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| - The Taste of Charlotte sounds like a great idea on paper...a bunch of local restaurants (and a few corporate chains) line Tryon St. and offer some of their best dishes to the masses. Unfortunately, it is executed pretty poorly as the logistics of it make for an extremely crowded and cramped time while the method of purchasing food simply boggles my mind. There is definitely room for improvement, but it is still a decent time.
We had no problem parking (the miss' was able to park where she works) and we made our way over to the festivities. We went at around 5:30 and headed straight to the booth to grab our stupid coins. Luckily I had found a Living Social deal where I got 7 coins for $5 (normally 7 coins cost $10), and spending that little made me feel a bit better about the overall experience. The coins themselves weren't bad...it makes things so much faster and smoother when you just give a vendor x amount of coins for a dish as opposed to fishing through for $3.50, handing over a Hamilton and waiting for change. However, the downfall of the coins is the pricing that vendors charge. Some hit that sweet spot where you feel you are getting your moneys worth, but others are ridiculously overpriced and you feel cheated walking away with one bite of food.
A prime example of this is how our dishes went yesterday. I stopped by Brian's Dog House and got a Carolina Dog for 3 coins. This thing was great...a charred (and I mean burned, which is great) hotdog loaded with chili, coleslaw, mustard and onions. It was a huge portion of food and it was downright tastetacular, and I know exactly where I'm going next time I need some lunchy munchies in Huntersville. This thing was the right portion at the right price. The miss' also had a good experience with Caribbean Hut. She got the jerked chicken plate which had two huge chunks of chicken and a ton of rice and beans. That thing was not only tasty but filling, and definitely worth the 3 coins.
Then she got two spring rolls from Mai Tai for 3 coins. Sure they were tasty, but it was such a tiny portion and definitely not worth 3 coins. I was tempted by the chicken diavlo at Bravo!, but it was like one small scoop that could be finished in one bite for 3 coins. Now these coins aren't cheap, and if this is going to be your meal, you want to get the most bang for your buck. I really think that some of these restaurants really need to look over their pricing system for next time...either make sure you're offering 3 coins worth of food, or lower your price to 2 coins!
Luckily there were quite a few free samples of food and drink to offset the time it took to travel from one booth to the next one you wanted to hit up (it was so cramped sometimes I felt like nothing more than herded cattle). Between the free samples and careful selection of restaurants to eat at, we got a full meal out of the 7 coins.
As I said, there is definitely some room for improvement. I would love to see more local restaurants participate and less corporate chains be involved. It just sickened me to see people lining up to waste their coins at freaking Hooters when they could have been checking out E2 or Room 112. The amount of people attending is sickening, and having the food booths line both sides of the street leaves cramped quarters for traveling up and down...especially when a couple of booths extended much further into the street then needed. Also, the restaurants that do participate should really ensure their pricing is consistent with the quantity and quality of food they are offering.
Still, despite these issues it was a good time. We enjoyed walking around and seeing all the different restaurants being represented. While it was far from a perfect experience, it's one that I will be all over next year for sure. I'm just hoping there is another Living Social-type deal for half price coins!
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