Wilmette is home to roughly 27,000 residents and for every resident there’s a place they can go to get exactly what they want.

Taste of Wilmette is a tiny spectacle of how the town’s food world can cater to everyone’s tastes.

Wilmette held its twelfth annual Taste of Wilmette on Thursday, Oct. 17 hosting 15 culinary establishments and three local businesses. All establishments involved showcased the products that make them unique and it provided for a very exciting and bustling environment.

The culinary selection was diverse and made for a giant selection of foods to feast on. Valley Lodge and Backyard Barbeque Shop brought pulled pork sandwiches, Nothing Bundt Cakes and Gigi’s Cupcakes brought cupcakes and other pastries, Nick’s Neighborhood Grill brought bacon wrapped sushi, and the list goes on.

The food brought was delicious, authentic and indicative of what you can expect from a real dining experience. These stores and restaurants were the best that Wilmette’s “culinary district” had to offer.

This event actually does help business. Restaurant employees and owners at the event revealed that this event gives serious exposure and reels in a lot of business.

Business owners feel that this event is an effective way for residents to experience how unique the township’s small business offering really are.

“It really is great exposure,” Ryan Ulrich of Backyard Barbeque Shop said, “This is a great way for us to interact with customers and it shows the quality of food [our grills] can make”

Besides the fifteen food establishments at the event were three other small businesses and the Raise the Stage Fundraiser. The most visited booth of these was operated by A Center for Oriental Medicine, which came with free acupuncture samples.

Raise the Stage also received a fair amount of interest. The campaign handed out free custom cookies with their logo in frosting and handed out flyers to explain their mission of fundraising for the Hayes-McCausland Black Box Theatre.

One difference about this event from past years is the venue. This year, the event was held at the Kenilworth Club rather than the Wilmette Women’s Club as in past years. This is due to the fire that engulfed and destroyed the building last year.

“It’s here because of what happened to the Women’s Club last year,” Dave Zier of Zier’s Prime Meats said, “and even though it’s a shame what happened to the club, this place does have a better kitchen and is much easier to get to”

About the event, executive director of the Wilmette/Kenilworth Chamber of Commerce Nada Becker said “This event has been around for the past twelve years, we feel that it really highlights how incredible the business is in the township and the people that came still had a great time”

Everyone in attendance didn’t seem to think that much about the location and focused much more on the food and interacting with their community.

The general mood of the place was happy and lively and the event was just as big of a hit as it had been in previous years.

“Taste of Wilmette is always amazing exposure for business here and everyone who attends has a great time,” Becker said, “Not every town has [something unique like] three butcher shops and we really love to show that off.”