Why all the quibbling about when summer begins?
Yes, yes, on the calendar it is June 21. It's fact. But the spirit of summer arrives after Memorial Day, for many people, what with schools getting out and vacations starting and swim trunks being shopped for and pool goggles being donned.
So let's call this period "summer's overture" -- much like winter's overture falls in the time between Thanksgiving and Dec. 21 -- and let's look for summery happenings that capture that spirit.
Capture it in a sweet and savory way. A community-oriented food festival will do that, and Taste of the Eastside fits that flavorful bill just fine. The late-spring happening, which'll small-plate-it-up on Sunday, June 1 at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, features the edibles of about two dozen eastside eateries (hence the "eastside" in the name).
Does this mean that Atwater Village Tavern will be there? Yes. Diablo Taco? Yes. Amara Kitchen, Malo Restaurant, Polka Restaurant? Yes times three.
A "signature dish or something unique" will be on offer from each eastside eatery. A sprinkling of demos, like how to get the most out of your kitchen knife and the art of spirits distillation, are also on tap.
And all of those tasty bites. Seriously, though, observers of the official start of summer: Doesn't a breezy Sunday afternoon neighborhood food festival fit the summertime mold pretty well? Even if it is actually going down, all-official-like, in the late spring?
The Scene
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We're ready to get our summer on, is what we're saying, and Taste of the Eastside will definitely help.
