Enlarge Chris and Jeff Weiss (center) prepare to dig in at Ben Thanh restaurant during Taste of the World.

Posted: October 8th, 2011 Greg Lacour

At Foskoskies, a delightful neighborhood restaurant practically hidden on Shamrock Drive, the diners emerged from the bus, entered and sat at tables covered with white paper, the better to doodle with the provided crayons. The food came. The exclamations of praise commenced.

“This is really good. Wow.”

“The chicken is delicious.”

“So’s the broccoli casserole.”

“The crab cakes, too.”

“Everything’s good, isn’t it?”

It was time, once again, for Taste of the World, the ninth annual showcase of East Charlotte’s extensive roster of international restaurants, from Peruvian to Somalian, from Vietnamese to Serbian.

Eastland Area Strategies Team, an east side community advocacy organization, founded and organized it; Crossroads Charlotte is its presenting sponsor, running a parallel initiative called Xchange Tastes that encourages people on the restaurant circuit to get to know each other and the owners and staff of the restaurants they visit.

This year, 24 east side restaurants signed up to host diners. Taste of the World works like this: People buy tickets to the event and gather at The VanLandingham Estate in Plaza Midwood. They board buses, each with a different route that includes three restaurants. Each eatery serves a small sampling of its food. Once properly stuffed, participants ride back to the estate for coffee and dessert, which renders them unconscious.

“It’s great. I love meeting all kinds of different people, that’s the best part,” said Chris Weiss, a Dilworth resident and first-time partaker of TOTW who said she and her husband, Jeff, are always looking for new restaurants to try. “Tonight I’ve eaten at three restaurants I’ve never been to before. I thought we were adventurous. I guess not.”

She and Jeff were digging into the lemongrass chicken and shrimp spring rolls at Ben Thanh, a Vietnamese restaurant on Central Avenue. It was the third stop for Bus 12, after the Landmark Diner (moussaka, cheese and spinach pies, Greek salad) and Foskoskies (honey-glazed chicken, broccoli casserole, crab cake, rice pilaf). No one was complaining.

“We’re just trying to take a more active role in the community and make connections in the neighborhood,” said Foskoskies owner Walter Rushton, whose restaurant was another first-time participant. “Everything seems to be working out. I’m not sure where everyone’s coming from, but it’s great.”

The event helps not only restaurant owners and diners but the east side, a part of town that’s taken hit after hit over the last 20 years. It once was Charlotte’s retail corridor, extending out from once-thriving Eastland Mall. Now the mall’s closed, the shops have moved, and the east side is trying to redefine itself. The process continues, and Taste of the World is part of the reinvention.

“We literally live around the corner, and it’s just a really neat event for East Charlotte,” said Galen Bolin, attending his fourth TOTW. “We like the fact that people from other parts of town will come to East Charlotte.”

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