Popular for its ability to turn a prohibitively expensive restaurant into an accessible one, Taste of Hartford is returning from January 23rd through February 5th. Each participating restaurant –there are over thirty this year– offers dinner specials for $20.12, though diners can still purchase from the regular menu.
Every year the majority of these restaurants exclude vegetarians from their Taste of Hartford menus.
Here is a list of the seven (possibly eight) participating restaurants that get it:
Burger Baby: salad, veggie burger, and dessert
Carbone’s: salad, fettuccine alfredo or eggplant parmigiana, and dessert
Dish: roasted eggplant dip or bibb salad, heirloom tomato pie, and dessert
J Restaurant: salad, stuffed eggplant, and dessert
O’Porto: salad or soup, paelha vegetariana, and dessert
Peppercorn’s (maybe): soup, salad, or bruschetta to start, with “ravioli of the moment” as an entree. There is no indication of whether or not this ravioli will contain meat or not. This dinner includes dessert.
Salute: salad, pasta ala vodka, and dessert.
Vito’s by the Park: garden salad, butternut squash ravioli, and dessert
Other restaurants may be willing to accommodate, but from experience, it seems many are strict about making no alterations to their Taste of Hartford menus.
Jane
YUM! Love it when this comes around. FWIW, though I really love Peppercorns and think their food is wonderful, we’ve learned not to bother during Taste of Hartford as they tend to give smaller portions, whereas Carbone’s, for example, serves full-sized portions.
Kerri Provost
Thanks for the tip! I have not been to Peppercorn’s ever, but can definitely confirm the portion size at Carbone’s.
Allison
Coyote Flaco had veggie options for the August TOH, but I don’t think they’ve posted a menu for this go-round yet.
Luis
Since I know that you’re in a big Hartford research phase of your existence as a chronicler of our fair city, I would love to see a “remember when” regarding The Taste of Hartford. When I was a kid (damn i feel old saying that) The Taste was one of the most anticipated weeks of the year. It utilized Constitution Plaza as I think the plaza was meant to be used and attracted people from throughout the city and the region. Now, it’s a discount night at local restaurants…such a let down.
Kerri Provost
We don’t even have to research this…and nice job with the “when I was a kid,” since I think the Taste of Hartford on Constitution Plaza ceased when you were well into adulthood 🙂 I’ll let you pretend you are decades younger than you are though.
Yes, for those who don’t know, this event used to be akin to an outdoor fair. Think the food portion of the Big E. You could buy a bunch of tickets and walk around exchanging them for smallish portions of food. This is where I had my first vegetable samosa, which is really what introduced me to Indian food. It was a great way to sample many foods across cultures. There wasn’t the intimidation/commitment of having to sit through an entire meal. And, you could grab a samosa, a slice of chocolate cheesecake, some gnocchi, and a burrito all at once. Instead of needing to spend $20+, you could get in and out for $4 if you wanted to.
The plaza was crowded with people. They would have several musical performances happening at different spots along the plaza.
Kerri Provost
Clarification: You would not get a full meal for $4, but if all you had was a couple singles, you had enough to get something.
Richard
Thanks for the memories Luis and Kerri. Oh when I was young the Taste was indeed something we all looked forward to until it got so expensive for a stingy little serving. But back in the early days when I first came to town I was introduced to foods from our many neighborhoods and us cleaners who cleaned in the Plaza buildings always went out for our dinner break.
We never go to the Taste anymore. But maybe we will try it this year. Some folks say that O’Porto has very tasty food.
Luis
There were also opportunities for non-profit groups to make some money. Our church youth group would volunteer to staff one restaurant’s tent for the entire run of the Taste and in turn we got a percentage of the take. And if you were lucky enough to know someone at another one of the tents, you could dispense with that whole “need a coupon” requirement 🙂
Chris
Those were the days! We could eat like KINGS! KIIIINGS, I tell ya! for a handful of nickels and still have trolley fare for the trip home!
Really folks, it wasn’t THAT long ago.
I remember doing signs for a number of booths at the old-style TOH, and agree that that was the superior format. Also there were often free samples for the sign guy.
Kerri Provost
So, as Luis indicated, I have been knee-deep in Hartford archives and learned that the rationale for stopping the ToH at Constitution Plaza was because those behind it felt that this did not fit the type of programming they wanted at CP anymore.
Yes, for real. I read that.
I’m not sure what kind of futuristic events they were anticipating in 2005ish, but as we know, the plaza is quiet much of the time and could benefit from pedestrian-traffic.
For years before this move, there was whimpering about how the event was not bringing in money. It appears that they only judged success by what revenue was made during the festival. It would be interesting (for someone with oodles of time on their hands) to find out how participating restaurants were faring when this event was ala carte style, versus now, when diners can go to one restaurant at a time.
Richard
Oh Chris I must be older than you as I remember taking he horse and wagon home. HA!!I’ll never forget it. As long as old Nelly had a nice fresh apple as a treat she didn’t poop in the street near the Taste of Hartford. Even old Horsey liked the Taste of Hartford.
But my best memory was when the janitors were having a very hard time with a new contract, that year the taste was held on Main Street and our demo came up Talcott and then down Main Street. Well the cops tried to block us at Main and Pratt by grabbing one of the leaders, (he wiggled out of their grasp) the rest of us broke through the cop line and continued on right in the middle of the Taste. Now we hadn’t planned on disrupting the Taste of Hartford but it was in the way of where we were going. Well the cops were so mad they grabbed a few more folks at Pearl Street. The rest of the group went on to city hall were folks chained themselves to the front doors. After the demo we went back and ate dinner at the Taste of Hartford and had a good laugh.
Edward
Vitos has my vote! Never a bad meal there. Of course, they’re all good!