Food and Fun Combine at the Taste of Cranberry

Local residents flooded the Cranberry Township Municipal Building Wednesday night to get a Taste of the Chamber in Cranberry.

The event featured 17 area restaurants and 15 business vendors.

"It's always a fun event," said Debbie Crum, Director of Business Development of the Pittsburgh North Regional Chamber of Commerce. "Everyone looks forward to it. A lot of the same crowd shows up every year because they anticipate it."

A variety of tasty bite-size morsels were available to consume, including baked potato soup from Longhorn Steakhouse, pulled pork sandwiches from Double Wide Grill, spicy queso nachos from Moe's Southwest Grill and cookies, bear claws and orange scones from Panera Bread.

Each restaurant presented a sampling of some of their most popular dishes, which veterans dealt with by bringing their own serving trays from home.

"I'm glad I did because I had a lot of little stuff," said Michelle Eckart of Cranberry. This was her second year at the event. "I wouldn't have been able to hold the cupcake and the smoothie and the food."

Ross Ciccone has been a server for Bravo! Cucina Italiana for three years. While the crowd was impressive to him, the number of vendors was not.

"It seems like there's more people this year but less businesses," said Ciccone. "It's always a good time, but it just seems like there's less businesses."

As a final spurt of good luck, the rainy downpour that plagued the area earlier in the day cleared up just in time for the event, allowing attendees to relax outside while savoring their selections.