Taste of North Park Sat Oct 5 from 11 am to 4 pm

The 5th Annual 2013 Taste of North Park  is on Sat, Oct 5th, – 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Tickets in advance $30, on the day $40 More info: 619.294.2501

The 5th annual Taste of North Park was on Saturday October 5th from 11:00am to 4:00pm. We walked along the streets of one of San Diego's hippest neighborhood and sampled food from North Park's famous eateries and look at art from a wide selection of galleries. the galleries had tastes of craft brews from San Diego's best breweries. 

For one ticket price of $30 we could have enjoyed over 40 restaurants and 12 specialty brews. We only managed a 10 of these in the two hours we were there, but a cool breeze and lots of shade made the streets bearable in the 90 degree weather. 

Each restaurant location offer ed bite size tastes of house favorites and favorites were the eggs Benedict at Urban Solace, a delicious salted caramel from Yog-Art, and a most unusual frozen dessert more like mousse that ice cream from Swoon which is connected to Art Produce Gallery. We enjoyed Cindy Zimmerman's fanciful work.

 I am not such a big fan of beer so the Bar Pink, pink vodka raspberry cranberry shot was more my style.  I had not been to Wang's Chinese restaurant before and the space was spectacular. These new huge eateries seem to be mushrooming in SD and it feels like we are coming of age which these chic modern spaces. 

There were less galleries and more home shops than I remember from previous visits. Pigment reminds me of Mixture with a large selection of gifts and decor. Glimpse is still small and charming. The San Diego Art Department is thriving and Mick Phelen's works are worth a trip. OBR was open but only serving beer with no display. These galleries have been giving creative life to North Park for years.But large murals outside are setting a tone and the one by Mark Paul Deren is large and bold and fun. 

Cindy Zimmerman at Art Produce Gallery

Mural  by Mark Paul Deren on the side of Wang's North Park Chinese Restaurant

Mural at the junction of University and Ray St.

Pigment

Mick Phelan San Diego Art Department

Pigment

 Visit www.tastenorthpark for more information.