Food, music, wine and friends are what has taken the Taste of Newport from a simple sampling of some of the finest Newport Beach restaurants and turned it into a major celebration and social gathering for three days every September for the past twenty years.

Chef Bill Bracken of the Palm Terrace Restaurant

Now calling this the Taste of Newport is a bit of a stretch, as this event features thirty restaurants. If you really want a taste, you better bring your appetite and an open calendar, as Newport Beach has a mind boggling 350 restaurants. Since they couldn’t fit all 350 restaurants in this setting, you get to try out thirty great restaurants over this three day event and you can fit in the other 320 restaurants at your leisure.

Creme Brulee of Five Crowns Restaurant

This event offers dining at every level, from fine dining such as: Palm Terrace Restaurant and Lounge, Mastro’s Steakhouse and the Five Crowns Restaurants. Then there are the more casual restaurants, such as: the Beachcomber Café, Sabatino’s Sausage Company and El Tarasco Mexican Food. If you can’t find something you like here, then you just weren’t hungry. In addition, there were a number of great wineries on hand that allowed for a great sampling of some vineyards you might not have been familiar with.

Sabatino's Sausage Company

What separates this from other tasting events is that with this being a three-day event, it allows you to make a weekend in Newport Beach out of the event. It is set up so perfectly that you can hang out at the beach for the day, take in some of the amazing sights and history of Newport Beach and then head over to enjoy an evening of food and music.

Larry Flintie of New Your Food Company

You are also given several opportunities over the three days to see some of the great chefs of Newport Beach put on cooking demonstrations that allow you to think you have a chance to cook something magnificent on your own. The nice thing is that they were even so kind as to take down your email address so that they could send you the recipe. Now if you can’t get it done after seeing it prepared in person and having the recipe in front of you, stick to going out to eat. Certainly not a bad option with all of the great restaurants in Newport Beach.

The musical acts at the Taste of Newport this year were worth far more than the price of admission. You are going to be hard pressed to find three nights of music at any tasting event that includes: Third Eye Blind, Styx and UB40. This is far from being a one-year bonanza of music, as the Taste of Newport always comes through with some of the biggest and most popular acts in the music industry.

Third Eye Blind

Third Eye Blind opened the event on Thursday and had the jam packed crowd of all ages in a frenzy for the entire hour-and-a-half show. The stage, sound system and setting were all as good as you would find at any concert venue in Los Angeles. In such a setting you might expect short sets or maybe even the type of show where the band wants to get in and get out, but not at the Taste of Newport. At this event, the fans were raving about all three of the performances over the weekend.

If you are looking for a great time in one of the more beautiful cities in the United States, make sure to mark down the Taste of Newport 2009 in your calendar.

For more information on this event, visit: www.tasteofnewport.com
For more information on Newport Beach, visit: www.visitnewportbeach.com

For more information on the participating restaurants, visit:

www.theislandhotel.com

www.sabatinosausagecompany.com

www.lawrysonline.com/fivecrowns

www.newportdunes.com

www.thebeachcombercafe.com

www.mastrosrestaurants.com

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