Rockville Centre St. Pat's Parade to host 'Taste of RVC' Jan. 28

The Rockville Centre St. Patrick’s Parade Committee will hold its 7th annual “Taste of Rockville Centre” this Friday, Jan. 28, from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the St. Agnes Parish Center, on North Village Avenue.

To date, 32 local restaurants and businesses have agreed to donate food, wine and beer to the event. Each restaurant’s food will be available for sampling at a six-foot linen-covered table with a distinctive sign. The participating restaurants and businesses include: Blue Moon, Cabo, Cannon’s Blackthorn, Churchill’s, CJ’s Coffee Shop, Croxley’s Ale House, Dark Horse Tavern, DeBono’s, Dodici, Fathead’s, Five Pennies Creamery, Front Street Bakery, Front Street Pizza, George Martin, George Martin’s Grillfire, Happy Hostess Caterers, The Healthy Kitchen, Kasey’s Kitchen & Cocktails, Kookaburra Coffee Company, Lola’s Kitchen and Wine Bar, MacArthur Park, Monaghan’s Irish Pub, Palace of Wong, Plaza Seafood, Prime Catch, R.J. Daniel’s, Sal’s Pizza, Stingers Irish Pub, Swingbellys Beachside BBQ, Village Liquor, Wander Inn and Wild Ginger.

Live music will be provided by Rockville Centre’s very own Jerry and the Newcomers and the Petri School of Dance students will perform Irish step dancing. The entrance fee for all of this is $30, and admission is available to all adults 21 and over.

“Last year we ended up with 28 participating restaurants, and we will have more this year,” said parade committee President Sean O’Rourke. “The Taste of Rockville Centre is not only a great opportunity to sample our local restaurants’ delicious cuisine, but it is one of our most important fund-raising events.”

The St. Patrick’s Parade, which is scheduled for Saturday, March 19 this year, has a mission to financially support three worthy charities. In its first 14 years, the parade has distributed over $662,000 to 42 separate charities. The proceeds from this year’s fundraising efforts will go toward the Nassau-Suffolk Chapter of the Autism Society of America (NSASA), the local charity, which is a parent-driven organization serving over 800 families on Long Island in coping with autism spectrum disorder.

The national charity is the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) that honors and empowers America’s injured service members and the Irish charity is Our Lady’s Children’s Hospital, in Crumlin, Dublin, which opened in November 1956 and has grown into Ireland’s largest pediatric teaching hospital with 248 beds and more than 1,500 staff members.

Two of the parade’s original founders, Joseph F. Kelly and Francis “Bud” Cosgrove, the co-grand marshals of the 15th annual parade, and representatives of the charities will be on hand to meet and greet Taste of RVC diners. To learn more about “The parade that cares and shares,” visit www.rvcstpatrick.com.