Taste of Kalamazoo

Monday, September 08, 2008

The Taste of Kalamazoo began humbly in 1985 in the parking lot known as Lot 9 in downtown Kalamazoo. It was originally called the Taste of Downtown and featured about a dozen downtown restaurants....the organizing restaurants were Chaps on Main, Dionysis, and Oakley's...Oakley's management took over the event in the late 80's until the restaurant closed in 1991, and the Chaps on Main

management continued the event changing the name to Taste of Kalamazoo and expanding the participants to include restaurants from the wider Kalamazoo area.....the coordinator then and to this day is Wayne Deering and the Event is managed by Events, Inc......The event had several non profit sponsors thru the 90's and then in 1998 the Kalamazoo Jaycees became the events sponsor and have been ever since....the profits from the event support the many community activities and programs of the Kalamazoo Jaycees, the event gradually grew each year, moving from the west part of Lot 9 to the east part, then across the street to an unimproved lot, in 2000 the lot was improved and call the Festival Site, although it really was primarily a parking lot. Then in 2005 the parking lot was transformed into the current festival site...Arcadia Creek Festival Place, a 2.5 million dollar festival park funded by private dollars and managed by DKI Charities....the park is complemented by a reflection pond with an entrance bridge, a permanent brick and iron fence surrounds the grassy areas, playground, brick paved plaza, circular covered pavilion and state of the art performance stage....Arcadia Creek Festival Place has truly become a great place for events that now are really festivals for the entire families enjoyment.

The Taste has now grown to include more then 30 area restaurants, and culinary types, wineries and breweries...each year more restaurants are added with care taken to avoid duplication of menu items and cuisine, offering a wide variety of items for every taste...over 200 in all...offerings are kept to sample sizes with the maximum price of only $3.50 per item...that 7 tickets in Taste talk....

So come experience a Taste of Kalamazoo.....Something for Everyone.

**Gates open at 11:00am each day serving lunch, dinner and late night to 12:30am Thursday and 1:30am Friday and Saturday. Food and Beverage tickets are priced at .50 each, items range in price from .50 to 3.50. Admission is free each day, $5.00 from 4pm to 7pm and $8.00 after 7pm, Children twelve and under are free.

SENIOR CITIZENS DAY: Saturday is Seniors Day, all non-alcoholic beverages are priced at $1.00 to $1.50; restaurants will offer special prices on selected items and admission will be only $3.00 4pm to 7pm and $5.00 after 7pm.