The Third Annual Taste of Northfield is moving forward. Here are Leanne Stremcha (NDDC Board), Anastasia Balfany (NDDC Board), Joe Grundhoefer (NDDC Board), Mary Rossing (NDDC Board) and Julie Bixby (NDDC Community Advisor) meeting this morning at J. Grundy’s Rueb-N-Stein.
The Taste is scheduled for Thursday, June 19th. In addition to food booths by local restaurants, there are a number of events planned for this year including a Community Band Performance, Live and Silent Auctions, a Raid by the James Gang, a Beer Garden and Wine Tasting, and a Street Dance.
This event has quickly grown into a favorite of the community. If you’d like to get involved, just let us know. We’d love to have you join us.
Could the Committee of Taste of Northfield consider the attractiveness of the food and wine booths this year at the annual event? At the Defeat of Jesse James Event, someone or some city staff department, insists on enclosing the Cannon River Entertainment Center (Beer Tent) with at least three layers of orange highway plastic barracade fence. It looks stronger than the WWII Maginot Line to hold back the Nazis. How attractive is that to our out of town visitors?
For the past two years the Bridge Square Wine Tasting Event has been encircled with the same three layers of highway orange barricades. What are we afraid of? What if an underage drinker gets a small sample of wine? You still have to buy an expensive ticket to get past the front ticket taker booth. The age restriction can easily be checked at the door and you can’t get a taste of wine without going into the various table vendors.
In the discussions of the Outdoor Dining for Northfield, there is no requirement for a layer of orange highway barricade around the street-side restaurant. Let’s make it an attractive event – no barricades around the wine and liquor tasting tent in Bridge Square. You won’t find these barricades in Peavy Park around the Minneapolis Orchestra Hall and I bet you wouldn’t find them in Chaska around their summer events either. Someone needs to “lighten up” and forget our Puritan Past.