Taste of Roselle doesn't disappoint
When it comes to food, Peter Swanson is a taste-a-holic. The Elmhurst man admits that he's especially addicted to festival food and flocks to places that offer variety. He wasn't disappointed Friday at the Taste of Roselle. He had roughly 20 different vendors from which to sample -- and he claims to have sampled most of them.
"I'm a garbage disposal," he said. "I can eat almost anything, anytime, anywhere. Going to Tastes is my summer hobby."
The Taste of Roselle, which opened Friday, will operate until Sunday at Roselle Road and Main Street, downtown Roselle. Besides food the annual festival features a children's carnival, bingo games, special activities and live entertainment. Warrenville's signature festival, Summer Daze, also began last night with food, music and games at the corner of Butterfield and Batavia roads.
Roselle's festival may be much smaller than the Taste of Chicago, but its vendors appear content. Chris Staley, operations manager for Bojo's based out of Naperville, sells roughly 650 elephant ears, 1,100 pounds of homemade potato chips and curly fries, roughly 700 lemonades and around 350 pounds of onion blossoms during the weekend.
"It's usually a very stead crowd and keeps us on our toes," he said.
The Silver Lake restaurant goes through roughly 200 pounds of cheese for its popular crab Rangoon and another 200 pounds of chicken teriyaki.
"This is a great fest," owner Jason Eng said. "We do tremendous business."
Michael Stanke, general manager of The Melting Pot in Schaumburg, says that people generally eat through 65 to 80 pounds of chocolate, 30 bags of marshmallows and 10 to 30 containers of strawberries. This restaurant also uses the Taste for promoting itself. In exchange for a person's e-mail, The Melting Pot awards coupons for free chocolate.
"We don't do it for the money," Stanke said. "We do it for marketing."
Meanwhile in Warrenville, amateur groups engaged in friendly competition Friday in the first-ever battle of the bands at the newly introduced teen area. Cover bands rocked the main stage, with the ForEverlys (an Everly Brothers Tribute band) and Think Floyd channeling Pink Floyd. The festival started early around 9 a.m. with bingo games and refreshments followed by a car show.
Note: Daily Herald Staff Writer Rupa Shenoy contributed to this story.
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