The Sun-Times had an article about the Taste of Chicago banning five suburban restaurants for not having a Chicago presence.

It’s Taste of Chicago — not Taste of Chicagoland, Taste of
Schaumburg or Taste of Riverside.

That’s the message City Hall is delivering to suburban restaurants.
They’re no longer welcome at Chicago’s annual orgy of food and music.

Just in time for its 30th anniversary, Taste of Chicago is “returning
to its roots” — by banning suburban restaurants.

Suburban food vendors — at least one of whom has been part of the
event since its 1980 inception on North Michigan Avenue — blasted the
new policy as risky and wrong-headed.

I wrote a quick response over on Gadling, the travel site for real travelers, as opposed to fake armchair travelers like me:

Chicagoan all of my life.

Preferred seating for the pavillion is silly.

But I agree with returning to a Chicago focus.

The Taste is a great event, but over the years it changed considerably. My understanding is that it started out as a way to highlight Chicago restaurants.  You went to the festival, you had a small “taste” of a restaurant there, and that prompted you to seek out that restaurant later.  Accordingly, the price was such that you could go to several vendors and hopefully get a real sampling. Many vendors complained about the costs of participating in the event.

But nowadays, many restaurants sell what amounts to full meals, and in most cases, sell them at full-meal prices. And that has led to the event going from a loss leader to a profit center for several restaurants. I suspect that is why restaurants from the suburbs can make a go of it–they’re not there to drum up business–they are there to make money. Of course, any business they do drum up then goes to Riverside or Berwyn or wherever.  Great places, but I’m not sure how that helps Chicago.

Not sure why you think a Chicago festival that focuses on Chicago vendors will discourage tourists from visiting Chicago.

But you’re right about Milwaukee’s Summerfest–it’s great.  And the suburbs have a number of great festivals. But when I go there, I don’t go for Chicago’s Harold’s Chicken or Eli’s Cheesecake.

What do you think?