What is Taste of the West? Taste of the West is the West Metro Chamber of Commerce's annual food and beverage festival. The West Metro Chamber is the regional chamber of commerce for all of Jefferson County and the western Denver suburbs. At the event, we showcase restaurants, specialty food vendors, breweries, wineries, distilleries, caterers, bakeries, and more. We also offer business booths for non-food/drink businesses who would like to get in front of the 800+ attendees at the event. Business booths are limited to keep the focus on the food and beverage vendors.
The event is held indoors in a double arena venue, the Foothills Fieldhouse. Last year we had nearly 800 attendees and 70 food, beverage, and business vendors. We're looking to make it even larger this year!
Do I need to be a business based in Jefferson County to participate? Not at all! We love to showcase our Jeffco businesses but any businesses are welcome to participate.
What licensing is required? We're glad you asked! Jefferson County (from whom we get the event permit even though the venue address is Denver) does not recognize Denver County food licenses at food festivals and sampling events. That means food and beverage vendors cannot be licensed in Denver ONLY. You must also be licensed in one of the other major counties in the Denver Metro Area. Questions about this? Contact Event Planner Michelle Anamier
How much does it cost? There is no cost for food and beverage vendors to participate. You will need to provide around 750 "tastes" (1-2 oz. samples) of one or more of your products and provide 2-4 people to manage your booth. If you wish to provide more than one item, you do not necessarily need to provide 750 tastes of each item. One 6-foot table is provided to food and beverage vendors.
There is a charge for business booths - $500 for West Metro Chamber members or $900 for non-members, which includes a one-year membership in the chamber.
All Booths: Access to electricity if very limited and will be prioritized for food and drink vendors. If you absolutely must have electricity, please note that in the form when you sign up. You will need to bring your own power strips/extension cords (long ones).
Can non-food/beverage business vendors provide food or drinks for attendees? Unfortunately, no, unless you hold a liquor license or commercial food license in your business, you can only provide pre-packaged, commercially manufactured items (like individually wrapped Kellogs brand rice krispie treats or bags of pretzels that you'd buy at Costco). No alcohol may be distributed from business booths at all. This will get you kicked out of the event with no refund.
Am I able to cook food at the event? The Foothills Fieldhouse does not allow cooking inside the venue aside from basic warming, but this year we will have an outdoor cooking area where food vendors can grill, deep fry, smoke, etc. food on site to take in to your booth for sampling. Food trucks are also welcome! There will be no sampling directly from the outside cooking area however. All samples must be brought inside to your designated booth. Let us know if you need event volunteers to assist. PLEASE NOTE: There is no electrical access to the outside cooking area but you may bring your own generator.
Is there voting involved at the event? There is! We encourage attendees to vote for their favorites in 8 categories including Best Savory, Best Sweet, Best Spirit or Cocktail, and Best of the Best. We're upgrading our systems for this and will be investing in a new voting platform this year that will make it easier for folks to vote and monitor duplicate voting.
Does the event give out awards? We do! We present awards in each of 8 categories. The awards ceremony has taken place at the end of the event for several years, but this year we are moving it away from the actual Taste of the West event. We're doing this for a few reasons - 1) it gives you, the vendors, more time to engage with the attendees and your potential new customers which is the whole point of the event; 2) it gives attendees more time to vote - we can send out a reminder email to all attendees right after the event; 3) it gives us more time to determine the winners - if you've been a part of Taste before you know the end can get a little chaotic; and 4) it will allow us to do more to celebrate the winners with site visits, social media, etc.
We're still working on the logistics of how this will work - stay tuned!
