Tasting for a cause
By Ethan Smith
Published in News on October 12, 2015 1:46 PM
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Dorris Lewis, the mother of Carl Lewis, and Michelle Lewis of Carl & 'Chelle's, serve steak and cheesy potatoes at the Taste of Wayne on Sunday afternoon. Carl & 'Chelle's received the People's Choice Award.
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News-Argus/MELISSA KEY
Kaden Cornelison, 4, grabs a big bite of cake from Sugar Rush Bakery as she helps her mother, Kathy, of Carolina Pine Country Store judge
Several hundred people came out to Sunday's 25th annual Taste of Wayne County, and after more than two hours of tasting everything from twice baked mashed potatoes to coffee sweet potato puree, the winners were crowned.
Carl and 'Chelle's Grill Room won the People's Choice Award for the fourth time in the restaurant's four years of entering the event.
They fixed ribeye steak, ground ribeye hamburgers, twice baked mashed potatoes and steamed onions, causing a constant line of people that stretched from in front of the steps of city hall to the traffic circle on East Ash Street.
"We had a lot of people come that usually come to our restaurant, but I would say 60 percent of the people that came to our booth had never heard of us before," said Carl Lewis, the owner of Carl and 'Chelle's Grill Room. "We had a lot of people saying they would have to come out (to the restaurant) and see us."
And while the awards they took home were nice -- Carl and his wife, Michelle, also took home the Hometown Favorite Award -- Lewis said it was the immediate feedback the public provided that mattered most to him.
"We had people coming back through the line for seconds and thirds, and they would come back to tell us how good the food we were making was," Lewis said. "They were coming back and patting us on the back, and that's what really matters to us."
Lewis said being able to stand out among the rest of the competition -- which consisted of local favorites such as Ed's Southern Food and Spirits, Longhorn Steakhouse and JoJo's Bar and Bistro -- meant more to him than he could express.
"Ed and I eat at each other's restaurant all the time, and he's a good friend of mine," Lewis said. "I know a lot of people in town really like him, so it was a good feeling for us to win because so many people do love his food, as do I."
Sunday's competition marked exactly one year since food was first served out of the kitchen of Ed's Southern Food and Spirits, as the restaurant entered the Taste of Wayne in 2014 before the restaurant had officially opened.
The restaurant took third place in the People's Choice Award, and cleaned house in the categories scored by judges, taking home the Special Occasion Dinner Award and the Desserts Award.
They served a coffee sweet potato puree, pan-seared scallops, beer-braised collard greens, a succotash with butter beans, field peas, applewood smoked bacon goat cheese and candied pecan, tart Michigan cherry, a pan-seared pork belly and a vanilla bean creme brulee.
Austin Munno, a chef at Ed's Southern Food and Spirits who was preparing the food on Sunday, said the event went well even though the restaurant chose a more refined, slightly riskier fare to serve.
"Everyone was loving it," Munno said. "I feel like restaurants usually try and make food that has mass-appeal. We did something that was a little risky and unusual, but it came out really well. People were coming back for seconds and thirds."
Other vendors also took home plenty of awards in the categories restaurants could compete in on Sunday:
* First place, People's Choice Award -- Carl and 'Chelle's Grill Room.
* Second place, People's Choice Award -- Longhorn Steakhouse.
* Third place, People's Choice Award -- Ed's Southern Food and Spirits.
* Hometown Favorite Award -- Carl and 'Chelle's Grill Room.
* Special Occasion Dinner Award -- Ed's Southern Food and Spirits.
* Fast Food Award -- Zaxby's.
* Healthy Foods Award -- Great Harvest Bread Company.
* Breakfast, Breads and Pastries Award -- Sugar Rush Bakery.
* Desserts Award -- Ed's Southern Food and Spirits.
* Pizza Award -- Pizza Inn.
* Barbecue Award -- Haulin' Hog.