Tonight Tammy and I planned to cap off a really great 4th of July weekend with a trip to the Taste of Minnesota, also known as “the taste”. We hadn’t been to the Taste since 2002 when it was at the state capitol for the last time. Taste is usually a fun afternoon of food that is fried and should not be consumed on anything approaching a regular basis with a good background of outdoor music and sunshine.

We made plans to go to the Taste with our good friends Tracy and Jeff. We arrived early and started to explore the new venue. The Taste is now on Harriet Island instead of the Capitol grounds. That’s a big change but we were left a little surprised by all the other changes.

The Taste has gotten a lot bigger. A lot of new things have been added and none of them, in our humble opinion, have added to the event in a positive way at all. Tammy and I did a quick trip around after wading through the new fair rides (what are those doing here?) and the sea of “interesting” people and were dismayed at everything.

We decided to call an audible and get Tracy and Jeff on the cell phone and change our plans at the last minute to go to the Downtowner Woodfire Grill which was nearby. We had a great dinner and conversation saving a near disastrous evening at the now pathetic Taste.

We’ve removed the Taste from our summer calendar for good.

A hint to the committee that organizes the taste. We already have one State Fair, we don’t need another. It seems that the Taste is just trying to become another fair with none of the legacy of the Butter Heads in the Dairy building to make it fun. Instead, it’s turned into a dirty, grimy mess. We’ll consider going back when the event gets back to its roots.