The Grand Taste at Klyde Warren Park

Klyde Warren Park is one of my favorite places in the city. It's a beautiful park nestled right over a highway amongst towering buildings. The juxtaposition of the park amid the bustling city life is pretty mesmerizing. I've attended an assortment of events at Klyde Warren from free springtime concerts, arts festivals, workout bootcamps and more. I also stroll over with the pups often.

Klyde Warren Park was created to be a free gathering place for every socioeconomic group, generation, and background. The 5+ acre park is privately funded and relies on contributions from donors. The park sees more than one million guests per year. They have beautiful walkways and arches, stages, incredible children's play areas, dog parks, a bar and restaurant and more. They only have one fundraising event per year - Park & Palate. They kick off the event with a beautifully elegant dinner in the park under the stars and a few weeks later they host the Grand Taste on a Saturday afternoon.

The Grand Taste is a tasting dream of over 40 of Dallas' restaurants, pit masters and chefs. There are also over 30 wine, spirit and brewery brands. There is great live music, fun Texas-sized lawn games and more to enjoy all afternoon.

Despite the weather the day before, it ended up being the most beautiful October Dallas day. The sun was shining, it was in the 70s, the music was perfect and there was more food and alcohol than you'd ever need. Laughing with friends, eating all of the yummy food and sipping on an assortment of drinks was perfect.

During the event there were an assortment of brands that were new to me that I had never tasted or drank and there were some of my favorite Dallas brands as well. Some of the new brands I enjoyed were Nue Vodka, Pegasus City Brewery, Luscher's Quality Meats, Trapiche Medalla, Campo Viejo, Becker Vineyards, Miriam Cocina Latina, and Savor. Some of my Dallas favorites that didn't disappoint and were there included Fearings, Tulum, Billy Can Can, and Imoto.

Luscher's Quality Meats has a very friendly owner and their smoked sausage with mustard had me going back for more. Billy Can Can's famous chili was incredible as always. I immediately loved the welcoming and super friendly chef Miriam of Miriam Cocina Latina. Not to mention, every bit of food they served was to die for. The Fearings desert was a sort of ganache topped with bourbon popcorn and I couldn't stop eating it.

As an avid and competitive corn hole player, the Texas-sized corn hole proved to be very difficult. The boards were huge, as were the bags. It resembled more of a shot-put event than corn hole but it provided some pretty great entertainment. The Texas-sized beer pong on the other hand was fantastic and more like a mini basketball game.