St. Patrick’s Parade Food and Wine Tasting is Jan. 23

The Rockville Centre St. Patrick’s Parade Committee has announced that its 11th Annual Food and Wine Tasting will take place this Friday from 7 to 10 p.m. at the St. Agnes Parish Center, located on North Village Avenue in Rockville Centre.

To date, more than 28 local restaurants and businesses have agreed to donate food, wine and beer to the event, including Happy Hostess Caterers, Kasey’s Kitchen and Cocktails, Palace of Wong, Stinger’s Irish Pub, R.J. Daniel’s, Kookaburra Coffee Co., MacArthur Park, CJ’s Coffee Shop, Monaghan’s Irish Pub, Cannon’s Blackthorn, Village Liquor, George Martin’s Grillfire, Front Street Pizza, Dark Horse Tavern, Cabo, Churchill’s, Front Street Bakery, Press 195, Sangre de Uva, Dodici, Blue Moon Restaurant, George Martin’s Burger Bar, Polka Dot Pound Cake, Croxley Ales, George Martin’s The Original, Parlay Gastropub, Homebrews and Handgrenades and River Mill (formerly The Swiss Tavern). Live music will be provided by Rockville Centre’s very own Jerry and the Newcomers, and the Hagen School of Irish Dance will perform Irish step dancing. The entrance fee is $35, and admission is available to adults 21 and over.

“Last year we ended up with 30 participating restaurants, and we will have more this year,” said Parade Committee President Michael Cosgrove. “The Food and Wine Tasting 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 Parade financially supports three charities every year and has distributed more than $878,000 to 55 separate charities in 18 years. One of the three charities supported is a local charity, one is a national charity, and one is an Irish charity. This year’s charities are The Katie McBride Foundation, a local charity that raises funds to provide family support services for childhood victims of life-threatening diseases such as leukemia; The Hance Family Foundation, a national charity that strives to ensure healthy, happy and safe children through its innovative self-esteem educational program for women and girls known as “Beautiful Me”; and The Dublin Children’s Pilgrimage, an Irish charity that for almost 30 years has allowed about 40 children from the Dublin Diocese with special needs to travel to Lourdes, where they are joined by thousands of children from around the world for “Children’s Week in Lourdes.” The proceeds from the Food and Wine Tasting will go to these three charities.

This year’s parade is scheduled for Saturday, March 21. The grand marshal is long-time Rockville Centre attorney Bob Williams, the parade’s original attorney and a village justice from 1991 to 2007, during which time he was elected and served both as president of the Nassau County Magistrates Association and as Chairman of the Real Property Committee of the Nassau County Bar Association.

To learn more about “The Parade That Cares and Shares” and its 11th Annual Food and Wine Tasting, visit www.rvcstpatrick.com.