CINCINNATI, Ohio — One of Cincinnati’s most anticipated events for Memorial Day weekend is the Taste of Cincinnati. For the past 41 years, this event has attracted close to half a million people every year to the three-day food festival in downtown Cincinnati. But this year, things will be a little different.
- Due to the stay-at-home order, the Taste of Cincinnati is postponed until July 4
- The Chamber of Commerce is hosting virtual events to support local businesses and keep people socially connected
- Beginning this Saturday, people can log onto the Taste of Cincinnati Facebook Page to enjoy cooking demos, music concerts and try new local food
Because of the current stay-at-home order, it has been postponed until July 4th weekend. But the Greater Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce has created virtual events in the meantime.
Just a couple of weeks ago, they hosted a Virtual Taste of Cincinnati on Facebook Live which highlighted local restaurants, cooking demos and live music. But even after that they knew they needed to do more.
“On April 6th we’re like, well that was great and over, but again, there’s still so much time. How can we make this live longer,” said Lori Salzarulo, Greater Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber of Commerce event organizer.
So that’s when they came up with "Social Saturdays" — a series of live virtual dining experiences.
Beginning this Saturday, people can log onto the Taste of Cincinnati Facebook page from noon until 8 p.m. to enjoy cooking demos, music concerts and try new local food.
“The hope is that we’re helping to drive folks to restaurants that either they have forgotten about or they didn’t know existed, or just thought, hey that would really be a really good dinner for us or the family,” said Salzarulo. “Let’s pick that up for tonight and helping support these folks.”
The chamber believes this event will not only help support local businesses, but it will also provide an opportunity for people to connect socially.
“We really wanted to have a live component to this, because that’s what the Taste is,” she said. “You’re not down there by yourself. You’re down there with your friends or you’re meeting people and in some small way I wanted to bring that to the virtual events.”
And the taste of Cincinnati isn’t the only event this year that’s going virtual. From April 20-26 there will be a Virtual Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week.
In an effort to support small business, people are encouraged to stop by local restaurants that are offering three-course meals or any other kind of take-out or curbside order. One dollar from each meal will be donated to the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. If you don’t want to purchase food, you can also purchase gift cards.
It is uncertain whether virtual events like the Greater Cincinnati Restaurant Week and the Taste of Cincinnati will stay around forever, but for now, organizations are doing all they can to help the local businesses during these challenging times.
“I don’t see them going away completely,” she said. “I don’t know how they’ll look but we are absolutely looking at that as this is going to be something for the future.”