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The exterior of Pizza Ponte is located on a bustling block with other restaurants in the Temescal neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., seen on Feb. 24, 2025.<\/p>\n
Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGATE<\/p>\n
When it first started\u00a0in 2009, Oakland\u2019s Taste of Temescal<\/a> was a small neighborhood food crawl<\/a>, with ticket sales benefiting local schools and nonprofits like the Women\u2019s Cancer Resource Center of Berkeley. Seventeen years later, the event, which showcases some of the city\u2019s most highly acclaimed restaurants<\/a>, has expanded to include nearly 50 different businesses<\/a>, with a trolley ferrying ticket holders down Telegraph Avenue.\u00a0<\/p>\n But perhaps the biggest change is that the event no longer benefits local schools. Instead, proceeds from the $60 tickets now go to the\u00a0Telegraph Temescal District Association, the nonprofit business improvement district that runs the event\u00a0\u2014 a fact of which multiple local businesses say they were not aware until recently.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Tory Wentworth, the owner of popular ice cream shop Curbside Creamery, has participated in Taste of Temescal for over a decade. But when he noticed that something was different about the event that took place on April 29 this year, he took to Instagram<\/a> to share.<\/p>\n \u201cWe won’t be participating in Taste of\u00a0Temescal going forward. In fact, I regret participating this year, and I want to explain why,\u201d the nine-slide post from Curbside began, which now has over 3,000 likes.<\/p>\n Wentworth told SFGATE that while businesses like Curbside lose money on the samples they hand out to ticket holders at the event, he was always happy to participate, since the money went toward a charitable cause he believed in.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Taste of Temescal returned in 2025 after a hiatus, he said in the Instagram post Wednesday, he noticed that no volunteers came by the creamery\u2019s booth to help like they had in previous years. When he used the signup form to ask for a volunteer\u2019s help this year, and emailed to complain about passes being oversold, he said no one responded.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s when I got a sinking feeling, realizing that I had been trusting that this was the event I thought I knew without looking closer,\u201d he wrote in the Instagram post.<\/p>\n This year, Wentworth said, Curbside had only been prepared for the suggested 400 samples, and employees were left to deal with hundreds of disappointed pass holders after they ran out early (Daniel Swafford, executive director of the Temescal Telegraph Business Improvement District,\u00a0told SFGATE that it sold approximately 600 tickets this year, as the organization didn\u2019t expect every ticket holder to make it to every booth).<\/p>\n Temescal Alley, where Curbside Creamery is located, on Monday, July 24, 2017, in Oakland, Calif.\u00a0<\/p>\n S.F Chronicle\/Getty Images<\/p>\n Sensing something was different, Wentworth looked back at previous emails\u00a0\u2014 and noticed that the fundraiser now benefited the business district, rather than local schools like it usually had. He said he felt like he\u2019d been tricked for not \u201creading the fine print.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way they didn\u2019t know that if they had come to us individually and been like, \u2018Hey, would you still donate all this if it\u2019s going to the BID instead of the schools? \u2019 We would be like, \u2018No,\u2019\u201d Wentworth told SFGATE by phone Wednesday.<\/p>\n Swafford\u00a0told SFGATE that while Taste of Temescal no longer benefits local schools, proceeds from the event now fund free family-friendly events like the Annual Temescal Street Fair and Halloween Trick or Treat, as well as neighborhood beautification projects and safety initiatives. The final Taste of Temescal event to benefit schools was in 2022<\/a>. Swafford started his role as administrative director in 2024.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere was a long gap in having the Taste, starting because of the pandemic,\u201d Swafford said. \u201cAnd rekindling the school involvement was also very difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When the event returned from its hiatus in 2025, he said, the organization clearly communicated that Taste of Temescal now benefited the business district.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an opportunity to put money where the district really is responsible for putting the focus of our charitable work in the community and support of the small businesses,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s been communicated clearly from the very beginning, in all of the messages.\u201d<\/p>\n Wentworth never saw it. In a comment on his post, the Temescal District wrote, \u201cWe regret that you didn’t feel fully informed about the event’s intention and fundraising goals.\u201d The reply gave details of supported events, and added, \u201cIn 2025, using feedback from many district businesses, the Temescal board wanted an event that better showcased our district and its wonderful small businesses while helping mitigate the pandemic’s negative effects. \u201c<\/p>\n An email obtained by SFGATE inviting merchants to participant in the 2025 Taste of Temescal event said it supported the \u201cTemescal Street Fair, 40th Street Block Party, Halloween, the District public safety program and more,\u201d while an email inviting merchants to participate in the 2026 event obtained by SFGATE said \u201cProceeds benefit The Telegraph Temescal District Association as we work to keep the district thriving.\u201d Event pages for both<\/a> events<\/a> contained similar disclosures.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n However, for businesses like Curbside that had known the event as a fundraiser for schools for over a decade, that update managed to slip right by them. Tana Howard, the owner of Halloween-themed bar the Avenue, also told SFGATE that she wasn\u2019t aware until now that the Taste of Temescal no longer benefited schools. The bar has been participating in the food crawl since around 2010.<\/p>\n The Avenue, a Halloween-themed bar in the Temescal neighborhood of Oakland, Calif.<\/p>\n Douglas Zimmerman\/SFGate.com<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not participate in the event again unless it is a charity event; unless it supports Oakland public schools like it used to,\u201d Howard told SFGATE by phone Thursday. \u201cAnd we\u2019re disappointed that it hasn\u2019t been. Because at that point, when it\u2019s not a charity event, we\u2019re just giving away beer.\u201d<\/p>\n Other merchants that participated in the 2026 Taste of Temescal, including FOB Kitchen, Temescal Brewing and Taqueria La\u00a0Venganza, also shared with SFGATE that they had not been aware of the change until seeing Wentworth\u2019s Instagram post. \u201cShame on @temescaloakland this is why we never participate,\u201d read a comment from Temescal restaurant Burdell on the post.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t aware, I thought it went to school[s] like it always has for years,\u201d a representative of FOB Kitchen told SFGATE via email Thursday.<\/p>\n Temescal Brewing owner Brandon B\u00f6rgel also told SFGATE that he wasn\u2019t aware that Taste of Temescal now benefited the business improvement district until seeing Curbside Creamery\u2019s post.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is disappointing, because hosting the event for such a large crowd requires a pretty big donation of beer and staff on our part,\u201d he wrote in an email. \u201cWe’re stoked to do it as long as it goes to a good cause, but we agree the proceeds should not go to the BID.\u201d<\/p>\n Howard said the Avenue spent $1,400 on the Taste of Temescal this year; Wentworth estimated Curbside Creamery spent around $1,000.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Wentworth said that since so many business owners were confused, he believes the business district should have been more up-front about the change.<\/p>\n \u201cHonestly, they should have just made an entirely new event,\u201d he said. \u201cAt the very least, when I went to that sign-up form, there should have been a huge banner that was like, \u2018Just so you know, we had a structural change and this event is no longer a school benefit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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