Thirty Evanston restaurants will serve their specials at the third annual Taste of Evanston Food Festival on Sunday on the lawn of the Dawes House on the Evanston lakefront.
Two breweries and two wine purveyors will also be on hand for the event, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m. at 225 Greenwood St.
Tours of the mansion will be available while festival-goers dine and are entertained by gypsy jazz musicians Alfonso Ponticelli & Swing Gitan and the magician AJ Sacco.
There’ll also be kid-friendly distractions and games.
Tickets are available online or at the door. General admission tickets are $80, students tickets are $25 and children under 12 get in for $10.
“Because Evanston is a great restaurant town in a picturesque locale, we’ve been able to grow this festival in just three years into a substantial source of donations to address community needs,” said Brad Weiss, president of the Evanston Lighthouse Rotary Club, which hosts the event.
With the theme “Hungry for Work!” — organizers say a portion of the proceeds will benefit work readiness programs offered by three Evanston non-profits — No Boundaries, which provides workplace training to people with disabilities; Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, which teaches deconstruction skills to people who are low-income, homeless, or ex-offenders; and the Evanston Work Ethic (WE) Program, which provides mentoring, training and financial assistance to ETHS students who aspire to a career in the skilled trades.
The festival menu will include popular dishes from the kitchens of The Barn, Bluestone, Boltwood, Cupitol, Found Kitchen, Hearth, Hecky’s Barbecue, Hoosier Mama, Koi, Mount Everest, Patisserie Coralie, Peckish Pig, Taco Diablo, Temperance Beer Company, Tomate Fresh Kitchen and Ten Mile House.
A full list of participating restaurants is available on the Taste of Evanston website.
Update 8:45 a.m., 7/7/17: Organizers say they’re now sold out for this year’s Taste of Evanston event. So tickets will no longer be available at the door.