Two fundraising culinary events, one considerably larger and more well-attended than the other, take place this weekend. A component of the All Children's Hospital Telethon, the huge Taste of Pinellas presents attendees with scrumptious samples by more than 40 Bay area restaurants, including Red Mesa, Friendly Fisherman, The Pie Factory, Rib City, Le Cheesecake and Sam Seltzer's Steakhouse. There's no admission charge, which means you only pay for what you eat and enjoy the respectable music line-up — Ziggy Marley and the Neville Brothers, to name a few — for free. Other enticements include Culinary Arts Cooking Theatre demos by local and celebrity chefs, a Budweiser Specialty Beer Garden, and a kid's play area; Saturday's concert culminates with a fireworks display. The NOLA Café Crawfish Boil boasts more than 3,000 pounds of crawfish as well as live music by Soular System, Catfish Alliance and the Shiny Shoes Band. A portion of proceeds go to the United Way of New Orleans. Taste, through June 3, 5-10 p.m. Fri., noon-10 p.m. Sat., noon-7 p.m. Sun., Vinoy Park, Bayshore Drive and Fifth Avenue N.E., St. Petersburg, free admission, tasteofpinellas.com; and Crawfish Boil, Sat., June 2, 1 p.m.-late, Hooper's Hollow at A La Carte Pavilion, 4050 Dana Shores Drive, Tampa, $25 per person ($5 Nola Café gift card for those who bring a covered dish to share), 813-258-8778.
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2007.
