Taste of Ocean Springs tickets on sale now, will go fast

The event is under the oaks at the L&N Depot at the entrance to downtown — the Taste of Ocean Springs Food & Wine Festival.

More than 20 restaurants bring their creations for sampling. People get dressed up for this, even though it’s outdoors.

Tickets just went on sale and are going fast, as always — $50 at the Chamber of Commerce office, 1000 Washington Avenue (in the Depot) or with Chamber board members, while supplies last.

Only 500 will be sold.

The festival will be 6 to 8:30 p.m. May 11.

What you get is a chance to try it all: The best of what Ocean Springs restaurants — the Coast’s dining Mecca — have to offer.

Mayor Connie Moran said she went back to the Vestige table seven times last year for the shrimp in butter sauce. It won the People’s Choice Award.

Attire ranges from business casual to dressy.

“It’s not formal,” said Chamber Executive Director Cynthia Dobbs Sutton, but it’s dressy for Ocean Springs. “We partner with our local retail shops and ask them to decorate their windows with clothing in black, white and red so as people buy their tickets, they see the options of where they can buy their outfit for the event.”

Black, white and red are the colors the Chamber came up with when it started the festival nine years ago.

Red doesn’t symbolize anything special, Sutton said. It’s just part of the elegant color theme and has been from the beginning.

Now it’s part of the brand.

The idea was to come up with a color theme that is “fun and elegant, and red, black and white stuck.”

The restaurants set up in the parking lot of the depot with samples of their best.

Music this year will be by Caution Swing Bridge.

For details, call the Ocean Springs Chamber of Commerce – Main Street – Tourism Bureau at 875-4424 or log on to oceanspringschamber.com/taste.

This story was originally published April 12, 2017 at 9:58 AM with the headline "Taste of Ocean Springs tickets on sale now, will go fast."