Nearly 70,000 people came to last year’s Taste of Reston held at Reston Town Center. Photo by Alex McVeigh.
If You Want To Go
Taste of Reston
Free admission
Friday 3 to 11 p.m.; Saturday noon to 11 p.m.
Reston Town Center
Get the knife and fork ready.
The 24th annual Taste of Reston will fill the town center with the delicious scents and delightful sounds Friday and Saturday.
Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce Event Planner Lesley Green said the Taste of Reston attracts 65,000 to 70,000 people annually.
“It’s a Reston tradition, so people look forward to it,” she said. “They mark their calendars for it.”
More than 20 food and beverage vendors will be serving the masses Friday from 3 to 11 p.m. and Saturday noon to 11 p.m. Entrance and the music is free, but tickets need to be bought to buy food and drinks. Food costs anywhere between one and five tickets.
The profit will be used to fund GRCC’s incubator program to help support new businesses grow.
The event will run its third year of the Wine ‘n Dine area, where local restaurant chefs will have culinary demonstrations on Saturday so visitors can make their own epicurean masterpieces.
Fitness and dance demonstrations will take place from 1 to 6 p.m., including a hula hoop dance off. Live music will play in different areas throughout the two days.
“This is our busiest week as we try to nail down a lot of our last minute things,” said Green.
Food samples will range from chicken pot stickers from Big Bowl: Fresh Chinese and Thai to root beer floats from Milwaukee Frozen Custard.
This will be Tavern 64’s first year as a vendor at the event.
“We take pride in being the only non-chain restaurant in Reston Town Center,” said general manager Adrian Guto. “We’re focusing on the local community entirely.”
He said being a vendor and exposing the year-old restaurant to new customers was an opportunity he could not pass up. They will be making pulled pork sliders for hungry festival-goers.
Clyde’s has been a part of Taste of Reston for as long as David Smith, a manager, can remember.
“I’ve been here for eight years, and we’ve been a part of it the entire time I’ve been here,” he said.
The restaurant will be serving tacos for the event.
Smith said the restaurant keeps signing up for the event due to “community spirit, tradition and the ability to showcase the good food we serve here.”
For more information, visit http://www.restontaste.com/.