Taste of Tribeca

Another Taste of Tribeca, another great event! This has become my favorite street festival and I’m already looking forward to next year’s. The organization of the event gets better with each year and each year, more restaurants participate. Lines are minimal (except for the Odeon’s ice cream cart — get the pistachio, it’s my fave!). Portions are huge. Swing by the SoulCycle table for a free class voucher. This year 2 beer/​cider tastings were added along with a complimentary water per ticket! The event benefits Tribeca’s PS 150 and PS 234 — can’t beat eating for a good cause!

Snagged a $ 40 Pulsd ticket to Taste of TriBeCa ($ 50 day of /​online) which gets you 6 scrumptious tastings. Went with a friend and one ticket was plenty! Started with a small version of a meatball sub, followed by delicious pizza and chocolate egg cream from Cyak, beef tenderloin with sautéed spinach from Palm, chicken and homily from TriBeCa Grill, crème brûlée with raspberry ice cream from Ninja NY, and a warm chocolate lava cake to top it all off. A few wine shops in the area were offering free tastings and a few bars offered beer tastings by redeeming your ticket. Go early because the awesome food goes quick! Great event — will be back next year!

Anyone who knows me knows I love me a food festival or really, just food in general, so it’s no surprise that I convinced (read: forced) my friends to buy tickets to Taste of TriBeCa with me a few weeks ago. This year would be my second time going and I have to say, it may have even be better than last year (and I had a BLAST in 2014).
For $ 40-​$ 50 (depending on when you buy tickets), you get 6 tastings from restaurants all around the TriBeCa area. There are some vendors that give you HUGE ass portions (thank gawd… pretty sure my guy friends would have killed me if they didn’t) and some that give you super tiny ones. You can most definitely get your bang for yo buck here if you look hard enough, which of course, I did. For all of us. YOU ARE WELCOME.
My favorite (and seemingly everyone’s favorite – beeline here first, you have been forewarned) was from Takahachi, where you get 2 hand rolls, 1 crab and 1 salmon. TWO BIG ASS HAND ROLLS, Y’ALL. It was also my favorite from last year, so I made sure I got those bad boys before they ran out again like they did in 2014.
I also really enjoyed the Belle Burger and chips from Belle Reve, the homemade Porcini Agnelotti with Port Wine Sauce from Acappela (still dreaming about that sauce), Kalbi Sliders with truffle chips from Revolution Sandwich, and the Risotto with Spring Peas and Porcini Mushrooms from Scalini Fedeli.
The Spicy Berkshire Pork Grinder with Broccoli Rabe Pesto and Radicchio Slaw was decent, as was the Molten Chocolate Cake from Duane Park Patisserie (maybe a tad bit too rich for my liking). I also thought the Lavender Honey Shake with Caramel Popcorn from TriBeCa Grand Hotel was good, but not my favorite.
I hate saying it because it seems to be a local favorite, but I definitely thought that the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich with coleslaw and watermelon from Walker’s was only mediocre at best and definitely not worth the long line. Same with the Fresh Carved Roast Beef and Nova Scotia Salmon mini bagels from Zucker’s Bagels, which I though were a tad bit bland.
Definitely be sure to share everything with your friends and family so you can get to sample a little bit of everything. With four of us attending, we had 24 tastes and believe me, we definitely made the most of it. Pretty sure I probably sampled almost everything there. Gotta know how to work the system!
Overall, I had yet another great, filling time at Taste of TriBeCa. Definitely be sure to come hungry, because while 6 tastings might not seem like a lot, you’ll see that it really, really is… especially if you hit the places that I mentioned (where you get ALL the food). Is it time for next year’s Taste of TriBeCa yet?!

Great event/​charity/​cause. Variety & delicious food. Good advertisement for the restaurants in the area as well. Were able to talk with owners/​staff to get a better feel for the places. I am going to try to make it an annual thing. If going with a friend you really only have to buy 1 ticket which allows 6 tasting & some of the portions are large enough to share but the money is going to a good cause so you won’t be wasting if you buy 2.

If possible 2014 Taste of TriBeCa was the best one yet. These restaurants prove year after year their devotion to the community and the kids. I can’t imagine what awaits us for 2015 but I will be there for sure.

Great charity, well run event, music and food is outstanding. Come take a gastronomic trip through the neighborhood.
Thanks to the organizers and volunteers. See you next year!

Over the years Tribeca has amassed a reputation for being more posh than pristine, more pricey than palateable, a great Manhattan hood of which tasty food was limited to a number of places. With that I had little expectations for the Taste of Tribeca, but I came away with it surprisingly full and incredibly pleased.
Who knew there was this much good food in Tribeca? Beyond the high end spots, certainly not I. The last time anyone ever told me «Hey, we should eat in Tribeca» was almost never, which also includes my friends living in Tribeca. At $ 45 – 50 a ticket, this is no cakewalk for a ticket limited to six servings. The drinks aren’t included in the price ($ 2 for everything from lemonade to tea, etc), this was already not looking great.
But then something magical happened — the lines became minimal (presumably because not everyone had tix) and the aroma from the food was hard to ignore. In the stretch of throughout Duane between Greenwich and Hudson, the 30+ tents of various establishments made the challenge of choosing what to sample more daunting, yet exciting at the same time.
It started with the delicious mac and cheese from Maxwell’s (
) followed by a wonderful meatball slider from Locanda Verde (
). Next up was a delicious spicy cup of bulgolgi goodness a top a small bed of veggies and brown rice from Yorganic (
), then a lovely beet salad soaked in mint yogurt and goat cheese from Landmarc (
), and finished off with a spread from Billy’s Bakery (
) and some very tasty peanut butter ice cream from Odeon (
).
The biggest bonus was the vendors who didn’t even bother to mark my ticket even though I insisted. So shout outs are in order to Dirty Bird (
), Bouley (
), Baluchi’s (
), Takahachi (
), Megu (
), and Max (
). Thanks for a very epic food coma indeed.
Taste of Tribeca 2014, I’ve got my eyes on you.

Donned in my finest Unilocal swag, my visiting San Franciscan girlfriend and I checked out the Taste of TriBeCa courtesy of Unilocal this past Saturday. The weather was clear and gorgeous and we had no problems finding the millions of little tents in the heart of TriBeCa. You could literally follow your nose to the smell of delicious food wafting in the spring breeze.
After being confused for an actual Unilocal employee (I mean, just look at what I was wearing!), we received our Unilocal tickets. Now since there were tons of tents to go through and we only got 6 tastings each, my friend and I decided to walk around a little to help us decide what we wanted to start with.
Within minutes, our noses took us over to the Acappella stand where the main chef was preparing Porcini Agnolotti. The smell was intoxicating and I immediately began to drool. The Agnolotti was perfectly cooked in a delicious cream and red wine reduction sauce. I had a feeling that this would probably be my favorite of the afternoon as I am a pasta freak but was even more excited to try more stands.
After perusing the Taste of TriBeCa map, we decided that the next thing we wanted to try were the Duck Meatballs at Locanda Verde. I love meatballs. I love duck. The two combined seemed like a genius invention. Now the meatballs weren’t huge, but what they lacked in size they made up for in mighty meaty flavor. The duck was so sweet and flavorful and I contemplated stealing another one from them with my toothpick.
Right across from Locanda Verde was the Greenwich Grill stand serving up some Wagyu Beef Teriyaki Burgers that just smelled heavenly. I was highly surprised that we would be able to sample Wagyu beef as it is arguably the finest beef in the world due to its marbling characteristics and unsaturated fat content. The little burger was hard to maneuver (I almost dropped it twice) but tasted out of this world especially with the homemade Teriyaki glaze that it was coated with.
After developing a mini food coma, we decided to take a little break from eating by sitting in the shade and watching the lively band perform blue grass tunes. I must say that this event was great for people watching as well as gaining new ideas for summer outfits.
After a good twenty minutes of listening to the band we decided to get up and head to the next stand on our list. Now Landmarc is one of my favorite restaurants that I frequent quite often at Colombus Circle so I was quite happy to see they had a stand set up since there is also a Landmarc in TriBeCa. At first glance, I thought they were offering little parfait cups. On closer inspection, I realized they were serving us beautiful salads with red and golden beets, mint, and goat cheese layered in individual cups. They definitely won the award for best presentation. The guys working the stand were such sweethearts. Once we started talking about my love of Marc Murphy’s cooking, they gave me a salad on the house. Score!
Surprise suprise, I was craving pasta again so we decided to stop by ROC’s stand to try some of their Spring Vegetable Lasagna. This was actually quite one of the best vegetable lasagnas I’ve ever had. The sauce was a rich cheese, cream and ricotta mixture with yummy veggies interlaced throughout. I loved how they topped it off with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano cheese. Major points in my Italian book.
After this, the sweet tooth started kicking in so we decided to head to the Duane Park Patisserie stand to indulge in some mighty fine looking chocolate molten cakes. The gentleman running the stand was a huge fan of Unilocal and wanted to be in the photograph haha. Although I wouldn’t classify this as a traditional molten cake since the sauce was on the outside, it was ridiculously rich and thick. I wish they had given us some milk to wash it down with but we made do with cold water. Milk of course would have been the better option.
Since we had just eaten something hot and sweet, we decided to go with something cold and sweet to help us cope with the blazing sun. My friend and I headed to City Hall Restaurant to try some of their fresh fruit sorbets which had a very long line. Now I can see why! After asking for a double serving of the Blood Orange Sorbet, I was licking the bowl clean of this cool and creamy concoction. I am loving the blood orange obsession right now.
So I was kind of full (ok REALLY full) by this point but I had one ticket left. Guess what? We decided to back to Acappella’s and have those Porcini Agnolotti one last time! Seriously, scrumptious stuff. The chef loved us for coming back and gave us three agnolotti as opposed to two. That’s what I call customer rewards!
Overall, the Taste of TriBeCa provided a fabulous experience for myself and my friend– we wouldn’t have wanted to spend our Saturday any other way! Thank you Unilocal for hooking us up with tickets. I can’t wait to come back next year to see what the chefs of TriBeCa have in store for us once more.

It might be terrible of me to give Taste of Tribeca a 2-​star since the event is for charity and proceeds go to PS 150 and PS 234. but since most of the parents who live in the area probably make a 6 or 7-​digit figure, I don’t feel too bad since you’re paying $ 40 for six small samples…
Got in at EWR that day at 8AM, dropped luggage in LIC, finally made it to Tribeca around 1PM. TOT is from 11AM to 3PM, one day event. Two of the restaurants (Plein Sud and Marc Forgione) I was eagered to try were OUT of food! WTH?! Some of the restaurants ended before 3PM like Nobu. Some of the samples were the size of a nickel.
Besides having a headache w/​the food options, traffic was a nightmare. I think what made it worse were the baby strollers… I got rammed into a few times… they should consider «baby stroller» valet and not let strollers in the the «food area.»
Other random stuff about TOT… Duane Park’s Molten Chocolate Cake is not really a «Molten» cake –there’s no chocolate sauce in the middle, just topping. Roc’s oricchiette w/​spicy sausage and butternut squash in cream was the winnning dish of what was available. I made it to 3 out of the 5 wine stores offering free wine tastings and Maslow 6 had the best presentation and best wines, offering 9 wines from 3 different distributors.
Think I would have been much happier spending my $ 40 on Jean George’s $ 32 lunch pre-​fixe…