'Amazing We Pulled It Off.' Despite Hurdles, Taste of Seaport Returns.

Taste of the Seaport brought a big crowd to Pier 16, with ticket sales that an organizer called "strong." Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

The 11th annual Taste of the Seaport was about a lot more than food when it returned to Piers 16 and 17 on Saturday. For its parent organizers, the annual fundraiser for the Peck Slip and Spruce Street schools was also about the perseverance of planning in the face of the pandemic and its impact on the school communities.

Photos by Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

“It’s actually amazing that we pulled off the Taste this year,” the event’s co-chair for the second year and Spruce Street school parent, Doug Ganley, told the Trib in an email. Giving much of the credit to his co-chair, Katie Roumel, he said the obstacles were daunting, with planning having to start five months later than usual “and fewer people around to do the face-to-face work we needed, until the start of school.” He called the sales “strong, on par with the last event pre-covid, even though we did have to raise prices.”

“To have the response we did from the community, where at essentially the last minute the restaurants that have survived and are dealing with all of their business problems were still able to come out and serve up those fantastic tastes was inspiring,” Ganley said. He added that the sponsorship of the Howard Hughes Corp. and help from the South Street Seaport Museum added to the success.

“Without their support we’d be working much harder to do a much smaller event,” he said. 

And so the Taste went on, with 30 Downtown restaurants dishing out their cuisines and half-a-dozen beverage sponsors on hand. As usual, there were kids activities and live entertainment. Plus, there was just the simple pleasure of normalcy. “We had a big staff turnout, a huge family turnout and it's great to be in the community,” said Spruce Street School Principal Nancy Harris. “Everyone is so excited to see people without masks.”