A Fresh Taste Draws 1.2 Million Attendees

An estimated 1.2 million attendees visited the newly enhanced Taste of Chicago, as the City of Chicago provided a safe, family-friendly cultural event that attracted residents and visitors from throughout the Chicagoland area and beyond. Taste of Chicago marked a return to its original concept, reflecting Chicago’s incredible restaurant community and featuring much of the city’s homegrown talent in both the culinary and music worlds. 

“Once again, Chicagoans came out en masse to enjoy offerings from restaurants across Chicago and great musical performances from local and national acts,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel.  “Hundreds of thousands came to the lakefront each day for the premier cultural event of summer.”

Taste attendees enjoyed three-course meals and signature items from celebrity chefs, learned from the masters at the Dominick’s Cooking Corner, heard music from a wide variety of artists, and sampled more than 200 menu items from 55 different restaurants.

“The 32nd Annual Taste of Chicago offered so many new features that it was almost a brand new event and the public responded enthusiastically,” said Michelle T. Boone, Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.  “We couldn’t be more pleased.”

One of many new features was the extremely popular Celebrity Chef du Jour, which offered Taste attendees the opportunity to dine in a specially designed pavilion from a meal designed by a celebrity chef and served by students from the Washburne Culinary Institute.  A three-course meal was specially created by noted Chicago chefs Stephanie Izard, Graham Elliot, Tony Mantuano, Jimmy Bannos and Carlos Gaytan.  The dining pavilion was filled to capacity each day.

“What an outstanding meal!  This is such a welcome change to the Taste.  Graham Elliot was such a great host,” said Ryan Jaskiewicz, CEO of 12five Capital, who attended Friday’s dinner.

Rohit Ray was not only a loyal customer to Celebrity Chef du Jour (attending four of them), but also to Taste of Chicago 2012 as he has enjoyed the festival each of its five days.  Ray thought the Chef du Jour concept was “brilliant” and hoped that the City would “keep doing it; I will come back,” he stated.

Another new amenity which proved to be popular was a guaranteed seat at the Petrillo Music Shell Pavilion for only $25.  Most of the five concerts played to near or full capacity in the seating area as well as the lawn. 

In addition to CTA cooling buses offering respite from the heat, the Chicago Fire Department deployed a mobile ventilation unit that sprayed a mist of water to cool off the large crowds.  Despite the heat and the vast number of attendees, the Chicago Police reported only four arrests.

Proving to be successful not only to festival goers, but also to the restaurateurs was the new Pop-Up concept, curated by WTTW11’s Check Please!   The restaurants only participated for one day, allowing smaller restaurants to participate without placing a burden on their permanent locations.  These restaurant owners were very pleased with their participation, especially when menu items proved so popular that staff was sent to retrieve more product.

“Most of our experience has been up north, so it was great to experience a downtown festival.  We had a blast and it went really well with tons of support.  We had people try one thing and then return for another menu item,” said Brad Phillips of LM Restaurant, which participated as a Pop-Up restaurant. 

Check Please! Executive Producer David Manilow has already heard from restaurants asking how they can participate in the 2013 Taste.

Longtime Taste Vendor Charlie Robinson of Robinson’s No.1Ribs had strong praise for the new shortened format.

“This is one of the best I’ve done so far.  I think the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events plus the Illinois Restaurant Association should get a Grammy® for this year,” joked Robinson.

And the public/private partnership for Taste continues to thrive as the event is programmed with the support of the corporate community.  A partner of the festival for the fifth year is Humana which includes sponsorship of Race to Taste and the Humana Healthier Choices indicated on menu boards by the green apple.

“Once again, our sponsorship of the Taste of Chicago has proven to be very successful,” said Deborah Gracey, president of Humana’s Great Lakes Medicare region. “This enables us to not only work towards our mission of helping people achieve lifelong well-being, but also to work with the city to provide an added value at the Taste of Chicago.

The Taste of Chicago ran from July 11 through July 15 in Grant Park.  Taste of Chicago is produced, programmed and managed by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events and sponsored by Aquafina, BP Team USA Experience, Blue Bunny® Ice Cream, Bud Light, Chicago Transit Authority, Chicago Tribune, CLTV-ChicagoLand’s Television, Communications Direct, Dominick's, E & J Gallo Family Vineyards, Eli’s Cheesecake Company, GEICO,  Huawei Device USA, Humana, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Illinois Lottery, LaGrou Distribution System, Pepsi, Radio Disney AM 1300 Chicago, Shoreline Sightseeing, T-Mobile, Transitions Optica, Inc., Univision Radio, US99.5, V-103, WGN-Television, WTTW11’s Check, Please! and 93XRT

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Taste of Chicago 2012

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