CARROLLWOOD — Everyone just keeps coming back for seconds.
And thirds, and fourths and so on.
At the Taste of Carrollwood, the 2026 edition held March 1 for the third year in a row at Carrollwood Village Park, the number of attendees had grown. It was obvious. Especially to Carrollwood Area Business Association president Lee Pierson, the emcee of the event who enjoyed the dozens of vendors on hand.
“It (was) just one of those years where you just knew it was going to pop,” said Pierson, who is in his first year of a three-year tenure as CABA president. “And I think it’s going to go over (past year’s numbers). We usually have a lot of people who filter through the park because the park is free. We can’t close off the park, so people that are here visiting a park are like, ‘what’s going on?’
“And that’s when they buy a ticket — well, wristband.”
CABA, celebrating its 40th year of helping local businesses promote and connect in Carrollwood, sold 2,047 wristbands for $5, a price that included unlimited food samples from the dozens of restaurants on hand. There were long lines for places such as Chicken Salad Chick, doughnuts from Everglazed and slices of pizza from New York, New York Pizza.
Other vendors, such as gyms and insurers, were on hand to pass out merchandise. Al though there were few interactive games, children were still able to use a cool down station, pose with Star Wars characters who were available and even enjoy a scavenger hunt.
Since returning to Carrollwood at the Village Park, Pierson said the event has been well attended, even from residents outside of Carrollwood, and that parking is never an issue.
“Each year we seem to get bigger and bigger now, especially since the restart (of Taste of Carrollwood),” Pierson added, referencing that the event went on hold during the height of COVID. “Parking has never been an issue, and the park people do a great job of parking them and keeping the park clean — not that we leave them a huge mess. … We’ve never had an issue running out of parking spots.”
Pierson wants the event to keep growing by adding additional CABA members to the nearly 400 that already exist and even expand Taste of Carrollwood.
“Maybe a biergarten — serving drinks or the vendors do,” Pierson said. “The people from Florida Avenue (Brewing Company) are here and checking it out, so maybe that would be the collaboration needed (for drinks), so we’ll get feedback and whatever makes sense, we’ll probably add it.”