Taste of DC is promoted as a “multi-day culinary and cultural event” that takes over Pennsylvania Avenue in the heart of DC. What it means is that for two days, over a hundred restaurants gather on a half-mile stretch from around the District and table up to serve you some of the best their storefronts, food-trucks, or pop-ups have to offer.
Don’t be intimidated, here’s how to navigate it.
1. Buy a ticket.
There are four types of tickets, and unless you’re going for the ultra-extravagant, I recommend one of two types: Festival General Admission or Festival Drink Lovers package.
The main difference between the two is that the Drink Lovers package buys you $25 of drink tickets that are redeemable in the Beer Garden, Wine Walk, or Beverage Pods.
2. Be prepared to spend money.
Your ticket may get you admission into the event, but it does not buy you your food. Each booth offered about four options, ranging in cost from $2-$10. Bring cash, as its easiest to work with when trying one thing from a multitude of places.
3. Walk!
This is a half-mile stretch jam-packed with food booths that smell like the best meals out of your grandma’s kitchen and taste even better.
Rather than wasting your money within the first hundred yards, explore the options, back track to the places that enticed you, and try a bunch of different things. Plus, all the walking burns off some of the calories you will inevitably consume.
4. Eat with your eyes and your nose.
If there was one thing I learned from this event, the food does smell as good as it tastes, and aesthetically pleasing food tended to be more appetizing. Whether or not this was actually because of taste or because of good Instagram-able qualities has yet to be determined.
5. Go with the sample size.
There’s so many places to choose from and so many things you’ll want to try that you may be unsure of how you can fit everything into your stomach. Luckily, most booths offered a smaller sampler, usually cheaper (most ranged from $2-$5), and equivalent to a small portion at a tapas restaurant.
6. Don’t skip the drinks or dessert.
You may be overwhelmed and stuffed to the brim with steak and fries, calamari, samosas, paella, hot dogs, and burgers, but there should ALWAYS be room for desert. And drinks, especially wine. You can’t go wrong with the giant s’mores or beignets, and a good rosé never hurt anybody.
7. If you buy the drink package, use the tickets.
They were not free, you cannot use them ever again, so get started with those tickets right away. There’s a lot of tickets, probably more than it is safe to drink, so either share that package with a friend or use the last few tickets to stock up on a couple of your favorite beverages to have at home.
Most of all, enjoy the day. There’s nothing better than an abundance of food and sharing it with some cool people. Happy eating.