Taste of East Moline happening May 18 at The Rust Belt

EAST MOLINE, Ill. (KWQC) - Taste of East Moline is returning this week to the Rust Belt.

Different QCA restaurant and business owners will have some of their signature dishes on showcase to sample.

Business owners say they’re looking forward to showing off what they have to offer at the event.

“We have a new wrap that we created this past week,” Michele Dorbeck, Owner of the Revive Cafe said. “It is called the chicken bacon ranch, which everybody’s familiar with that and they love chicken bacon ranch.”

Dorbeck is one of many restaurant staff members getting ready for the Taste of East Moline, she sees it as a great opportunity for people to get familiar with her business.

“It really helps everyone to know more about Revive,” Dorbeck said. “And we have this gorgeous patio that everyone can sit on outside and we play music and then we have a small area that people can sit on, on the inside of Revive so there’s lots of opportunities to come up and support Revive.”

Owner and operator of Cattlemen’s Meat Market, Dan Haskins says one of their best sellers will be on the sample platter and they hope that will lead to more customers.

“We’re gonna sample out our beef jerky,” Haskins said. “That’s one of our best sellers. We smoke it three or four times a week, it’s like I said, it’s a good product and we can’t really sample raw meat of course so, you know, but we’re known for our jerky.”

“We’re hoping that it’s going to be a success,” Haskins said. “It was last year, from what I understand so, hopefully, like I said, if, especially new people, we want the new people to come in and try it, then nine times out of 10 they’ll come down.”

Food and fellow community members, a combination these business owners hope lead to a successful event.

“East Moline is a great community and I love how people come out to support, support the businesses but also get together and just really enjoy being together in meeting new people.” Dorbeck said.

The event will take place at The Rust Belt May 18 from 5:30 until 8:00 pm. Along with the food, there will be other events including a silent auction.

The Taste of East Moline was held for the first time last year to support the grant-making efforts of the East Moline Community Fund.

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