The Taste of Melrose Park begins tonight and goes through the weekend.
I’ve written about Taste of Melrose Park just about every year for the last decade.
I’ve done features about Taste of Melrose Park for Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times, and of course for Wednesday Journal, and I did a radio segment about it for WBEZ (in which I got to interview Dick Biondi, a childhood idol — the only time I’ve ever become nervous interviewing someone). Every year, I post about this event on LTHForum.com.
This is a festival of Italian families. Of the over 70 vendors there, over 90% are not representing restaurants – they’re just local families who every year prepare their favorite dishes, like artichoke salad, panzerotti, or stuffed Melrose Peppers. In the past, my very favorites have been the fried bologna sandwich, sfingi made by a group of local nuns and the fried Twinkies (this is now the only way I will now eat a Twinkie).
Dishes are not allowed to cost more than $3 (and some are only $2), so you can get a lot of tastes for a small outlay.
This is by far my favorite food festival of the season…and a beautiful way to close out the summer.
The Taste of Melrose Park is this coming weekend, August 29-31. Here’s the “flyer” about it:
http://www.melrosepark.org/docs/Latest_edition_of_TASTE_OF_MELROSE_FLYER2_lowres.pdf
If this sounds like an event you’d like to attend, I’d strongly suggest not waiting until Sunday. Rain was predicted for tonight, but now it’s looking good – hope to see you there!
