Expose your taste buds

Residents can chow down on dozens of foods, and sip a variety of wines and beers at the annual Taste of Huntington Beach on Sunday. Bigger than ever this year, the Taste is ready to take things outside.

Now in its eighth year, the Taste has outgrown its home in the Hyatt Regency Huntington Beach Resort and Spa and moved outside to the Huntington Beach Sports Complex, where organizers say they have a lot more room for new events, as well as more booths for vendors and community groups. As always, 40 to 45 restaurants are expected to show, despite fewer having signed up so far, organizers said.

“We’re offering a few more activities above and beyond simply tasting and sampling the wine, especially since we’ll be outside and the weather will be perfect,” said Erika Reardon, who has headed the planning this year.

Also new this year is a people’s choice award, Reardon said. While a panel of judges has given out prizes like “Best Taste,” “Most Enthusiastic Table” and “Best Wine,” this year attendees get their own crack at the judging game.

“We’re actually allowing guests to choose their overall favorite,” she said. “Those are fabulous for bragging rights for restaurants, and it’s more incentive for some of us to get a little bit carried away.”

The Taste’s proceeds, as well as money from a silent auction at the event, go to charity. The main benefactor will be a group supporting the children’s wing of Huntington Beach Central Library, but some money will also go to Project Self-Sufficiency.

The event is the Friends of the Children’s Library’s main fundraiser of the year, said Gail Page, co-chairwoman of the group’s Taste of Huntington Beach Committee.

The money raised will buy $30,000 in books for kids, put on special events like the annual Author’s Festival, and upgrade things such as the library theater’s sound system.

“This is pretty much the only way that we do raise funds,” Page said.

Food vendors had their own reasons for supporting the Taste.

“For us, we get a lot of exposure,” said Ron Leuang, operating partner at King’s Fish House. “It’s a lot of people that honestly don’t even know we’re in town. They potentially may be new guests for us. We certainly see a lot of our normal guests there as well, and it’s nice for them to know we’re involved.”

That exposure is what Jennifer Ruffalo, who took over Arbor’s Restaurant in November, is looking for. She hopes the Taste will help people find out about the major revamp she’s pulled on an eatery she said was past its prime till she arrived.

“I want to give everybody a hint of what’s going on. I brought some new bands in, and we’re playing with the menu a little bit, but not too much for the regulars,” she said. “There’s a lot of changes going on right now.”