Saturday, February 22, marked the fourth annual Taste of the Kenai Event and packed the Sterling Community Center.
Executive Director of the Event, Shannon Hamrick, said there were worries that having it in Sterling would decrease attendance but it sold out again this year with 300 tickets.
Hamrick: “We were really excited that we were able to grow the event to 300, have more vendors than we’ve ever had and it seems like everybody had a really great time.”
There were 19 venues at the event, 3 raffles, over 40 door prizes, 16 gift certificates that had been donated by local restaurants given away and over 60 silent auction items.
During the evening people cast votes for Best Entree, Best Drink, and Best Dessert.
The Chart Room Restaurant’s Chef Billy Brownlee of Homer won the Best Entree for elk meatloaf, with potato pancake and mushroom cream sauce.
Brownlee: “I’ve been there not quite two years yet and the Elk meatloaf was one of the first things that I put on the menu there and we seem to get a great response from it, people really like it.”
Andrea Bock of Cakealicious won the Best Dessert for the second year in a row and Felicia Keith-Jones of High Mark Distillery in Sterling won the Best Drink also for the second year in a row.
