Beer Distribution News
CITY Beverage-Chicago Exclusive Supplier to Annual Festival
Bringing Chicago Traditions Together: Budweiser and the Taste of Chicago
July 25, 2007, Chicago, IL – In just ten days, Taste of Chicago festival goers consumed 127,360 ears of corn, 165,000 lbs of turkey legs, 293,600 slices of pizza – and more than 430,000 glasses of Bud, Bud Light and Bud Select supplied by CITY Beverage-Chicago (CBC).
“The Taste of Chicago is one of the city’s signature events and the Midwest’s largest food festival, drawing people from throughout the community and beyond,” explains CBC General Manager Mike Flynn. “Anheuser-Busch is honored to have been the festival’s exclusive beer vendor for the past five years.”
The Mayor’s Office estimates that the 27th annual event drew 3.6 million people to downtown Chicago’s Grant Park between June 29 and July 8, 2007. This staggering crowd sampled over 300 menu items from more than 70 restaurants. Ticket sales for 2007 surpassed all previous year’s on-site sales.
In the spirit of the festival, CBC also distributed a “taste” of a more unique item – Bacardi’s Mojito. The crowd embraced the new flavor, purchasing more than 48,000 12oz cans of the beverage.
While enjoying the culinary experiences, participants were also treated to free concerts from musical headliners, including John Mayer, Cheap Trick, Kenny Rogers and The Black Crowes. A July 3rd fireworks extravaganza, with accompaniment from the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, awed more than one million spectators.
“Even with extensive previous experience to draw upon, coordinating efforts for this enormous event is always a challenge. CBC and the millions of festival attendees applaud Draught Quality Manager Joe Lombardo and his team for working day and night to ensure the event was a resounding success.”
CITY Beverage-Chicago is an affiliate of Soave Enterprises, L.L.C., www.soave.com. Soave Enterprises is a diversified management and investment company founded by Detroit businessman Anthony L. Soave that provides strategic planning, financial and other management resources to its affiliated business ventures in the real estate, automotive retailing, beer distribution, scrap metal, industrial services and transportation industries, among others. Recently, Forbes Magazine ranked Soave Enterprises as the 192nd largest privately held company in the United States.
