Good Taste Gwinnett – 2019
Last week on October 17th, my wife and I attended Good Taste Gwinnett, an opportunity to sample and try out some restaurants in the local area. We had such a great time last year that we came back a second time.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – welcome sign
Good Taste Gwinnett is like a mini convention. You have to pay a small fee to attend (an even smaller fee when purchasing ahead of time and when using promotions), but with that you receive a goodie bag with a bunch of coupons and other little gimmicks, as well as three “tasting tickets.” Each tasting ticket allows you a sample from any of the restaurants in the venue. If you want more tickets, they’re sold at Good Taste Gwinnett for $1 each.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – participating restaurants
If you pay for the V.I.P. experience, then you receive six tasting tickets and an even better goodie bag (a small insulated bag) with really good coupons as well as free tickets to the Fernbank science museum, and a free hockey ticket for the Atlanta Gladiators.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – participating restaurants
Enough of that already. Onward to the venue!
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Smokey Bones
We started our experience at Smokey Bones. They were serving a pulled pork sandwich with your choice between two bbq sauces, and a small side of baked bean. That was delicious. The pork was nice and tender, and it had plenty of flavor along with the beans.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Ted’s Montana Grill
Up next was a visit to Ted’s Montana Grill. Ted’s served a bison meatloaf meatball with mashed potatoes (with gravy) and green beans. They also gave you a cup of ice cold lemonade. The food was great. My only complaint was that the green beans needed a little sprinkle of salt on top (I didn’t see any condiments on the serving table). But that’s minor. Everything in the picture was just the cost of a single “tasting” ticket.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Frida’s Mexican Restaurant
After having two great “samples” we took a brief walk around the venue to see what else was available. Some places were offering seafood, and that’s a negative with my wife and I. We decided to go for some Hispanic food, so we joined the long line for Frida’s Mexican Restaurant.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Frida’s Mexican Restaurant
Frida’s probably had the slowest moving line because each person was given a soft taco with their choice of meat as well as freshly prepared toppings. It was all personalized service, so it took a few extra minutes in line. The only complaint was that some people were taking too long to decide what they wanted to sample. The rest of us were hungry! It was nearly torture standing there and smelling the food as it was being prepared right behind the tables, and some slow people were holding up the line.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Frida’s Mexican Restaurant
That being said, Frida’s was one of the few places that offered people options for items to sample. Most restaurants simply gave you one option, and that was it. It looked like Frida’s had a large selection available for the ingredients and toppings for your soft taco. I had steak with some lettuce, onions, cheese and sour cream. (Yeah, I know. My combination is wacky.) The steak didn’t seem to have much seasoning, but everything else around it, including the corn shell, was great. It was easy to see why Frida’s was so popular.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – Uncle Jack’s Meat House
After filling ourselves with great tasting samples, I decided to spend my last tasting ticket on a piece of bacon over at Uncle Jack’s Meat House. For the value, the bacon sample ranks as the worst sample size compared to everything else at Good Taste Gwinnett. Almost everybody else gave you at least double or triple the amount of food compared to Uncle Jack’s. But when it comes to flavor and taste, Uncle Jack’s reigns supreme.
At Uncle Jack’s Meat House you were given a small but thick piece of bacon served with a little bit of peanut butter. It seems like an unusual combination, but it works. It does. The bacon was thick and tender, and it had a dynamic flavor that was only enhanced with some peanut butter.
The crime was that they only gave you a very small serving size. I’m guessing the serving size is proportional to the everyday prices at their store / restaurant. Will I ever go there? I honestly don’t know. But what I do know is that they’ve got a fantastic product that’s dangerously addictive.
THE REST OF GOOD TASTE GWINNETT (2019)
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – cooking demonstrations
The local restaurants were just part of Good Taste Gwinnett. There were also other vendors trying to sell you things that you probably don’t need, and there were some cooking demonstrations as well.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – venue
Did the people seem that interested in the demonstrations? Not really. The demos were just something to watch while snacking on your samples and taking a break. While the demos were somewhat interesting for our point-of-view, the rest of the people just didn’t seem that interested in the cooking and baking lessons. They were there to eat.
Good Taste Gwinnett 2019 – venue
FINAL THOUGHTS
My wife and I enjoyed our visit to Good Taste Gwinnett. As long as we can score discounted tickets, then we’ll definitely return next year as well.
The biggest complaint about the event is that there aren’t anywhere near enough tables for everybody. Not by a long shot. It’s common to share tables with strangers just so that you’ll have a place to put down your plate. The venue had this same exact problem last year. They could easily add more of the “standing room only” tables throughout the building.
It also would be nice if the attending restaurants had more than one option for the samples.
That’s really it for problems. Far more positives outweigh those negatives.
If you can get the discounted tickets, then Good Taste Gwinnett is definitely a worthwhile experience. We both had a great time.