Taste of Kansas City: a delicious debut of the summer season
It’s always best to launch into summer with a sense of good taste.
Every year for the past 12 years, The Pitch’s annual Taste of Kansas City food-and-drink event has been the lighthearted bacchanal signaling the approach of summer. This year the festivities feature 23 local food and beverage vendors, including Westside Local, Waldo Pizza, Scratch Bakery and Plowboys Barbeque among the establishments ready to share samples of their products beginning at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 21, in the KC Live Block of the Power & Light District.
Taste celebrates the local culinary scene by highlighting the invited vendors’ signature dishes and beverages, permitting patrons the opportunity to dine deliciously on bites from Blue Bird Bistro, Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant, Unforked, Morton’s Grille, the Melting Pot, Parkville Coffee, Pezzettino Italian Deli & Market, Pizza Bar, Hotel Phillips, Jerusalem Café, Tippin’s, Grace’s Best Cookies, and Hungry Monkey Party Bites.
Beverage vendors will include Captain Morgan rum, Red Bull, Stiletto vodka, Tallgrass beer and United Beverage. US Foods is the event’s presenting sponsor; other sponsors are Vapur West, Mac Properties, and the WellSpring School of Allied Health.
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This year’s competing chefs in the annual Golden Fork competition include last year’s winner Justin Voldan, now the executive chef at Westside Local, competing against the new executive chef at the Hotel Phillips, Frank Lalumia. The other four formidable competitors are Jonathan Pye of the Rozzelle Court restaurant at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Mario Galan of Avenues Bistro, Vincent Paredes from the Downtown Marriott Hotel and Basilio De Dios (best-known locally as “Tito Le Chef”) the chef and proprietor of the former Latin Bistro restaurant (it closed last October) and a new food truck called American Fusion.
Taste tickets cost $45 for VIP admission or $35 for general admission. See pitch.com to purchase in advance or bring a few dollars more to buy at the gate Thursday evening. The event is for patrons who are 21 and older.
