And the winner is....Family Services, Inc.!

You realize of course that I am a little biased, but this year's Taste of the Town was incredible! The restaurants completely outdid themselves, bringing an assortment of amazingly scrumptuous culinary delights! 21 restaurants competed for the best of the best amongst the patrons as well as our elite panel of judges, Michael Hastings, Food Editor of the Winston-Salem Journal; Al Romano, Instructor in the Culinary Program of GTCC; Chef Don McMillan, Owner of The Stocked Pot; and Chef Derrick McCorkle, Exec. Chef of WSSU/Aramark.

For those of you who did not stick around for the “medal ceremony”, or who weren't there, I’m going to give you the run down of who won what and from whom. You may find your favorite new restaurant on this list. (Don't forget to click on the restaurants in the right column to go to their websites.)

First came the “Mint Julep Contest” winner and that was The Old Fourth Street Filling Station!

For our “Chef’s Awards” were their top three restaurants:

1st place-Ollie’s Bakery
2nd place-Downtown Thai & sushi
3rd place-Jimmy’s Seafood & Oyster Bar

The “People’s Choice” awards went to the following restaurants in four categories:

Best Booth
1st place Jimmy’s Seafood
2nd place Downtown Thai
3rd place Bib’s Downtown

Best Dessert
1st place Ollie’s Bakery
2nd place Cake Ladies
3rd place Blue Ridge Ice Creams

Best Non-Dessert
1st place Carrabba’s
2nd place Village Tavern
3rd place Jimmy’s Seafood

Best All-Around Restaurant
1st place- Carrabba’s
2nd place-Jimmy’s Seafood
3rd place-Ollie’s Bakery

I don't know about you, but I really don't ever remember seeing the Kentucky Derby run in 5 or 6 inches of standing water! I'm just glad none of the horses/jockeys were hurt.
Calvin Borel, who rode Super Saver to the win, changed history as it was his third Kentucky Derby victory in the last four years! Close on Super Saver's heels were Ice Box who placed and Paddy O'Prado in the show position. It was such an exciting race even though it lasted only 2 min. and 2.4 seconds!

It was so much fun having Austin Caviness as Auctioneer again this year; he's terrific! Not only that but he agreed to be auctioned off at Taste this year as part of a cooking package. One lucky bidder will be taking cooking lessons with Austin at the Stocked Pot thanks to Don McMillan! That should be hilarious! We also auctioned off an evening at The Idiot Box, Jenny Stencel's improv comedy club in Greensboro, along with dinner at Natty Greene's...what fun! Our other WXII package was a round of golf for 4 including Cameron Kent at Tanglewood's Championship Course plus lunch afterward at Jimmy's Seafood and Oyster Grill. Interestingly enough, Mary Annicelli took that package home!

We auctioned off a fabulous package with Josh Howard including lunch for 10 at the Piedmont Club plus signed ball and shoes and a NASCAR package that included hanging at Richard Childress'condo among other great things!

I do have to give a shout out to the fabulous band that entertained us all evening. They are the Twin City Buskers and I have to say they were wonderful! They played Blues and some Bluegrass and a little in between. The crowd really seemed to enjoy their sound; I know I did! I happened upon them when I met with Ginger Henricks, the new Executive Director of BOOKMARKS Book Festival. Come to find out, her fiance had a band. Well once I heard a CD, I was hooked! Check them out!

Thank you to everyone that turned out Saturday and in particular to the nearly 100 volunteers it took to put it on! Now it's time to start planning next year's event. If you have any ideas about what we could do differently, please feel free to let me know!