With its goal to showcase local cuisine at a time when restaurants see fewer customers, the fourth annual Taste of Wrightsville Beach will offer Saturday’s diners an even greater variety of flavors and refreshments.
This year, the Oct. 10 culinary festival will add more desserts and coffees to its varied menu featuring dishes from 17 Wrightsville Beach restaurants. New to the festival is Loops Homemade Donuts, Beach Bagels and The Post Coffee Shop, adding sweet alternatives to the savory offerings from most of the restaurants located within the town.
Visitors to the festival will have the chance to vote on their favorite dishes and event organizer Lisa Weeks said new categories were added to accommodate the new entries. Categories now include best sweet dish, best savory dish, best overall dish and the People’s Choice Award, which is voted on by attendees.
“People were having to choose between voting for a sweet or a savory entry,” Weeks said. “Folks wanted more desserts and coffee to choose from.”
A handful of judges, including chief judge Eric Gephart, the chief culinary officer for Kamado Grill in Raleigh, will decide the other categories. Another judge is Diane Withrow, hospitality management program coordinator at Cape Fear Community College and adviser to the Pineapple Guild, the college’s culinary arts club.
Members of the Pineapple Guild will have a significant role during the festival, as several will attend to help the local restauranteurs set up and serve visitors.
In addition to learning more about the industry in which they plan to build a career, the members of the organization will also be working for financial assistance that will help some of them attend the National Restaurant Association Expo in Chicago, a major trade show for the hospitality industry. That’s because the Pineapple Guild is slated to receive 30 percent of the proceeds from the event.
“This is great for us,” Withrow said of the festival. “The event is a good chance for the students to meet employers or network. One of the students once ended up being hired after working in one of the booths.”
Withrow said the proceeds will help some students in the club cover a portion of their costs to go to the convention.
The New Hanover County weekend Meals on Wheels program, which brings food to elderly, disabled and other shut-in residents of the area, will also receive 20 percent of the proceeds.
“While the program is funded by the county during the week, it relies on volunteers to do the routes,” Weeks said. “They work on a shoestring budget.”
The remaining half of the proceeds will go to Wrightsville Beach parks amenities and programs and to beautification projects.
As many as 650 people are expected to attend the event, which is scheduled from 5-8 p.m. on the waterfront at MarineMax, located at 130 Short Street. In addition to food and drinks, the festival will feature acoustic music from Larry Snider and the sounds of the Sea Pans Steel Drum Ensemble in the gazebo.
Wrightsville Beach town employees can purchase tickets for $25, as can attendees under 21 years of age. Ticket prices are $75 through Friday or $100 the day of and can be purchased at MarineMax, Roberts Grocery, the Wrightsville Beach Museum of History or online here: http://wrightsvillebeachfoundation.org/taste-of-wrightsville-beach/
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