Taste of Charlotte kicks off on Friday on North Tryon Street, and will run through the weekend. The annual festival takes place from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.

While the festival tends to have a heavy presence of non-local restaurants and brands, if you do it right, you can find some great bites from high-quality restaurants lined up between Stonewall Avenue and 5^th Street. Entry is free; to purchase food, guests buy coins that they can trade in for bites and drinks from the vendors. Most dishes range from three to four coins; coins cost $10 for seven or $20 for 15.

Restaurants taking part this year include 204 North, Chubz, City Barbeque, Essex, Flipside Café, Hawkers, Ri Ra, Sukoshi, and Stoke. (You can see the full list here). After much debate, we’ve decided which dishes we’d shell out for on a $20 budget. Our 15 coins would go for chili cheese fries from Chubz (4 coins), Amy’s pimento cheese and pretzel bites from Flipside Café (3 coins), and pork toast and donut holes (4 and 3 coins, respectively) from Stoke. We’d swing by for the one-coin dim sum dish from Sukoshi to finish it off.

There’s also a competition aspect of the event, called Best of the Taste awards. Judges sample all of the menu items to determine the best dish in the following categories: overall, entrée, new bite, appetizer, most unique, healthiest, and dessert. The winners will be announced on Friday at 8 p.m. from the main stage, and are given silver platters as a prize.

As for entertainment, there will be a demo kitchen and live music. —Kristen Wile

Unpretentious People Say...

Other Articles You Might Enjoy