Photo by GmdVTThe sun was shining, a gentle breeze was blowing, and it was an all-around perfect day for this year’s Taste of Arlington food festival on Sunday.
Attendees gathered quickly for the noon start time to pick up their $20 tickets purchased online earlier, or to grab $25 day-of tickets. Each ticket allotted you eight “tastes” to be used to sample the offerings of the various participating restaurants. But what a “taste” got you differed from vendor to vendor. Most offered small, tapas-sized portions, like half a grilled bratwurst and roll at the Lyon Hall tent, a small lettuce wrap from the P.F. Chang’s booth, or a single rib from Caribbean Breeze.
Crowds quickly caught wind of the places serving more substantial (or just fancy) dishes. Lines formed at Argia’s for bowls of mussels, Whole Foods for their offering of chicken and rice plus a zucchini and chickpea quinoa salad, and Carlyle’s crabcake sandwich led to lines down the street. Perhaps the most generous restaurant of the bunch was Willow, where one “taste” got you a slice of BBQ chicken pizza and a homemade cookie ice cream sandwich.
There were of course more stingy offerings. Rustico’s excellent dishes were poorly represented; all they offered was a small grilled Caesar salad. Some people did go for it, but many chose to not waste their tickets. Worse yet was Tallula’s tiny shot-sized samples of pea soup that most people bypassed.
