It was a perfect day for tasting the Grove with friends

The beautiful weather brought all the beautiful people out to the Great Taste of the Grove and Jazz Festival today. As you can see, it was packed.

This year they had large tents set up and people enjoyed being in the shade while they sampled all the great food the Grove has to offer.


The staff from Cita's Italian Chophouse (left) had everything Italian from meatballs to lasagna and they even had large delicious scallops wrapped in bacon. One of my favorites. To the right are Chris, in brown and Bryan in black from the Sonesta, flanking Daniel from Focaccia.


There was lots of music, some of the best came from the Arts and Minds School, from right here in the Grove. That's Jan and Eddie, up on the stage. Lucila, Andres and Esther (center) were manning the Sweet Art by Lucila booth, which had delicous desserts. Later on we saw people walking in the Center Grove with trays of them, bringing them back to various stores and things to share.


There was all sorts of food, for every taste. From Atchana's spicy tuna on wontons, to ribs, chicken, pork, basically everthing. And all high quality food. We did overhear one group who said they wanted "real food" and they were heading to the Cheesecake Factory. I guess they didn't get that it was "a taste" of the Grove and full meals were not served.


The closest thing to a meal was at Monty's, who served up stone crabs for $3.00 per claw with other fixin's. That's Jaya serving up some.

The Great Taste of the Grove is over at 7 tonight and starts up again tomorrow at 11 am. The weather should be the same as today and if you're into good food, good music and good friends, it's the place to spend the day.

The food vendors are listed here. The music line up is here.