Taste of Durham Delicious at New Site
By Sabine Vollmer, Staff Writer www.newsobserver.com
The Taste of Durham scenery changed from brick tobacco warehouses to brick office buildings Saturday after the festival moved from downtown to a corporate office park near the Wake County line. But few seemed to notice between bites.
Staff Photos by Corey Lowenstein
Caleb Jackson, 2, of Chapel Hill is served by his father, Michael. Caleb was so taken with the meatballs that he finished all the sauce on his plate. The event outgrew its original location in Brightleaf Square in downtown Durham.
"This is much better, a much better layout," said Dumas, wearing a red blazer and a funny hat.
The move to extreme southwestern Durham after the festival outgrew its spot in the Brightleaf District had caused grumbling among downtown supporters, some of whom vowed to pass up the event this year.
Ruskan said she settled on the 7-acre parking lot in Imperial Center, a corporate office park near Page Road and Interstate 40, after she looked at eight different sites downtown. All were either not available or access was hampered by construction.
"You want to keep the momentum going," Ruskan said.
"This," she said looking across the sprawling parking lot teeming with vendors and visitors, "the size, the trees, the little bits of grass; it's perfect. It's all about bringing people together, and that goes beyond Durham."
Thousands turned out to sample food from more than a dozen restaurants and sip wine and beer in special tasting areas. There were three stages for music and dance, and the Nasher Art Museum and the Scrap Exchange had activities for kids.
Phil and Trish Petrilli celebrated their 39th wedding anniversary at Taste '07. The Petrillis, who moved to Chapel Hill from Chicago three years ago, immediately picked up on the energy they remembered from the many neighborhood festivals they attended in Chicago. But unlike those festivals, which require street closings, Taste '07 was easy to get to and parking was no problem, they said.
Just past the entrance, the booth of Carmen's Cuban Cafe stopped Trish Petrilli in her tracks. "Ooo, I love Cuban food," she said.
"It didn't make any difference to me that it was here," said Terry Strub of Durham, interrupting a wine tasting. And the alcohol wasn't clouding her judgment, she confirmed with a laugh.
Joyce Mullen, who had come from Fayetteville to visit her daughter in Durham, sat in the shade of a tree and took a bite out of a spicy chicken empanada.
"It's great," Mullen said.
Next to her, a line about 20 people deep snaked out from the booth of George's Garage, a downtown Durham restaurant that offered Greek salad. A few steps away, 2-year-old Madi Johnson of Wake Forest savored a chocolate cupcake, picking a few wayward crumbs off the grass.
In the background, reggae tunes from the Tim Smith Band mixed with salsa by Bio Ritmo.
"This is perfect," said Emmett Williams, a Greensboro artist who regularly attends festivals to sketch scenes he later turns into paintings in his studio. "You can't get better than this."
