Taste of SCV Expo

This is an annual event as part of the larger Expo that the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber does each October. The Expo lasts 3 days but the Taste of is just one night. The Friday night of the Expo. It’s free to attend but to try anything, you need to buy tickets in the form of 10 tickets for $ 20 or even 5 for $ 10. They don’t advertise that price but you can do it. About 15 establishments set up shop at the Expo from Smoothie and Coffee bars to high end restaurants. Usually, you just need one ticket to get a plate from one of the booths. What you get for that one ticket can vary tremendously from restaurant to restaurant. Cowboy Cantina, a longtime ‘fav’ of the SCV Unilocalers offered the most bang for the buck with three pieces of brisket, a ¼ chicken and a bunch of ‘pulled’ pork for the ticket. That was the good news. The bad? It was sub-​par as most of the reviews testify. The reason I put pulled in quotation marks was because it really wasn’t pulled pork. At least not the way I know of it from down South. This was pork chunks. Was kind of like eating Spam. Rattler’s was also there with a plentiful plate of ‘cue including chicken, tri-​tip and a roll. JamWest Foods had a plate of Jerk Chicken, Peas and Rice, Plantains and Meat Pies. Stone Fire Grill (which was barely noticeable) had an incredible Lemon Garlic Chicken dish along with Tri-​Tip. I took extra at the end of the expo to take home. It was that good and was the one place I now want to go to that I haven’t been to yet. Town Grind Café had some great Chicken Tortilla Soup and Salad along with an incredible Pumpkin Spice Cake and of course… coffee! Made you want to skip getting a cup of joe from Newhall Coffee’s booth since that was all you were going to get there. Skimpers? Dessert Alert gave you one dessert of your choice. So did Babette’s. Buca de Beppo offered small plates of pasta dishes and Salt Creek gave you a choice of three entrees including a Pastrami wrapped Salmon. Interesting. Una Mas offered Tamales and Quesadillas. That really disappointed me since I really did want to try some stuff from that place but the choices were so weak, I decided to pass. Garden Spot gave you a choice of a Chicken Salad or Wrap. Maui Wowi easily had the weakest choice of all with just a very tiny smoothie. I mean, it might as well have been a shot. That small. Actually you could’ve gotten shots of screwdrivers at RSVP Catering booths! As many as you wanted! No tickets necessary! They also had Mac N Cheese as well which I guess was what they offered for tickets but I didn’t see anyone take any. Catered Affairs offers a cold soup of some kind and a fruit tart. Again, they didn’t take tickets. Wolf Creek Brewing was there but since they didn’t bring beer, I didn’t go there. I also skipped Frankie’s of Melrose since they just had meatballs and none of their great sausages like they had at the Taste of Santa Clarita. Roast House had big pieces of Chicken Marsala, the Hyatt’s Vines Restaurant offered Grilled Lamb Salad and the new Embassy Suites had a variety of choices as well. Philly’s Best offered samples of Cheesesteaks but I skipped since I’ve had their stuff before and besides which, no Phillies getups to infuriate the Dodger Blue faithful?
Besides all this, there was also a bar from Vino 100 with Wine, Cheap Beer and Sodas. I skipped that and stuck with the coffee from Town Grind since it was really getting cold this October night.
The Expo itself has most of its’ booths going on during all this so you can shop around although unless you’re looking for a loan, a fitness package or new teeth, you might as well pass except for getting all the free candy.
I love Taste of Expo since it’s very affordable, you get to try a lot of places you likely have never been to and make a few new friendships as well. I’ll definitely be back again and again as long as I’m in the SCV.