TASTE OF TUCKER Returns to Main Street

TASTE OF TUCKER

Returns to Main Street

L.A. Dison

After the COVID pandemic forced many events to move online last year, one of Tucker’s most popular celebrations returns to Main Street this fall. Taste of Tucker is scheduled for Saturday, October 2, offering the best of local cuisine and musical entertainment to attendees hungry for socialization.

Founders Art and Karen Wood are excited to bring the event back to Main Street after last year’s turn as a virtual event. “We didn’t want to skip last year, as so many Main Street events did in 2020 because of COVID,” said Art. “But the 2020 virtual event raised only half the funds of the 2019 event, and did not offer as much support to the restaurants as we would have liked. We felt it was important to bring people back to Main Street this year, not just to remind people how diverse and firstrate Tucker cuisine is, but because people are ready to reconnect with their community.”

Art was born and raised in Tucker, a former Tucker High Tiger (class of 1992). Local residents know Art as “Tucker’s Mortgage Guy;” as the producing branch manager of Art Wood Mortgage Team of Goldwater Bank, for fifteen years he has helped thousands of people realize their dreams of home ownership. His office is on Main Street and he is an active member of both the Old Town Tucker Merchants Association (OTTMA) and the Tucker Business Association (TBA).

Both Art and his wife Karen have a long-term relationship with Tucker, and Taste of Tucker was a way to “give back” to a community that had given them so much. Founded in 2010, the original festival was held on the grounds of Tucker First United Methodist Church, and featured local

Christian bands while about 500 attendees enjoyed offerings from thirteen food vendors stationed along a side street near the church. By 2013, the event had outgrown the church campus, and was moved to Main Street and expanded to include a wider variety of food vendors and musical performers. That year, it attracted almost 4,000 attendees, and continued to grow in attendance until it topped 6,000 in 2019. Over the years, Taste of Tucker has raised over $100,000; when it moved online in 2020 due to COVID, for the first time the event saw a decrease in fundraising. The Woods are optimistic about 2021.

“Tucker has always fostered a wonderful sense of community, and people felt that loss during the last eighteen months,” said Art. “People are ready to get back out and see their neighbors and friends. Taste of Tucker has been successful in the past as a street fair, and we feel strongly that both attendance and fundraising will surpass 2020 levels with this year’s event.”

Funds raised by Taste of Tucker will benefit primarily Camp Kudzu, a non-profit offering camping and outdoor activities for families, children and teens living with type 1 diabetes. A portion of the proceeds will also support the Tucker community, through donations to OTTMA, which uses its funds for various downtown improvements, and NETWorks Cooperative Ministry, which addresses food and financial needs for residents of Tucker, Northlake and Embry Hills. Taste of Tucker will be on Main Street on Saturday, October 2 from 1:00 to 6:00 p.m. At press time, twenty-three restaurants have committed to the event but check the Taste of Tucker Facebook page for updated restaurant and music lists. Tickets are available for sale onsite day of the event, or for presale at eventbrite.com. (Search for Taste of Tucker 2021.)

These are the restaurants and sponsors participating

in Taste of Tucker as of press time.

Check the Taste of Tucker website (tasteoftucker.com) or on Facebook for an updated list of participants.

1910 Public House Bell Street Burritos Cherokee Rose BBQ Bar and Kitchen Chick fil A Tucker Station The Corner Cup Coffee Dairy Queen Ford’s BBQ Grecian Gyro Hot Betty’s Breakfast Bar Jimmy John’s Just Bakery The Local 7 MeatBallerz Magnolia Room Cafeteria Marlow’s Tavern Matthew’s Cafeteria Smoke Rise Country Club Sprig Restaurant Trinity Soup Kitchen Tucker Brewing Company Tucker Meat Market Uncle Maddio’s Pizza Village Burger

SPONSORS

Alpine Fresh Atlanta Magazine Cornerstone Team Realty Discover DeKalb Georgia United Credit Union Grecian Gyro KedPlasma Keller Williams Atlanta Partners Park Springs Polyglot Labs Pontoon Brewing Company RES Roger Orlando Smoke Rise Agents Team Tucker First United Methodist Church