 1981, and in 1988 expanded to
three days and moved to Central Parkway. Taste of Cincinnati USA was the
brainchild of Karen Maier, vice president of marketing for Frisch’s
Restaurants Inc. Maier cooked up the idea after reading about Taste of
the Big Apple in the Nation’s Restaurant News, an industry trade
publication.
In 2007, the event was moved to Fifth Street to spotlight the
$42-million renovation of Fountain Square and its underground parking
garage, and to bring the event closer to Downtown's cluster of hotels,
such as The Cincinnatian Hotel, the Garfield Suites Hotel, the Hilton
Cincinnati Netherland Plaza, the Hyatt Regency Cincinnati, the
Millennium Hotel Cincinnati, The Terrace Hotel and the Westin Hotel
Cincinnati.
Approximately 500,000 now attend the annual food extravaganza, making
Taste one of the nation's largest street festivals. Taste of Cincinnati
USA was named Food Event of the Year for 1997 by Events Business News,
the recognized authority of the special events business in the United
States, selecting it out of 40,000 special events across the nation.
Taste of Cincinnati USA features more than 40 fine restaurants
serving up delicious and delectable menu items. In the weeks leading up
to Taste each year, menu items are previewed and judged for prestigious Best of Taste Awards.
Taste of Cincinnati USA is also a music festival, with continuous live entertainment featuring local and national recording stars performing on multiple stages throughout the event.
Visit the Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Association web site: www.dineoutoften.com