Taste of Roselle

My husband and I had a good time at the Taste of Roselle for an impromptu Date Night, but I must echo the sentiments of others when I say that we were pretty disappointed that Taste of Roselle didn’t give people a better understanding of what Roselle has to offer.
The crafts vendors were from all over and most of their wares were things you can find at tradeshows (Scentsy, Jamberry, weird kitchen gadgets imported from Germany and Asia). The food area was slightly better. At least they had some stuff from the suburbs.
I had been super excited to ride some rides but realized they were for children only. They also had a games area, but we skipped that and grabbed some bites and played bingo for the rest of our time there.
I got the El Chingón sandwich from Toasty Cheese’s truck (out of Schaumburg) and he picked up a pound of rib tips from Real Urban Barbecue’s tent (out of Oak Brook). I also introduced him to the world of fried goodness à la Suzie’s Fun Foods & Funnel Cakes (out of St. Charles), but that was something that you can find at any fair and there was another company with almost the same menu a couple spots down.
We’d likely have grabbed some beer and listened to the music in one of the tents, but it was more beverages that you can find anywhere — Mike’s Hard Lemonade and MGD.
C’mon, guys! People already think the suburbs are pretty cookie cutter and lame. Let’s not prove them right with events like this that supposedly showcase a village and then gloss over the fact that too many of the booths don’t represent Roselle.

Actually I would give it a zero if I could. Every year, the quality of food decreases but the prices go up. $ 8 bucks for 2 BBQ slider size sandwiches? Italian Pizza Kitchen had boxes of pizza delivered to put in warmers. And situating it next to a bathroom remodeling booth? Yucky. Next year I will avoid parking 3 blocks away and heading home in an hour. And that included walking the entire fest, eating and finding no entertainment at 8pm on a Saturday. Roselle, you can do so much better!

I was pretty disappointed with the Taste of Roselle as I really didn’t see the local presence I was hoping for. I’ve been living in Schaumburg for 4 years now and am still discovering new places in the area. I was hoping Taste of Roselle would introduce me to even more!
I found it to be filled with the usual cheesy carnival & fair & street festival vendors. They had stands for funnel cakes, deep fried everything, pizza, blahblahblah, none of those were actual local vendors though. Cheesy cheap gift vendors polluted the area as well.
I was happy to see Toasty Cheese which has come to be known as the best food truck we have in the burbs, hands down. My friends and I got in line there and were pleased with everything we got from there, as always. Honestly though so many good food spots had no representation — even 8000 Miles which is right there on the street had nothing, plus neighboring Lynfred Winery which is probably the biggest attraction in Roselle.
My friends were so unhappy with the street festival that we left in less than an hour. I was disappointed because the weather was nice and there was an 80s cover band on the schedule that night.
Parking is insane around there during the Taste of Roselle. Very hard to find parking and unless it’s really convenient for you, I wouldn’t recommend bothering taking the train because the fest isn’t worth it. I would go again next year to give it one more try but please bring in more local vendors/​restaurants! Make it a *true* Taste of Roselle. I hate to do comparisons but I grew up in Glenview and the Glenview Street Sale was a model for this type of street fair. It’s a day only fest with only local vendors and restaurants — -only. None of this carnival style stuff.

I always thought it was kind of odd that Unilocal lets people review non-​Yelp events. After all, events are fleeting (yearly, monthly, whatever), and usually include more than one business and/​or form of entertainment. People show up at different times, experience different things, and go with different people. But here it is. The Taste of Roselle (2013).
Having moved here a year ago, I’ve been trying to take advantage of all Roselle has to offer and was pretty excited about the Taste. I wanted to experience more local businesses and figured this was the perfect event to get some Roselle summer in me! The Taste lasted three days and the ‘grounds’ stretched across several blocks of downtown Roselle, next to the train tracks.
My husband and I went twice — on Friday night and Sunday night. We didn’t stay very long. A quick walk around, finding something to eat, and people-​watching was all we needed before we left. The bands and activities weren’t too appealing to us – I guess they’re more for families or people with a lot of beer in them (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing).
One block consisted of drinks and entertainment, another was devoted to the food stands, and one more block held tents with items for sale and a few low-​key carnival rides. They had a decent beer/​entertainment tent with lots of seating and live bands. Another tent somewhere on the grounds had people playing some crazy bingo one night. One parking lot had a jumpy house and gladiator jousting. My husband and I had fun watching people knock each other down. We strolled through the tents with items for sale and marveled at the machine spitting out white bubbles (when they popped, it was a tiny explosion of water vapor or something). It was definitely cool to see what people had to offer.
I was disappointed with the food selection. Although I was excited see Toasty Cheese as well as a couple of my favorite pizza joints, there were too many generic carnival-​like food stands (and a Dippin’ Dots truck) scattered among the local food stands. Greek, Chinese, and Italian food were all options, along with burgers, ribs, funnel cakes, gelato, crab cakes, and the like. I wished that the Taste was only restaurants local to the Roselle area — but I guess there’s so few restaurants that they had to pull in some from neighboring suburbs. I was a bit surprised to note a couple Roselle establishments didn’t have booths. Actually, I didn’t see any of my favorite Roselle spots other than the library. Oh well. There was still something for everyone.
Roselle doesn’t have too many big events, so it was cool to finally visit a nice little festival in a sweet little town that we could just walk to!