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Main Street S.O.
Citizen
Username: Mssodirector
Post Number: 23
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, June 30, 2005 - 2:19 pm: |     |
Main Street TASTE OF SOUTH ORANGE
Cuisine and music from around the world. Enjoy the music of the Tomoko Ohno and Andres Boiarsky Quartet, while sampling the menus of these fine South Orange restaurants:
- Antonella's
- Sweet Concessions
- Dancing Goat
- Cryan's Beef and Ale
- It’s a Wrap
- Papillion 25
- Neehlam Exotic Indian Cuisine
- Cafe Arugula
- Lot 15 Grill
Spiotta Park @ South Orange Avenue & Village Plaza in South Orange
Tuesday, July 12th – 5:30 pm to 8 pm
Tickets only $3 per plate - available on site from Main Street South Orange.
Additional information can be found at www.MainStreetSouthOrange.org/news.php or by calling 973-763-6899.
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Main Street S.O.
Citizen
Username: Mssodirector
Post Number: 31
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Sunday, July 10, 2005 - 12:56 pm: | |
Reminder:
Main Street TASTE OF SOUTH ORANGE
Tuesday, July 12th – 5:30 pm to 8 pm
Cuisine and music from around the world.
Spiotta Park @ South Orange Avenue & Village Plaza in South Orange
Tickets $3 per plate - available on site only from Main Street South Orange.
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Main Street S.O.
Citizen
Username: Mssodirector
Post Number: 33
Registered: 5-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 3:55 pm: | |
Tonight, enjoy dinner at the Main Street TASTE OF SOUTH ORANGE
5:30 pm to 8 pm
SpiottaPark and Village Plaza -- next to Washington Mutual Bank and across from Cafe Arugola on South Orange Avenue.
Dine al fresco, while enjoying the music of the Tomoko Ohno and Andres Boiarsky Quartet.
Tickets $3 per plate - available on site only from Main Street South Orange.
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dc906
Citizen
Username: Dc906
Post Number: 8
Registered: 2-2002
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 7:17 pm: | |
ok. I just came from Taste of South Orange and it was MOBBED. I have never seen it this bad. I used to go and it was empty and I would get a plate from Neelam for 5 bucks and go home. The lines were so so long for food AND to get tickets to get the food. I got frustrated and left. I appreciate the enthusiasm for SO restuarants but......
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mantram
Citizen
Username: Mantram
Post Number: 141
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 9:06 pm: | |
Yes, we couldn't deal with the long lines either and went next door to Lot 15 instead. Also it looked like every restaurant was serving pasta, except for neelam of course. Perhaps next year there will be more variety in the offerings by inviting carribean cuisine, Toro Loco and Sakana there too. |
shh
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 2754
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 9:50 pm: | |
Same here. I took my kids and met Pippi but the lines were too long. We went to Toro Loco and had an equally negative experience there. Had to ask for water three times and waited 1/2 hour for our check. They were not totally packed, but must have been understaffed. It was not a pleasant experience. (And the food wasn't even good to make up for it.) |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 6850
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 12, 2005 - 11:44 pm: | |
Someone mentioned to me this evening the fact that the event created the highest turnout ever for Taste of South Orange. Kudos to Main Street South Orange president Rob Fisch and all trustees for their hard work!!! And to former executive directors Nancy Adams and Todd Leavitt for their work.
http://www.mainstreetsouthorange.org |
jem
Citizen
Username: Jem
Post Number: 1330
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 6:56 am: | |
We arrived at about 6:30, waited on several lines, chatted with lots of people that we know, and didn't find it to be a negative experience at all.
Not everyone was serving pasta - Lot 15 had a salad with a yummy slice of steak on top; Sweet Concessions had gazpacho and a goat cheese/cranberry/walnut salad and samples of brownies and cookies; Antonella's had shrimp, mussels, clams, and an interesting pasta; Dancing Goat had a small sandwich, hummous, and a slice of cake; Cryans was making corned beef sandwiches.
I think all the publicity and reminders paid off.
My question is - where does all the money go? Is it totally a fundraiser for Main Street? Some of the restaurants there were giving away a LOT of food.
It's too bad that Carribbean Cuisine and Heart and Soul and Niecy's weren't there. |
shh
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 2759
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 7:31 am: | |
I meant negative because we were disappointed because of the lines. Everyone looked like they were having a great time, but with three kids (and picky tastebuds) it would have been difficult to wait on all those lines to try and find something to eat.
My kids were upset they didn't get to dance in the park! |
Chalmers
Citizen
Username: Chalmers
Post Number: 134
Registered: 3-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 10:24 am: | |
I thought it was for seeing friends but bad if you wanted to eat food. We arrived around 7 p.m. After a half-hour wait, we got a little food from Antonella's but they ran out of shrimp. It looked like all booths except Neelam ran out of food and Neelam had a huge line. We ended up buying sandwiches at "It's A Wrap." |
Amie Brockway-Metcalf
Citizen
Username: Amie
Post Number: 304
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 8:03 pm: | |
Shh, we did the same thing-- after waiting in two non-moving lines we gave up and went to Toro Loco, who were grossly understaffed. Oh well. We were happy that the town seemed to be doing so well! |
shh
Citizen
Username: Shh
Post Number: 2769
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 8:53 pm: | |
Pippi saw you and tried to get your attention but you guys were leaving! |
susan1014
Supporter
Username: Susan1014
Post Number: 812
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2005 - 10:22 pm: | |
Sounds like last time we went...crowded, too many long lines, lots of basic pastas, better stuff running out well before official event end. Last time, we ended up wasting tickets for lack of things we wanted to buy (I think we had basic pasta in pink sauce and sticky rice with mango as our dinner). Honestly, the things that we got wouldn't have sent us running to try the restaurants if they weren't places we already believed in.
I like the idea, but don't know when I'll try again (maybe when I don't have any kids under 10?). After a day at work, I just don't need the lines and hassle, especially given that we would be going at 7 PM, when the selection is getting thin. |
something witty
Citizen
Username: Buckneja
Post Number: 55
Registered: 1-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 - 2:48 am: | |
I think that the main reason why more folks came this year is that Taste occurred on the heels of "Two Towns in Harmony" and the biggest 4th of July turn out in HISTORY. I'm glad that I didn't drive to the event, and that my daughter was out of town. I'm not sure I would have tried to navigate the scene with her hungry self in tow. |
jem
Citizen
Username: Jem
Post Number: 1331
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 - 7:34 am: | |
I'm not among the majority posting here and on another thread who were unhappy with TOSO - I'm not sure why, although maybe it's partly because I didn't have kids with me and partly because we arrived on the early side - 6:30.
I don't know how I figured out that you had to stand on line for tokens - maybe I heard someone say it nearby - but I can see how it was easy not to know, and not knowing that would leave a bad taste. Large signs posted prominently about the need for tokens would be helpful.
I think that it would be a good thing for Main Street South Orange to meet with representatives from the various restaurants - preferably all of the restaurants in town, even those that didn't show up for whatever reason - and talk about ways to make the event work better next time, if they plan to do it again.
It seemed to me that in some ways the event this year was a victim of a certain measure of success - lots, and lots of people came out. I think it was difficult for the restaurant owners to guage how many people they'd be serving, and since they were giving the food away, I think it's sort of unrealistic to expect them to prepare huge quantities of items that might be costing them a significant amount of money. I was fairly surprised that Antonella's was giving away shrimp, even though it was just one per person. That must have put quite a dent in their budget by the end of the evening. And if you think about it, the better the items being given away, the longer the lines will be, the faster the food runs out. Sort of a catch-22, no?
I know the evening is a form of advertising, but I don't think many of the restaurants can afford huge advertising budgets. It would be interesting to know in a general way how much this cost them - remember, they're paying their employees, too - and whether any of them think it's worth the cost. |
Amie Brockway-Metcalf
Citizen
Username: Amie
Post Number: 306
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, July 14, 2005 - 12:50 pm: | |
Ah, nuts, Shh. Would have liked to meet you IRL. Oscar and I will most likely be at the next noontime concert--look for the hyper Spiderman-clad two-year-old and crabby pregnant mom. |
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