Taste of Balboa Island brings flavors outdoors

Bill Longfield wasn’t sure a food-tasting event on an island would work.

The Balboa Island Improvement Assn., where Longfield is a board member, had for years hosted an outdoor dinner in its namesake neighborhood, but as the event got more popular — especially when they invited food trucks a few years ago — local restaurants worried they were losing a vital night of summer business.

So the improvement association invited a handful of neighborhood restaurants to bring the foodie movement down to the individual block.

In a tiny park a short walk from the island’s main drag Saturday night, they set up food booths and about a dozen tables for the second year in a row.

They handed out dishes like prime rib sliders and ahi tuna bites with wasabi sauce for Taste of Balboa Island

“Balboa Island is Mayberry,” said Sheri Drewry, the owner of Wilma’s Patio, a restaurant that has served meals on the island for more than 30 years.

Taste of Balboa Island has intensified that small-town feel, Longfield said.

Before converting it to a restaurant-centric event, about half the attendees at the association’s dinners were tourists, he said.

Now that they pushed Taste of Balboa Island a week back into September, it’s almost all locals.

Longfield had worried that later event would stifle turnout, but at the inaugural tasting hundreds of neighbors showed up — enough for the association to make a couple of thousand dollars off a silent auction where they’d only hoped to break even.

“Last year we were shocked,” he said.

Saturday, Longfield knew what to expect as diners started flooding the small park by about 5 p.m,. where they stuck on name tags and started chatting with old friends.