Taste of the Danforth

So this weekend was the 15th annual Taste of the Danforth Festival.

We went Friday night, and I must say it was the smallest Friday night crowd I have ever seen at this festival.

I'm thinking it had a whole lot to do with the weather (which was very cool Friday night) but turned to rain for the rest of the weekend, so seems Friday night was the best time to have been there.

With the giant propane fire all over the news http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/475968 I'm not sure how much media attention was on the Danforth, but I am willing to bet that had it been a slow news weekend we would have heard of the low numbers at this years festival.

I have always said to friends, the only time to even bother going to Taste of the Danforth is during a rainstorm, as normally it is too busy to even attempt to walk through, the festival has become a victim of it's own success.

The festival idea came from the Taste of Chicago Festival http://egov.cityofchicago.org/city/webportal/portalEntityHomeAction.do?entityName=Taste+of+Chicago&entityNameEnumValue=166(in Chicago of course) and there, once the festival outgrew the area it was held, it was moved to a nearby park.

There is no reason that TotD shouldn't do the same thing, I mean on a busy day, you really can not even get from one side of the street to the other in less that 20 minutes, so you may as well forget about the food.

After a block or two of this I have always given up and gotten back on the subway.

Anyways, as for Friday night, it went well, we had some good (if not really overpriced) food.

I'll go again, but I have to say it saddens me that every year it's getting more and more expensive.

I mean we went to Kalyvia (we have been going there every year for as long as I remember)

http://www.kalyvia.com/

We started off eating there one time just by chance (pretty much means there was no lineup there) and we were wowed, the meat was generous, the pita was fresh, and they drizzed some sort of olive oil and lemon over it before serving.

It has gotten worse every year, Friday I paid $10.00 for 2 chicken on a pitas, there was maybe 3 little pieces of meat on each pita (the pitas were dried out) and the sauce was the tiniest drizzle.

I mean isn't the thought of this festival to wow people so they will come back after the festival for more?

But year after year it has just become a bigger and bigger cash grab.

Most of the restaurants tick me off enough that I wouldn't go back when the festival is not on (and I spend a lot of time on the Danforth).

The organizers don't even hire any good bands anymore, I remember seeing some great shows at this festival (Jim Cuddy, Crashtest Dummies, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings) So even if the food was overpriced there was a reason for me to go there anyway.

Well, here is hoping that next year will see a better set up.