Suzi Youngberg, president of the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about upcoming events.
Taste the Keys is a big event for our area and began on October 1.
Youngberg said, “Last night, we had our second of two trolley tours we’re doing this month, and it was another smashing success. Everyone had a great time. We tasted some incredible food, had some good paired cocktails. A lovely night. The weather was just perfect last night. Taste the Keys is going really well. We’re about halfway through. We have about 20 restaurants participating in the Upper Keys offering special prefix menus at a special price, so it’s a great chance for people to try some of these restaurants, maybe they haven’t tried yet, maybe try a dish you haven’t experienced yet at one of these restaurants.”
The signature showdown is also underway.
Youngberg said, “Of the restaurants who are participating in the Taste the Keys, most of them have offered up a signature showdown dish. So it’s sort of in the spirit, the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce for many years, hosted a cook off where different restaurants and even amateurs would come and cook on site, and people would judge their offerings. But we decided this year, in the spirit of Taste the Keys, the purpose of this, the idea behind it is to drive business into our restaurants during this slow month. So instead of having an event where we draw people away from the restaurants, we decided to sort of change the flavor, if you will, of the cook off and make it a virtual competition. So as people go in and experience these restaurants and try these special menus, we encourage them to try the signature showdown dish, and then you can vote right there online at tastethekeys.com for your favorite showdown dish. Then somewhere about a couple of weeks into November, we will announce the winner, and we have a great award we’re going to be giving them, and they’ll have the prestige of being the winner of the first signature showdown dish.”
Some of the restaurants are offering items that they might not ordinarily have on the menu.
Youngberg said, “I’m already hearing from the restaurants that people are coming in and requesting the tasting menu. So we know the word is getting around. We’ve done quite a bit of advertising in Monroe County and out of the county. Thanks to our wonderful Tourist Development Council who provided some funds for us to promote this event. We’ve had billboards, digital billboards, up in the Miami and Broward area, lots of advertising up that way. So we really think it’s working that we’re drawing people in. As we know, traffic has already started to pick up in the Upper Keys as people are heading down to the great festival in Key West that’s starting up, Fantasy Fest. The idea is, we want to maybe give some of those people as they’re driving through the Upper Keys, give them something to do on their way to Fantasy Fest. So we’re encouraging our visitors to stop in, try some of these restaurants with the Taste the Keys on their way down or back from Fantasy Fest.”
There is a wide variety of offerings in Taste the Keys.
Youngberg said, “This year, it really is mostly the Upper Keys, from Key Largo to Tavernier. The plan for Taste the Keys, our vision, along with our Tourist Development Council, is to eventually make this a Keys’ wide event. We really want to promote all of our restaurants. We have so much good food in the Florida Keys. So I think each year we’ll probably move a little bit further south, get some more restaurants involved, and see where we can go with this. We really want to make the Florida Keys known as a foodie mecca and bring people here for that. We rolled it out with a soft opening last year. We did one foodie trolley tour last year and teased the idea to a lot of our restaurants. So this is really the first year we’ve rolled it out fully with all of the participating restaurants. But we were fortunate enough to have enough of our restaurants participating that we did two trolley tours this year. We did one a couple of weeks ago, and, like I said, one last night. We hope to continue that next year, maybe with even more. So I think the word’s getting out. People are having fun. When it ended last night, I think half of the trolley was like, oh, I can’t believe it’s over. We’ve had so much. That’s always what you want to hear.”
There are more and more opportunities presented by the Key Largo Chamber of Commerce.
Youngberg said, “We have already started to see an uptick in the number of visitors stopping in. We are, of course, right up at mile marker 106 at the top, at the entrance to the Keys. So we do get a lot of people stopping right as they get into the Florida Keys wanting to know what there is to do. So we are happy to give them information and recommendations all the way from Key Largo to Key West. It’s nice to see those numbers picking back up. Our businesses will start to get a little busier, and everything will be better here for the season.”
Members in Motion will be coming up.
Youngberg said it “is the fourth Thursday of the month. So that’ll be next Thursday, the 23rd. We will be at Dolphin Life, which is the former dolphins plus marine mammal responders. They’ve had a rebranding now. They’re now Dolphin Life. They are in Key Largo back by the Key Largo fisheries. So it should be a lovely night back there, getting to see the great work that they’re doing, and hearing about their mission. I’m sure there’ll be some good food and drinks as well, and lots of networking and good camaraderie. So we hope people join us for that.” Yeah,
For more information, click here: https://www.keylargochamber.org/