Taste In Tempe

Unorganized and had a lack of details before the event, like how many drinks you get.

NOT worth the price and definitely won’t be going next year! Lines, lines, and more lines with incredibly long wait times, only to get a sip of cheap wine or beer. Several food vendors ran out of food more than an hour before 4pm. Limited tastes on alcohol which was not disclosed, unless you got a white wrist band instead of a green wrist band (shows the disorganization of the event). Although no possible way one could over-​consume because the lines were so long! Horrible!

Really, really, really wanted to ask for a refund and I think people deserve one! This event was just unacceptable at almost every level. Like other reviewers have expressed, it was greatly disorganized, the whole set up was a nightmare, unbelievably long lines, general foot traffic had to walk through the lines people were waiting in and on three different occasions when we finally got up to the booth or close, the food would be sold out, this happened by 2:30pm and the event was from 1−4pm. When we did get food, it was a very small portion, we actually waited in line for a slice of cucumber with a spoonful of hummus on it (I’m not kidding!) I did see some people with ribs and cole slaw that looked really good but the line for it was just laughable. Ok, on to the wines… omg, breaking the bank here with Beringer, Rex-​Goliath, and a couple of other low end grocery store picks. For $ 60 (the price of entry pre-​sale) we could have gone to BevMo and bought a bottle of Justin Isosceles. There’s not a lot I can say that was good about this event except that the weather was nice but as someone else pointed out it did get warm and very few areas with tables or shade. Super insulting and disappointing that they charged this much for this event.

I understand that with a first year event there are always kinks to work out. I certainly don’t expect everything to run smoothly. But REALLY!!! This event was a disaster from start to finish.
The parking was ridiculous. Attendees were directed to a dirt lot but if you were approaching from the west (as we were), getting into the lot was via green yield. Which meant that things backed up. At some point, we turned around and approached from the other direction which was slightly better. While waiting in the hellish line, one person went on ahead (on foot) to grab the will-​call tickets.
Eventually, we gave up and parked on 1^st street. Wish we’d done this from the beginning as there was tons of space and it was just a short walk.
In general, I avoid will-​call because it’s just one more line to stand in. But, this event gave us no other option. The will call lines were crazy long and I was thankful that we had the foresight to send someone ahead.
Upon getting our bracelets, we learned that there is a limit on alcohol samples — we had eight tickets with our bracelets. This was never disclosed pre-​event. Unlimited should mean unlimited.
The lines for samples were ridiculously long. To add insult to injury, some of the samples were just downright sad. And waiting in a very long line for two swallows of wine is just not my idea of a good time.
We happened to note that one restaurant (I forget which one) literally brought a small Weber grill. Did the organizers not give the restaurants a heads-​up on expected attendance or were these guys strangely optimistic? We’ll never know.
When all was said and done, the part that bothered us most of all was that we really didn’t feel like we got the value out of our tickets. If we’d each gone to a restaurant and spent $ 60, we would have had a really nice meal, a cocktail or two and not been cooking for two hours in the Arizona sun.
The event itself was only three hours long and if you «wasted» any event time on signing up for one of many giveaways, watching the band or the cooking demonstrations, or going to the bathroom, that’s time you’re not standing in line for the next morsel of food.
The Taste in Tempe is literally just that… a taste.

Talk about a learning curve. Yowzas. Boy do they have to fix this event.
a) parking was absolutely horrific. There were no attendants IN the lots other than when you first pulled in. So basically as you drove, you got to witness how stupid and rude the general public is (this is no surprise to me). People were parking with massive gaps between cars. NOt enough that even my small car could get into, but JUST enough that it looked like a spot but you can’t quite fit. Talk about wasted space. There were NO spots left because people are too dumb to know that in public events, you need to pull up closer to another car. Just as you would in a full parking lot. But again, most events of this size have people directing the parking situation because, well, people are dumb.
B) no instructions when you got there. I was lucky enough to have been give a VIP ticket. However, when we entered there was no signage. Nothing. We got a wristband, and were given a wine glass. So, we walked in. And had no idea what to ‘do’ next. Did we need to purchase drink tickets? Food tickets? Where were the tents to do so? Why did we have plain wristbands while others had green bands with pull off numbers attached? How did we get one for ourselves?
We walked back to the main entrance and asked. The man told us «well we ran out of green wristbands, so just go around and they will mark your bands. You get 8 pours and unlimited food»
Okay.
The good news, literally nobody marked our wristbands. He he he. Lines were a little long, but they moved relatively quickly. To my knowledge there were no handouts stating what booths were where. Which booths had wine, beer, liquor?
It was a little unorganized to say the least. I went for free, but if I had paid; I’d be really peeved.

I was excited to see Tempe hosting this event, Scottsdale and Phoenix have theirs but they lack the personality potential of a Tempe event. Needless to say, I was terribly disappointed in their first time showing.
To start, parking was an absolute nightmare because of one hired guy who kept holding up all cars onto rio salado parkway at the hardy light. Several people complained about him and he was eventually replaced, but people were sitting in their cars just to get into the lot for over 20 minutes.
Once inside, it was chaos again. There was no clear lines for will call, purchasing, or already had tickets. And then, they actually ran out of the wristbands for the event, which is important because you were only given 8 tastes of alcohol and the ticket was on your wristband. By the way, I never saw on the site that your drinks would be limited. 8 tastes is enough, but transparency is always best.
Water was scarce. I was more than wiling to actually buy a bottle of water, but no one was selling, and it was hot! Finally, they brought in free bottles and dumped them in a plastic tub with some ice.
The food was great and there was plenty of options, but the lines were way to long, and tempers were flaring. Did they underestimate how many would attend or just space the tents poorly? Additionally, several food vendors ran out of food by 2:45! I paid 60.00 and would have liked to actually get my money’s worth.
Anyway, I could go on, but I think I’ve clearly made my opinion that this event was not very good. If they host another, I hope they plan better. Everyone I spoke to was pretty disappointed.

I concur with everyone else…
I understand that this is the first year of this event so I wasn’t expecting things to run 100% perfect. But it was pretty bad start to finish.
Parking, indeed was a nightmare. After
waiting in line forever to get into the lot, we finally bailed and turned around and parked at the lot by Tempe Town Lake about ½ mile away, and just walked to the arts center.
We finally get to the arts center and see a huge line. My sister still needed to buy a ticket but we didn’t know where to go. Random people passing out wristbands, people just standing around not knowing where to go. It was total chaos.
Once we get into the event, you have to wait in line after line forever. In the 3 hours we were there, I only got to try a fish taco from Rubios, a small square of pizza from Mellow mushroom, which took extra long because they had run out of pizza. Tomato soup from Lodge but they ran out of the grilled cheese that was supposed to accompany it.
Drinks I only had a sample of (not so great) wine and a beer (they were pretty stingy with the beer pour and my husband made a comment about that). There were a lot of options at the event, but the length of the lines combined with the short event time, made it virtually impossible to try even a fraction of what was there. I didn’t even get to see any of the demonstrations or entertainment because 99% of my time was spent in line. No way in hell you are getting your money’s worth.
It was particularly hot today and there was no water to be found anywhere. It’s not really foreseeable that it would be close to 80 degrees in Feb, but you do have people drinking alcohol in the sun all afternoon. Water should have been readily available.
I don’t get how this event was so poorly executed? It’s a ticketed event so they knew exactly how many people would be in attendance.

Granted, this was the first annual… but if this becomes an annual event… they have ALOT to work on for improvements.
Like the first reviewer said, the will call/​pre-​purchased/​purchase on site was a complete debacle. we bought tickets on-​line but had to wait for about 15 minutes at will-​call then were told to go stand in another line for 10 minutes… disorganized!
luckily we got in just before 1pm and good thing we did. by 2pm, the lines for the food and drinks were horrendously long. speaking of the drinks… what a complete and utter cluster… we got 8 pours included on our tickets. and they were the absolute measliest, tiniest, weakest pours i have ever had. i mean SIPS! each time i got a pour, i just couldn’t believe how sad the pours were. i wasn’t the only one… i overheard many, many people complain about how lame the pours were. at Devoured, for 75 bucks, you get all the alcohol you can possibly drink… and you don’t have to wait in line for 15 minutes per drink!
now the food… albeit i’m sure it sufficed for most people, we were under the impression that there would be more options for non-​meat eaters… wrong again. this event is great if you love pork. with the unoriginal presentations of numerous pork tacos or sliders… well then, i guess the creative talents of tempe’s restaurants have much to be desired if all they can come up with is several versions of pork sliders or pork tacos. but if you don’t eat meat… well, you can get your fill of hummus. and poor mellow mushroom «we’ll have more pizza in 5 minutes», «we’ll have more pizza in 10 minutes»…
truly beautiful venue and all the radio stations hosting were fun. the weather was perfect and the atmosphere was great at first… until people started to realize that by standing in one too many lines for that long, there was no way they were getting their money’s worth of 50 bucks.
lot to work on Tempe…