Taste of Reston

Over the weekend, Dan, Ellen and I went to the Taste of Reston at Reston Towne Center. It was a bit of a last-minute idea since my fiance was off in CT this weekend for a bridal shower.

We got there and were met by a pretty nice set-up. They had concerts, and then tents all up and down the main street with food stalls. I took a look at a couple of them and noticed things like, "Soda: 2 Tickets." Clearly we needed tickets. So I found the tent that was selling tickets and we split a pad of 24 tickets three ways.

24 tickets was $20, so almost a dollar a ticket.

We started heading down the tents and quickly realized why they had people paying with tickets. Paying $2 for a 12 oz. can is a bit much, but 2 tickets doesn't seem that bad. Dropping 4 tickets for six pieces of chicken spread over two sticks doesn't seem hefty, but $4 is a bit much for the sub-appetizer.

Frustrated with the prices, we finally found the alcohol tent. I was thirsty, so I was thinking of a glass of white wine, but it was 6 tickets a glass!

We finally found the more reasonable priced-tent down the other end. 2 tickets for two burger sliders, and 1 ticket for a snowcone. That tracked better, and I finished off my tickets there. By the time we finished, I checked my watch and realized we'd only spent an hour there and were already out of tickets. Not exactly the best way to spend some time, I'd say. We checked out and went back to Dan's place to watch a movie in the comfort of air conditioning.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed with the festival. I was hoping for more free samples (the custard place was doing that, and doing it right, I felt - give free samples so people can get "A Taste" of it, and then charge if the people want a whole cup of custard). Sadly, it just wasn't the case. Adding to that, there really was not a lot in the way of entertainment. Granted we did not go around to the carnival out in one of the parking lots, but the only thing for adults was the concert venue. And when we walked out, all we heard was the guy saying, "Check one, check two, check, check, check... hey, hey hey, hey, check, check, one, two, three..." From the time it took us to walk from the Clyde's past the venue, and then out past the M&S Grill, we heard no music... just a guy talking.