After a three-year hiatus, Sandy Springs is planning to reboot a popular festival that provides tourists a taste of the city’s home cooking.
Sandy Springs City Councilwoman Dianne Fries said she is teaming up with the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, a nonprofit event organizer, to produce the Sandy Springs Food and Wine Classic on May 6.
The event picks up where the Taste of Sandy Springs left off in 2009. The event was cancelled in 2010 after major donors backed out. It was supposed to return in 2011, but didn’t.
The new event will be held on Sandy Springs Circle, Fries said. People who want to sample and sip at the 30 different tents will redeem purchased coupons or tickets. Fries said proceeds will benefit the Sandy Springs Police and Fire Departments.
The event will be a part of the Global Imports Sandy Springs Cycling Challenge, Fries said. The challenge is the final event of USA CRITS Speed Week, a series of cycling races around the Southeast.
“We put the race course right down the middle of the road,” Fries said. “The cyclists go around and around and around a block area, and on the outside we have the tents for the food and wine classic. Here’s the beautiful thing of it: The people here to watch the race have something to eat and drink and the people who come for the food and wine have something to watch.”
Gene Dixon, an event director for Swagger.us which is the series producer for Speed Week, said the Sandy Springs race is on the National Criterium Calendar, which attracts higher level riders to the city for the event.
Dixon said outdoor food tastings give the bike races a big-event flavor.
“The more things that are going on, the more of an experience it becomes,” Dixon said. “Bike racing is engaging, but it’s more engaging if you’re eating dinner and drinking wine.”
Randall Fox, vice president of the Atlanta Foundation for Public Spaces, said this year’s event will be more “high brow” than Taste of Sandy Springs.
“Taste of Sandy Springs was a big success, but unfortunately it wasn’t able to return,” Fox said. “It’s something that represents the caliber of the bike race as well as well as the caliber of Sandy Springs.”
Fox said that restaurant owners who want to be a part of the event should email him at Randall@affps.com or call 404-846-8185. Fries said she’s not ready to announce which restaurants will be participating and said she’s hearing from businesses that are interested.
“I think it’s these kinds of events that give you a sense of community and it gives people who are not from Sandy Springs an opportunity to experience some of the city firsthand so they’ll go back,” Fries said.
