Visitors Ate 10,000 Cheeseburgers At Taste Of Chicago This Year

By Gwendolyn Purdom in Food on Jul 12, 2016 4:02PM

By the time clean-up crews arrived in Grant Park to wrangle mountains of discarded beer cups and grease-stained paper plates Sunday, an estimated 1.4 million people had passed through the 36th Annual Taste of Chicago gates, according to the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. This year's attendance was on-par with last year's and up from 2014 when the yearly fest only drew 1.1 million fried-food-aficionados (and some pretty terrible weather). Final sales and revenue aren't yet determined, but profits have fluctuated in past years. Throughout the five-day event, attendees were treated to a last-minute performance by Chance the Rapper, were joined by demonstrators protesting police brutality, and noshed on 10,500 Italian beef sandwiches from Frannies.

Here's a breakdown of more of this year's festivities by the numbers:

14,600: The number of cheese and sausage slices served up by Connie's Pizza

11: The number of pop-up eateries that stuck around for just a day or two

8,000: The number of Cuban pork tamales sold by Dia De Los Tamales (Fun fact: according to the DCASE press release, those tamales laid out end-to-end would add up to 2,000 feet)

14: The number of people arrested Saturday during marches and rallies protesting police brutality, according to police

20,000: The number of watermelon Italian ices Franco's Ristorante sold

0: The number of "blunt wraps" trumpeter and Chance the Rapper collaborator Donnie Trumpet received from the City of Chicago—despite specifically requesting three packs of Backwoods brand cigars to use for blunts as part of his payment for playing the Taste, the Tribune reported

30,000: The number of roasted turkey legs purchased from Miller's Pub

900: The amount of fudge, in pounds, sold by The Fudge Pot

26,208: The ears of corn on the cob sold by O'Briens Restaurant and Bar (no word on how many packages of floss were purchased afterward to help attendees remove said corn from their teeth)

60,000: The number of pot stickers sold by Star of Siam

19: The number of sponsors for this year's event including Bud Light, CH Distillery, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Transit Authority, Communications Direct, CLTV-Chicagoland’s Television, Eli’s Cheesecake Company, Humana, Illinois Lottery, Lifeway Foods, Pepsi, Shoreline Sightseeing, Southwest Airlines, V103, WBEZ, WGN-TV, WGCI, 101 WKQX and 93XRT.

20,412: The slices of Eli's Cheesecake sold

Countless: The cases of intense heartburn and bittersweet indigestion caused by this year's event, we assume