Taste of Cincinnati 2024: Expert tips for the best food, most fun
I only started covering Taste of Cincinnati three years ago, but I've already figured out a few tips for doing it right.
Sure, there are the no-brainers: Wear your most comfortable shoes. Check the forecast, bring plenty of sunscreen, and decide on a meeting spot in case you lose your eating companions. Also remember to charge your phone so you can Instagram to your heart's delight. And as any professional food writer will tell you, bring along your favorite antacid so you can eat as much as possible.
Here are five more things to consider before you go.
Taste runs Saturday-Monday Memorial Day weekend (May 25-27 this year) on Fifth Street in downtown Cincinnati.
1. Study the Taste of Cincinnati menu before you go.
There are more than 85 vendors at this year's Taste of Cincinnati. So before you head downtown, check out the full list of vendors and menus on their website. Jot down the ones that sound promising on your phone or a piece of paper so you can hit them all. I also recommend visiting some of the vendors' websites so you can learn more about their backgrounds and the types of foods they cook.
2. Get there at 11 a.m. sharp to beat the crowds (and find easy parking).
If your goal is to try as many things as possible, it's best to arrive as soon as the gates open on Fifth and Main streets at 11 a.m. each day. It's early enough that the crowds are minimal, which is key since this event now attracts more than a half million people each year. Bonus: There are usually plenty of metered parking spots still available.
3. Try as many Best of Taste winners as you can.
Before you go, check the Taste website (or Cincinnati.com) for this year's Best of Taste winners and runners-up. The awards are determined by a panel of food expert judges (including yours truly) and local luminaries who weigh in on the best appetizers, entrees and desserts from participating restaurants, food trucks and Findlay Kitchen (an incubator kitchen located at Findlay Market). Since the dishes have been vetted, you can be sure they're good.
I judged the appetizer and side category this year, and some of my favorites included the smoked wings with Memphis-style barbecue sauce from Alley Baby, the Soul Roll (a truly authentic Southern-style dinner of candied yams, collard greens and mac-and-cheese stuffed into a fried egg roll and topped with a sweet pepper sauce) from Paityn's Place Catering, and the avocado hummus from Kabobske.
4. Don't forget the food trucks!
To me, the food trucks are the best part of Taste of Cincinnati. Since they're located at the far end of the main entrance, just past the P&G building, I recommend making a mad dash toward them as soon as you arrive. A few of my favorite returning trucks from last year include Indigenous Chef, which serves The Three Sisters Fry Bread (my favorite dish at Taste last year). There's also Twisted Greek, which offered a "pimento" cheese made with kasseri that wowed me last year. Don't leave without sampling Buffalo's Best's beef-on-weck sandwich, which won gold for Best of Taste in the food truck entree category this year, or Dine-in Hawaiian's crab bake, which won gold in the side dish food truck category.
5. Keep the party going somewhere else.
Taste of Cincinnati will host more than 25 local breweries and other beverage producers this year, including Fifty West, Braxton, Rhinegeist, Urban Artifact and others. But if the crowds grow too maddening for you as the day wears on, head to a downtown bar for some (relative) peace and quiet. There are plenty to choose from, but I suggest Arnold's, the Bay Horse Cafe, O'Malley's in the Alley, Knockback Nats, the Bar at Palm Court or Pilar, to name just a few.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Taste of Cincinnati 2024: Expert tips for the best experience
