This year’s Taste of Vero along Ocean Drive gave new meaning to progressive dining, at least for those lucky enough to nab a ticket to the annual event, hosted by the Oceanside Business Association. Foodies ate their way from Dahlia to Beachland Boulevard while taking a bite out of the Vero Beach restaurant scene. Restaurants had partnered with local business sponsors – the perfect pairing of food and business.
“Tickets sold out in less than two days again this year,” said Georgia Irish, OBA president. “It’s a beautiful night and everybody and their brother came out to enjoy the evening.”
The Indian River Healthy Start Coalition was this year’s featured nonprofit, retaining 100 percent of the proceeds from beverage sales to further their mission to develop and support a local system of care to optimize the health of local mothers, babies and their families.
“This is one of the benchmark Vero Beach Ocean Drive events,” said Buzz MacWilliam, of Alex MacWilliam Real Estate, who partnered with Amalfi Grill. “It’s a great community event. Vero Beach is a great town, and it’s events like this that bring the residents together to have a little bit of fun and camaraderie.”
As Amalfi Grille owner Bob Rose plated his mushroom ravioli with sausage cream sauce, he added, “It’s great camaraderie for our two companies to work together. A lot of people have already chosen where they are going to eat, and they know the restaurants in town. But there are always people who don’t know who you are so it’s nice to get some exposure.”
Everything from calamari and tacos to picnic fare and barbecue was on the menu. Tasters debated favorites while awaiting their next gastronomic goodie, enjoying music from bands playing along the food route, catching up with old friends and making new ones.
Baci Trattoria’s Karen Scott-Fulchini pulled from her artistic background to create picnic basket-styled boxed lunches with mini Italian sandwiches and pasta salad.
“We’ve done this every year since we opened,” shared Scott-Fulchini. “We want people to know about the restaurants on 14th Avenue. It’s such a cute, quirky little area and we all get along so well.”
Several restaurants served specialty cocktails to accompany their creations. Blue Agave gave patrons a kick with their Mezcal moonshine; Cobalt’s lavender Collins gave Tom a run for his money; and The Wave at Costa d’Este partnered their coconut seafood ceviche with an infused mojito water.
For those with a sweet tooth, blueberry bread pudding, biscotti, Key lime mousse, guava flan, Key lime pie and orange ice cream were the perfect complements to an evening of good food and fun.
Paige Rhymes and Kirsten Kowalski both attended for the first time. “We hit the seafood first to warm up our palettes and had some wine too,” said Rhymes as she tried the fish dip from Rhonda’s Seafood.
Kowalski, a relative newcomer to Vero Beach, compared the event to Atlanta’s Taste of Alpharetta. “This is so nice and very well organized. In Atlanta it was so crowded and crazy, you couldn’t get near any food, so we just stopped going.”
As the sun went down and bellies were full, Anna Groves and Ali Martello were among those recalling one delicious meal after another. Groves summed the evening up saying, “There was nothing bad here tonight. Vero Beach knows how to do it right.”
Event proceeds help fund the free OBA concert series and Christmas parade and promote shopping and tourism.
