Mayor Rahm Emanuel defends shortening Taste of Chicago
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter fspielman@suntimes.com January 4, 2012 2:04PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel (inset) defended his decision to overhaul the Taste of Chicago. | Brett Roseman~ Sun-Times Media, Al Podgorski~Sun-Times
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Updated: January 4, 2012 8:37PM
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday defended his decision to shrink and overhaul Chicago’s premier summer festival — by cutting Taste of Chicago from ten days to five and bumping it to mid-July, instead of building the event around July 4th weekend.
“I told you in the campaign I was gonna rethink the Taste of Chicago after 20-plus years. That’s what we are doing. And it’s not just the amount of days. It’s what you fill those days with and what quality of both food and experience we’ll bring to the families of Chicago,” the mayor said at an unrelated press conference.
“You will see that type of change. … After 20-plus years of tinkering around the edges, we’re bringing fundamental change to it. But I have all the confidence people will continue to enjoy it.”
Last week, the Emanuel administration announced that the length of the Taste would be cut in half and the festival bumped to July 11-15 from its prime position around the July 4th weekend.
The move was apparently aimed at reversing $7 million in losses over a three-year period that Chicago taxpayers can no longer afford to subsidize.
The changes confirmed what the Chicago Sun-Times reported in October.
At that time, Cultural Affairs and Special Events Commissioner Michelle Boone said
she wanted “one last crack at re-imagining” Chicago’s premier summer festival “before any decision about the future” of the event is made.
“It will be a smaller Taste. It will not be a ten-day festival. It’s our hope that the fest will still be free. [But] we have to figure out the right financial model that makes sense, so we’re not losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in trying to deliver this,” Boone said, without saying whether the surcharge on food tickets would be raised.
“It would be great if the city could continue to provide fireworks. In the past, Taste had fallen on those dates and it became a signature, capstone closing event. But we have an opportunity to start fresh. I’m trying to bring the focus back on the food and not on the circuses and how this fest becomes a driver to support the restaurant scene.”
To do that, Boone said the Taste needs to turn a bit more upscale and go “beyond the cheesecake on a stick and the barbecue turkey leg.
“The culinary scene in Chicago has advanced and progressed in wonderful ways. We have Michelin-rated restaurants and world-class chefs. We’ve gotten lots of attention from Stephanie Izard winning ‘Top Chef,’” Boone said.
“I don’t want to say the Taste has gotten too low-brow. One of the great things about it is it’s accessible to everybody. But I think we can be a little more comprehensive in how we represent what food in Chicago is today.”
Last month, City Hall announced plans to put out to bid the contract the Illinois Restaurant Association has held for more than three decades to manage food and beverage operations at the Taste.
Boone said that decision, too, was made to stop the Taste from hemorrhaging money.
“That surely won’t address the total deficit, but we hope that will help address some of the loss,” she said.
“Opening it up for competition requires that the contractor become a bit more creative and competitive with their bids. That might be one of the ways.”
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