The Taste of...Durham?

On Saturday afternoon, Mike, Jeremy, Lauren and I set out to attend the third annual "Taste of Durham Festival." I bought the tickets at a substantial discount a few weeks prior at Morgan Imports. I only paid $2 per ticket, so it seemed to start off as a good deal. Well, when it came to festival weekend, we assumed we would be headed to Brightleaf Square, where the festival had been held the first two years. That was our first mistake. Of course, we did check this out on the web before we left, and we were surprised to find out the festival was being held at the "Imperial Center" on Page Road off I-40.

Ok, technically, I know this is still "Durham." But really - how often does someone say, "To really see Durham, you should go out to the Imperial Business Park. It's lovely." EWW. So, we make the drive out there about noon, and we easily get a parking space. We waited in a line a few minutes and received a wrist band. For what, I am not entirely sure. I guess just to show you were allowed to be in the place. The woman who put my wrist band on really wanted to make sure it stayed on, too, for she put it on so tight it nearly cut off my circulation. Luckily, I found my friend Lesa who was volunteering at the entry gate and was friendly enough to replace my wrist band.

We made our way into the festival on a very large, very dark black concrete parking lot. yikes. It was hot hot hot out there, even though it was only about 76 degrees at the time. We finally found a booth to buy festival coins. No cash is accepted in the festival, only little plastic coins that come in a $1 value. And of course you cannot buy one coin, nor two. You must buy them in sets of ten. Good deal for the festival, a bit $$ for the festival-goer. We each got us a bag of $10 and set out to grab some eats. Mike and I purposely did not eat anything prior due to this culinary quest. We wandered the row of restaurants, and it seemed at first there was a good Durham selection. Some Indian, some Greek, some Italian, then, Texas Roadhouse? Uh, no.

First suggestion to the Taste of Durham organizers: If you have a franchised restaurant that has been open in the area longer than a year, you don't get a booth. I don't want to go sample mass produced food that is served the exact same way all over the country. This is the Taste of Durham - not Philly, Austin and San Francisco.

My next observation was that the vegetarian options were null. Jeremy warned me of this, and I said, "No, I think you are wrong!" Well, I was wrong. I managed to get some bruschetta and pizza. That's it. I'm not big on Indian food, and I wasn't going to stand in line for a $6 Greek Salad from George's Garage. Therefore, on the veggie side, ToD is a serious letdown. Second suggestion - more veggie options.

Mike and Jeremy managed to get some interesting cuisine from Carmen's Cuban Cafe, but then we realized - "wait, Carmen's is in Morrisville - not even in Durham!!!" So, yay for interesting food, but couldn't we find something similar IN Durham?? Third suggestion - let's have DURHAM restaurants at the Taste of DURHAM. I thought that would be a given, but I guess not.

Next on the list would be the high, high, high cost of items. You pay $3 and get a mini serving. And I mean mini. I think the mini serving is right on the mark - that way you can sample many things in a day - but for $3 a try? sometimes $4? (and yes, a couple of places did indeed have large portions for $4 or $5, but this was the exception and not the rule.) And I saw a very yummy looking carrot cake cupcake - $5. Yes, $5. No thank you. Fourth suggestion - make the Taste of Durham not cost you more than an actual 4 star meal would have cost. We could have eaten at the Magnolia Grill for almost as much money as we spent (or at least one person could have :p).

Fifth suggestion - if you are going to hold an 8 hour festival on a huge asphalt parking lot, provide water for free. None of this $2 a bottle crap.

Sixth suggestion - allow people to buy individual coins. Or at least knock it down to a $5 minimum. $10 is just too steep.

So, that's my take on the ToD. I love Durham and I want it represented well - hence why I got a bit perturbed when the festival was nothing like I imagined it to be. There were a few highlights though:

1) Wine tastings - very reasonably priced and a lot of wine for a few $. (tip: you may want to card people occasionally. I didn't see one person get carded the entire time I was there. And ditch the chicks in all white stomping on grapes. Added a bit too much "eww" to the experience.)

2) Live music - the live music performed during the time I was there was great.