The summer festival season kicked off Sunday with Durango’s favorite holiday, the Taste of Durango, which featured food and drinks from 45 local restaurants and live music from three local bands.
“The goal of (the Taste of Durango) is to get food into people’s hands from restaurants that they wouldn’t normally go into,” said Mandi Davis, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association of Durango. “It’s a great opportunity to try a lot of food in a short amount of time. And really the goal of it is to get money into Manna’s hands.”
Half of the proceeds from the event go directly to Manna Soup Kitchen to help provide nourishing food and supportive services for those in need. This year, with about 12,000 attendees, Taste of Durango raised more than $20,000 for Manna, the most raised in the 15-year history of the event, Davis said.
In addition to being a wildly successful fundraiser, one thing that really stood out from years past is the creativity that went into some of the cocktails.
“It’s really exciting this year; I feel like this is the first year everyone stepped up and took hold of the cocktail version of it,” Davis said. “In the past, there have been a lot of margaritas and bloody marys, and while those are really great staples, they’re not exactly what the general public is excited about with cocktails right now.”
Margaritas and bloody marys still made an appearance, but often with a twist, such as Chimayo’s Watermelon Jalapeño Margarita, but for the most part, the creative spirit of local bartenders came out in full force. Eno’s Snakecharmer – featuring vanilla vodka, elderflower liqueur, jasmine liqueur and fresh lemon – was a particularly innovative combination of exotic and unique flavors.
Even with such imaginative cocktail creations, Durango is still a beer town at heart, and Taste of Durango is always a great opportunity to indulge in an afternoon of socially-accepted day-drinking. With the line for beer at the Carvers tent more than 10 times as long as the line for food, the crowd was in high spirits throughout the day.
But let’s not forget the food – from high-end, fine-dining establishments like Ken & Sue’s, Seasons Rotisserie & Grill and the Ore House, to pub fare with a twist from the likes of Carvers, BREW Pub & Kitchen and Derailed Pour House, local restaurants pulled out all the stops to impress Durango’s foodies.
For the Ore House, a longtime veteran of Taste of Durango, it was “about local, sustainable foods, about representing ourselves really well, and just to give people a glimpse of what the Ore House is,” said Executive Chef Ryan Lowe.
To represent its traditional fare of steak, lobster and spirits, the Ore House offered sliced prime-grade steak, lobster mac and cheese, a local asparagus and bacon salad, plus two cocktail options.
Instead of choosing items representative of its usual menu, the new kid on the block, El Moro, which serves up modern rustic cuisine, kicked off a new tradition – oyster night. Serving oysters on the half shell – with flavor diversity from both a West Coast and an East Coast variety – the restaurant spiced things up by demonstrating its molecular gastronomy expertise. A self-proclaimed ‘science geek,’ chef Charley Curtis created quite the presentation by using liquid nitrogen to open the oyster shells, then topped the oysters with a saffron horseradish-infused gin “caviar” – an alchemical concoction created live at the event.
While most restaurants managed to differentiate themselves from the crowd with a variety of unique offerings, guests had several versions of gourmet macaroni and cheese to choose from, perhaps giving us a taste of what to expect when Durango’s first ever Macaroni and Cheese Festival comes to town in late June.
As always, guests could vote for their favorite dishes, and a panel of five judges also evaluated entries based on texture, smell, look and overall taste.
“It’s hard to pick in Durango,” said judge Rhita Batiste. “We’re lucky to have so many great restaurants.”
And the winners are ...
Judges’ AwardS
Best Entrée: The Ore House
Best Dessert: The Yellow Carrot
Best Booth Decor: Flour Sack
Best Cocktail: Cyprus Café
Best Mocktail: Derailed Pour House
People’s Choice Awards
Best Entrée: Seasons Rotisserie & Grill
Best Dessert: The Yellow Carrot
Best Cocktail: Cyprus Café
