Taste of Venice is an annual event (formerly Taste of Abbot Kinney) benefiting a worthy community arts organization, P.S. Arts, celebrating 25 years in Venice!
The annual event provided a taste of local Venice restaurants, cafes and food delivery services, along with wine, beer and spirits.
This year’s food tasting extravaganza was on August 30, 2015 and the AKFF Team loved being part of it, from tasting a variety of food and drink, chatting with the restaurant owners and guests at the event, in addition to contributing promotion for this worthy event. The AKFF Blog has promoted the event since 2010!
On to the food front, we enjoyed fresh raw ahi tuna salad from Poke Poke, an Asian inspired salad and meatball from Mind Body Fork, a new food delivery service with food made by Chef Debbie Lee, yummy pasta and sliders from Bank of Venice (almost a meal in itself) with tacos from an old Venice standby, La Cabana, delectable ahi tuna from Larry’s, pasta making with Chef Gino from Piccolo was a real crowd pleaser and a healthy salad of julienne veggies from Komodo to name a few.
Plus there were plenty of beverages to quench your thirst with coffee from Groundwork, a longtime Venice favorite coffee spot (it made our Top 5 Coffee Spots in Venice), Matty Chai, an ice cold chai from Flake, a super sangria that was just right for the blazing heat on that day from Vina Sympatica, a new wine brand by a local woman entrepreneur, Sherrijon Gaspard, a good cabernet from Dark Horse Winery plus Angel City Brewery, Firestone for those who preferred beer and a number of spirit companies were pouring as well.
There was also entertainment with a band, The Ugly Sweaters and DJ Ben Goldsmith, along with the fun Bosco photo booth presented by Cheeky, the fun paper plate and plasticware company that gave a free meal for us taking a goofy photo added to the fun, along with some great gift baskets, messenger bags and more in the silent auction – all held at Lincoln Place. It made it easy to have everything in one location this year, instead of going from restaurant to restaurant, however, the element of shade was really missing. For next year an indoor/outdoor space would be ideal! All in all it was a fun day and great event – and yes, we ate too much!
