Yes, Virginia, There Are Bargains at Taste of Chicago

By Laura Oppenheimer in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 19, 2007 4:00PM

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.