What Does a City Taste Like? - Taste Rossland This Sunday
By Andrew Zwicker
What does a city taste like? In Rossland it might taste like a mouthful of dust and dirt as you whip along the trails on your mountain bike or maybe like a cold refreshing shot of Kootenay powder choking down your lungs. To many, Rossland tastes like home. When the snow flies it tastes like Kraft Dinner and first time home-made cooking as ski hill workers and ski bums alike migrate into town. Maybe It tastes like sweat rolling off your upper lip as you’re out hiking, working in the garden, bowling bocce balls or playing slow-pitch.
Tasty though our lifestyle here in the Alpine City may be, eventually we’ve all got to refuel on some real food–and with a host of great dining out options in Rossland, taking a night off from the kitchen can be a delicious affair.
This year the Rossland Chamber of Commerce will be bringing a new flavour to the Golden City Days celebrations: the “Taste of Rossland.”
While not entirely a new event, the new Taste of Rossland is a tweak and renaming of a decade plus old event. In the mid-nineties Lindsay Wong and Mark Danes started up a restaurant crawl to help promote the restaurants in town. Known then as the Taste of the Town, hungry bellies would visit most of Rossland’s restaurants, each featuring a different live music act over the course of the entire weekend.
Last year the Taste of the Town was incorporated into Golden City Days and was held outdoors in Pioneer Park. The turnout was less than expected for various reasons with only four food vendors showing up and then running out of food before the event was over.
“When I came on board with the Chamber we talked about doing the same thing and I did a walk-through of Pioneer Park I decided it wasn’t big enough,” noted Julie Parker of the Rossland Chamber of Commerce. “We needed a rain plan, we needed hand washing stations and we needed power.”
Gabriella of Gabriella’s restaurant and more recently of the Prestige Resort’s Food and beverage operations stepped up this year and graciously offered the use of the Ross Thompson Ballroom in the Prestige.
Along with moving the event back indoors and changing its name, Taste of Rossland’s format has been switched up as well. Food and wine vendors will be set up around the ballroom with Graham Tracey of The Toques providing an acoustic backdrop.
Visitors this year will truly get a taste of Rossland and beyond with eleven food vendors and four beer and wine vendors on site. Each vendor will be set up displaying their food with descriptions of each item on their menu. Admission to the event is free; however tokens must be purchased to buy food with.
Competing for the prize of best dressed booth will be The Flying Steamshovel, Gabriella’s, The Old Fire Hall, The Gypsy, Drift, The Rock Cut, Subway, The Sunshine Cafe, Redstone Resort Grill, Rush Cafe, Idgie’s and wineries including Vincor, Mark Anthony, Columbia Gardens and Skimmerhorn.
Running from 3:00 to 7:00pm this Sunday, the hope is to attract more families to the event. Bartenders from the Flying Steamshovel will be on hand whipping up mocktails for kids and adults alike.
“For lack of having enough family restaurants in Rossland, it’s a great way to bring out the kids on a Sunday afternoon/evening, have some fun and explore the different tastes available in Rossland,” Added Parker.
To get a better picture and idea of just what Rossland tastes like, there may be no better opportunity than the Taste of Rossland this Sunday night.
“We basically want people to come in and eat their way around the room,” concluded Parker.
