Yes, Virginia, There Are Bargains at Taste of Chicago

Looking to go to Taste of Chicago and come away satiated, while having paid less than you would have inside the restaurant? It is possible — if you do your homework ahead of time. Or if you let the Sun-Times do it for you.

The annual food festival starts June 29 and features more than 70 restaurants serving up taste-sized and regular-sized portions of food. If you have been, you know; Taste of Chicago creates its own mini-economy where 11 food tickets at Taste sells for $7, or about 64 cents a ticket. As the beers get consumed, figuring out how much a Taste ticket is actually worth becomes increasingly more complicated, so Chicagoist thinks it is best to create a plan of attack early on.

First, the good deals:

• At Robinson's No. 1 Ribs, a half slab of baby-back ribs is $9.95. At Taste of Chicago, a little bit less than a half slab is $6.40, or 10 tickets.
  
• At the Abbey Pub a corned beef sandwich is $8.30. At Taste of Chicago, the sandwich is $5.76, or nine tickets.
  
• At Connie's Pizza, the meatball sandwich is $7.71. At the Taste, it will set you back $3.84 or six tickets.

Now, the bad deals:

Pretty much everything else is a bad deal, from what we could tell. Harry Caray's offering seems particularly egregious: their fresh-cut potato chips will sell for $5.12 at Taste, but you can get them for free any time you like in the restaurant's bar.

Taste of Chicago runs June 29-July 8; in addition to the food, the festival offers a free (er, yawn-inducing) concert series.

Photo of last year's Taste of Chicago via Flagtothefloor.