This weekend, there was only one place in Springfield where you could stuff yourself with food from a dozen restaurants, all within one city block. That would be the 2009 Taste of Downtown.
This year's Taste of Downtown, organized by Downtown Springfield Inc., coincided with this year's Fourth of July and Abraham Lincoln bicentennial celebrations. For those of you who have never attended, the Taste of Downtown brings together various restaurants from the downtown area on the block of Fifth Street between Washington and Adams streets. While there, you can sample cuisine from each of these restaurants for about $4 to $5 each. Certain streets downtown are blocked off during the event, so you may have to drive around a bit to find some parking. Luckily, Downtown Springfield provided a map (PDF) of this year's layout.
Upon arrival, make your way to one of the tents labeled 'Tickets.' Here, you can buy food tickets (one ticket per dollar) and get wristbands for those older than 21 who wish to drink alcoholic beverages. Next, find your way to your favorite restaurant's food tent and try something new, too, while you're at it. Depending on the crowd, you may either get your food right away or wait in line for a while. The area with the food tents can be very crowded, so keep that in mind if you don't like masses of people. If you can brave it, though, you'll be in for some really great treats.
This event wasn't all about food. Three stages for live music were available as well. We went Friday evening and caught part of (Grammy nominated) Bill Kirchen and Too Much Fun at the stage just north of the food tents. Many tables and chairs were set up around the National City Bank building, providing a great place to sit, eat and be entertained. There were also several play areas available for kids, including some huge inflatable play areas near Fourth and Monroe streets.
The Taste is usually held a few weeks later in July, but I liked how it was moved earlier for the Fourth of July celebration. There were many other events and tents nearby, too. We saw a blacksmith and some other Lincoln-period demonstrations going on around the Old State Capitol grounds.
The only bummer about this weekend was Saturday's weather. We were lucky we decided to go to the Taste on Friday evening. We got to enjoy our food in a cool overcast. I've been to this before, in blistering heat, so Friday's weather was a nice change. Saturday?s weather shifted from drizzle to rain all day, unfortunately. I didn't get a chance to go back downtown to the Taste, but I can only guess attendance was lower. (If you went Saturday, leave a comment and let us know.)