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Months of Effort Is Recipe for Tasty Event
By Carl Glassman
On May 21, as many as 3,500 people will descend on Duane Street to spoon
some 14,000 samplings of local cuisine into their mouths and a very generous
portion of funds into the enrichment programs at Tribeca’s two public elementary
schools.
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What does it take to pull off the annual Taste of Tribeca?
Up to half a year before the first Sterno can is lit, parent volunteers
from P.S. 234 and P.S. 150 work as many as 40 hours a week, sending
invitations to restaurants and requests to corporate donors, preparing
graphics, booking entertainment, securing permits from the Department
of Health, and tending to a host of mind-numbing details that ultimately
make the food extravaganza look like, well, a piece of cake.
“It’s a colossal event that most event planners would never do,”
said Liat Silberman, who is in charge of P.S. 234 volunteers. “And
it’s getting even more ambitious.”
Chaired by Mary Beth Lawlor and Jess Biggio, Taste of Tribeca has
tripled the number of participating
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restaurants since it began
in 1994 and draws more than twice as many grazers as it did then.
Having outgrown Duane Street, it will spill onto Greenwich Street
this year, where professional musicians will perform.
Three years ago, Maia Wechsler began the push for corporate donors,
who buy the right to festoon the event with their logos. This year,
$70,000 is expected to come from corporations alone. (Total proceeds
from the event is a well-guarded PTA secret.)
Catherine Montifiore, who also solicits corporations, said, “The challenge
is in finding the proper balance, satisfying the exposure that corporate
donors are looking for while trying to maintain the integrity of the
event as a school and community function.”
“I don’t want to see it going more commercial,” she added.
Merchandise is another money-maker.
Unlike last year, there will be no Taste of Tribeca wine, corkscrews
or candies for sale. But the event’s logo will be emblazoned on book
bags, hats, aprons, and, of course, t-shirts in multiple designs.
“I know how to order the stuff,” said volunteer Angela Britzman, owner
of a children’s clothing business, when asked how she got the job
of overseeing the event’s merchandise.
It is the expertise of the many skilled parent professionals like
Britzman—marketers, lawyers, graphic artists, web consultants, even
wrought-iron designers—that helps make the fundraiser soar beyond
the dreams of most public-school PTAs.
The “Taste” does not just support a rich variety of school programs,
from poetry and puppetry workshops to art and music instruction;
restaurant owners say they get something in return.
“It connects us to the rest of the community and the school community,”
said Albert Capsouto of Capsouto Frčres. “And they are both very important
parts of what defines Tribeca.”
For tickets, go to www.tasteoftribeca.org.
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