Taste of Kingston 2018 deliciously successful
All writing and photography by Marisa Sandlin
Kingstonians and tourists gathered alike for the Diabetes Canada’s 20th Taste of Kingston festival, held this past Sunday at Confederation Park downtown.
With over a dozen restaurants participating, event-goers were able to sample everything from a bacon-wrapped pickle courtesy of Leon’s Centre, to the best in plant-based dining from Knifey+Spooney. Each $1 tasting ticket not only went to food the whole family could enjoy, but also to support Diabetes Canada’s D-Camps for children and youth with Type 1 diabetes.
This year, Taste of Kingston raised enough funding to support 10 children from south eastern Ontario in attending D-Camp programming at subsidized costs, Diabetes Canada said.
Despite the massive queues of people lined up for tempting taste of the city’s best, the sunny weather wasn’t a problem when a tasting ticket could buy you a refreshing cup of Loon Kombucha or freshly squeezed juice from CRAVE Coffee House and Bakery.
These weren’t the only new entrants on the local food scene. The Copper Branch, a new Princess Street vegan restaurant, was serving up quinoa chili and zucchini brownies. The Cheesecakery Bakery had single-ticket cheesecakes, with caramel, cherry, berry and even Reese’s Pieces on offer. Grocery store The Grocery Basket had small veggie wraps, but also delicious-looking meat-and-veg skewers.
Tandoori Sizzle had some of the heftiest food at the fair – a channa masala for a hefty eight tickets – and other local standards The Grizzy Grill, Jack Astor’s and Milestones were dishing out gourmet variants of pub grub. Italian restaurant Go Italian was serving up risotto balls – a hot ticket item that ran out early on Sunday.
Food wasn’t the only attraction for those attending Taste of Kingston. For the little ones, there were bouncy castles and face-painting, and for the adults, there were great local musical acts interspersed throughout the afternoon. With sunny weather the whole day through and happy faces munching the best food on offer, Taste of Kingston celebrated another successful year!
Winners of the Taste of Kingston 2018 public vote are:
Best of Taste – The Leon’s Centre
Best of Service – The Grocery Basket
Best Event Day Sales – Tandoori Sizzle
Marisa Sandlin is the host/creator of Harpy Hour, a podcast that focuses on women in craft beer. A future Certified Cicerone and current Certified Beer Server, Marisa travels and visits as many as breweries as she can. She is very proud of the Kingston beer scene. You can say hello and talk about beer with her at @HarpyHour on Twitter.