Let's
talk food.
Let's talk a taste with a taste of Wisconsin.
Ron Horner is here.
You're the committee chairperson for Taste of Wisconsin.
And you're also your big wig in the Kiwanis, the Western Kenosha Kiwanis.
I am.
I'm on their board.
So we get to make make all sorts of decisions and such.
So yeah, I'm there too.
You have, like, one of those, like, the honeymooners, Ralph Cramden had the raccoon hat, you know?
You know, I was never offered one, and I never thought to ask, so I'm kind of, I'm fezzless, if you
will.
Yeah, Ralph and Ed Norton were members of the raccoons, and they had the baby Crockett thing going on.
I remember.
The friendly raccoon, hello, woo, woo.
But you don't have any secret handshakes or
anything?
No, no secret handshakes,
no nothing.
Yeah, I was going to join, but you have a secret handshake.
Well, we are.
Well, I mean, we do some exciting things, but some things we might be a little boring.
Well, this is exciting.
A taste of Wisconsin.
It's coming to downtown Kenosha.
I want to tell exactly where it is downtown.
It is at Harbor Park.
If you know the public museum and the Civil War Museum, we are right on the lake front, right in front of them.
So what do you have like streets of food?
So what it is is we take over that plot of land and we have a takeover.
We take over the land and we just have food vendors.
We have upwards to 30 food vendors offering various tastes, ethnic foods, the standards of burgers and hot dogs and funnel cakes and and soft pretzels and alike.
We have not only food, but we also have music, too.
We have over 80 bands, which I'm proud to say each of the bands donate their time to us because this is a fundraiser for our club.
And we have them spread over four tents.
We have a rock stage.
We have a jazz stage, an acoustic stage, as well as a main stage for everybody that we can't fit in the other stages.
So we have tons of music, tons of food.
And we have activities for the kids.
We have a kids zone.
The Kenosha Police Department is going to bring out their canine unit and provide a demonstration of the use of the dogs.
So there is plenty to do over a three-day span.
Are you going to volunteer to be chased by the animals and torn to shreds?
I've never been asked to do that.
I don't know if I would volunteer to put a piece
of meat in your
back pocket.
Boy, there's that funny meat smell going on there.
I can't explain it.
That was on
Seinfeld when they had the napkins with the meat wrapped in it.
Yep.
Exactly.
The dog was chasing Elaine down the block.
That'll get you in trouble real quick.
OK, and this this weekend, which we talked about the weather this weekend, sunny Friday, Saturday and Sunday, highs in the mid 70s on Friday, then in the mid 80s on Saturday.
You guys must have been ecstatic when you heard that.
No
rain, no smoke, no smoke, no rain, pretty decent as as we like to say beer drinking temperatures.
So I think we're going to be really good off the lake front.
We may get a slight breeze coming over the lake, but nothing that would be intolerable.
So what am I missing because I've never had a beer in my entire life.
I've tasted it.
That was I took one sip once and that was about it.
I've never had it.
And what am I missing that everybody else is so in love with beer?
What am I not getting in this?
I, you know, I'm with you.
I've not really been much of a beer drinker, but my friends are and they they seem to enjoy
everybody.
And now it's a beer drinker except me.
They say you want one?
No.
Mm hmm.
I'll have a club soda club soda.
Yeah.
Say
what?
Clubs.
It's unheard of.
Are you allowed in the state?
All right.
I'll tell you what.
Club.
Put a lemon in there.
Now you're going to elegant.
I'll go wild this weekend.
You guys have to be.
I just I don't know what I'm missing.
And everybody drinking, you know, it would go to a ball game.
It's like, you know, 60 bucks for a beer.
Right.
And they.
Oh, yeah.
Give me two.
I don't know.
I just I don't know when I'm missing my wife.
Never had a beer.
I don't think she ever had money either.
Yeah, I think my life had a couple at some point in her life, but I mean, it just, again, it's the flavor of the day, if that's something that turns you on, have at it.
Now, we're
talking food, that I've had.
Yes.
Okay.
Give us some examples of some of the different foods you're going to have.
Are these food trucks or are they kind of tents with?
Actually, it's a combination.
We'll have food trucks on site, but we'll also have vendors that have their own tent setups.
When did
food trucks come around?
Because all of a sudden, they're everywhere.
And I don't remember them 20 years ago.
I don't remember food trucks.
They're
fairly, I would say within the last 10 years, they've really started to come in their vogue.
And there's a lot more in Kenosha than there had been.
Yeah,
because they
bring in the restaurant to you.
Absolutely.
And what's nice is a couple of things is number one, as you say, the restaurant comes to you.
But the other thing is if you've got people who are interested in getting into the restaurant industry, it is a it's I'm not going to say it's easy, but it's a good way to get yourself in there and to try out what you're what you have to offer recipe wise.
And if you get that following, you know, brick and mortar is the next
step outside of the truck.
Well, I know a lot of brick and mortar
is like Pico's restaurant.
They have their own food truck.
Sure.
Now, we were playing a little game last Friday night with a neighbor of ours and they had to pick a card and you had to answer the question on the card.
And my wife got one that said, which would you rather work at, an elegant restaurant, fast food or a food truck?
Oh, OK.
And I would have said, and she did, she said the food truck because you're in there, it's your place.
Your customer comes in, you don't have to deal with them again, you don't have to go check on them every five minutes like a restaurant.
Right.
And you're doing all the food, you're doing everything in this closed in space, hopefully it's air conditioned.
And you make, your menu is limited.
And since you're doing it, you know it's gonna be good.
And I don't think the expectations of the people coming up to a food truck are the same as an elegant restaurant.
Sure.
I just don't think, I think a
little bit lower.
Well, let's put it this way.
You're probably not looking at a giant table service with with candles and this steak.
I said
medium rare.
It's more on the rare side.
Can you recook this?
You don't have that in the food.
No, no, you basically
it's you
get
what you order and you're happy about it.
We're talking to Ron Horner.
He's a committee chairperson is a chairperson for.
Taste of Wisconsin.
For Taste of Wisconsin.
And
also remember the Kiwanis.
Western Kenosha Kiwanis Club.
How many Kiwanis clubs you have in Kenosha?
Well, you got to be the Western one.
Right now, at this time, there's only one.
There was three at one time.
So, can we knock off that Western?
Is that going to stay forever?
That's going to probably stay forever.
Okay.
It's one of those.
Once you get it, you keep it.
That's
it.
You're done.
Ron Horner joining me.
He is from the Kenosha Western Kenosha Kiwanis organization.
And they are putting on a taste of Wisconsin this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
You know, I was telling you before we went on the air in the movie Lilies of the Field, an Academy Award-winning film for Sidney Poitier.
The nuns that came from Berlin, East Germany to settle in Arizona, they're looking for funds.
I don't know much about America.
Looking for funds.
So they write to the elk.
They write to the order of the moose.
And the head nun says, what?
Kiwanis, what kind of animals that?
Exactly.
What's that name come from?
Do you even know?
I know that there is some information on the Kiwanis International site, but I've never had the opportunity or inkling to go down that road.
So it's like a little furry animal from Australia, the Kiwanis.
Oh, OK.
The Kiwanis goes, I don't know, I'm just making this up.
Yeah.
The
Kiwanis goes in the trees and rarely seen comes
out
at night.
The cool thing about the whole batch story on the Kiwanis.
I'm sure they believe
me.
They don't know.
Well, I mean, unless you do the
research, they'll never know themselves.
So well, we have Beth Heidorn from the Racine Zoo coming in next week.
Oh, OK.
She would know.
Fantastic.
Looking forward to it.
And she'll say, yeah, you're full of it.
You're making
up a story.
Are
you?
OK, give us some background on the quantity.
You know, it's a fraternal organization and their whole purpose is to
help.
Their their their purpose is to help and support kids, whether it's directly or indirectly.
So, and I can speak for our club specifically.
What we do is we, one of many things that we do is we offer scholarships to kids.
We have a standing relationship with one of our local high schools music programs.
And the students in that program, whether it be the orchestra, band, or choir, they will select a student from each of three of those classes.
to receive a scholarship monies from us.
And in June, they have a big music program.
And we participate in the program towards the end.
We offer, we announce that student and we give them a scholarship check.
Whoa.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we help, in that particular instance, that specific program.
But we also offer scholarships in various other areas, not just specific to school.
But if kids are interested in getting into technology, engineering, just looking to go into college but need a little bit of help, we offer scholarships for that as well.
But not only just focusing on kids, but also other areas where we help agencies who help kids as well, such as a donation of monies to local food pantries.
We've donated funds to our local police department to help with their purchase and support of their canine force.
So we look for areas that we can be of assistance to kids directly or indirectly.
One program that we do is the disabled children or disabled child's bathroom remodel program, where what we do is we select a child, a family who is disabled.
and our team goes into their home and looks to see what we can do to improve the home so it improves the quality of that child's life.
Whether it's as simple as adding a few grab bars to their bathroom, or maybe it's an issue of their room is too cold and it makes it difficult for them to be in there, we will go in and provide added installations to the child's room.
Every case is unique because the needs are unique.
But we step in and our team of experts goes in and they plan everything out and they go in and basically remodel for the needs of that child.
Because no child should ever feel as if they are in such dire straits that they can't have some level of normalcy.
You know, and every time I see a YouTube video with a child who has problems like that,
I say there but for the grace of God go I yes because it could have been me Oh, absolutely.
It could have been you know my mother When I grew up she signed my brother and I up for the police boys club
And it
was to keep us out of trouble
sure
and so for years I was on the police boys club you get to pick what sport you want to do I picked bowling
so
Every week and you had the the police and dads and stuff They stayed with us all week, you know all Saturday and we bowl tournaments and
It was great.
It kept everybody out of trouble.
Back in the early 60s,
and
we didn't have to deal with problems, and my mother thought ahead, I got to keep these kids from getting in trouble.
And so she saw my brother and I up.
And my friends in my neighborhood, they signed up too.
So you got to wear a police boys club shirt, and they
gave the
shirt with a police boys club on it, and a Nassau County police on it.
It was all great stuff.
Sure.
And it kept me out of trouble.
I learned how to bowl.
Hey,
it was a
twofer.
I didn't turn up any champion, but I was going to throw a ball down the alley and knock him down.
All right.
So we're here for a taste of Wisconsin.
This actually started according to my notes here, 2009.
2009, yep, about 17 years ago.
Who came up with the idea?
Well, actually, it was an offshoot.
Our club used to do something called Kohorama.
Oh, yeah, Kohorama.
It's not there anymore.
It's it's no
longer there.
Oh, Coho ramp.
That was like salmon around most of Coho Ramo.
Yes, exactly.
So it was a big it was a big fishing extravaganza lasted at weeks, a weekend at a time.
And it just became too hard to manage.
You got to envision our club is just under 50 members and at this time are aging members, unfortunately.
But so.
It became too hard to manage, so they said, you know, we need to stop this.
We can't keep continuing this on.
But we do need to be able to fundraise, and we do need to be able to promote our club in Kiwanis in general.
So they left that and moved over to Taste of Wisconsin.
Being a three-day event, it was something that they could manage, and they continue on to this day.
And you
really don't have to, the food takes care of itself.
Yes.
The food trucks and the restaurants, all you do is have to make sure they show up.
Everybody's in line and then
you sit back relax.
Exactly.
Well, and what we do is during the year, I describe Taste of Wisconsin as being if you understand weddings, you plan a wedding all year long for a one day event.
Well, in our situation, we plan for an event all year long for a three day event.
And it's just basically coordination and time management.
And getting the bands to show up.
Yes, getting the bands to show up, which, you know, again, they volunteer their time with us and we are exceedingly grateful.
You don't have the
Beach Boys there, do you?
We do not have the Beach Boys.
I'm sorry.
that cancel.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Okay, so make sure you have the Beach Boys because that would have been a big draw and then you're
going to have to say that.
Yeah, no,
not not on
our
lists at
this
point.
So we're good.
Okay, that's good.
A taste of Wisconsin.
We're talking restaurants set up.
You want to plug into the restaurants?
You know many?
Sure, we've got a few of them.
So we've got we've got Ben soft pretzels.
Cain's Corn Kettle Corn.
We've got various pizza purveyors.
We've got Firewise Barbecue.
Oh, right now we're talking.
Go ahead.
Fry Daddy's, which is like the king of carnival foods, funnel cakes, hot dogs, hamburgers, anything that you can fry.
It goes at 43 pounds.
I lost.
Go ahead.
Keep going.
Yeah, that'll be going.
We've got other we've got corn stars.
They they do different flavors of popcorn and such Grandma's cookie cottage now these guys are the first ones or they're coming to us for the first time they focus primarily on cookies and they are the best cookies That it's incredible and she she does such a fantastic job So you'll definitely want to come out and check out those cookies we have
different drink vendors, iced tea spot.
We have Island Noodles, Luigi's Pizza.
We spoke of pizza earlier.
Mama Jerk.
She's going to be with us.
Mama Jerk.
Mama Jerk.
It's Jamaican Jerk chicken.
It's
just the way
you said it.
Wow.
Mama Jerk is good.
Mama
Jerk.
Okay.
That's the name.
Yeah, I'm only reading smart teas again, different tea drinks, Bulba and they do they have a they have a fantastic array of drinks.
We have nothing but cakes.
They're actually going to be with us with their Bunt cakes.
Very good Bunt cakes.
We have several different Mexican restaurants that are going to be with us.
Pedro's authentic Mexican cuisine is one of them.
We've got TNN's Agro House.
They're going to be with us.
Taco's Hill Ray is going to be with us.
We're going to have the donut hole.
So if you're a donut fan, they're going to be with us.
Yeah, and and alike we're gonna have a trainees ice cream So after you have all the fried foods the hot dogs and the hamburgers cool it off with some
ice cream
You can cool it off with some ice cream.
That sounds great.
Now.
This is a taste of Wisconsin It's being put on by the Western Kenosha Kiwanis organization.
It's a fundraiser.
Yes
spend money because all their money is going back to the community of the children It's all going back.
Nobody's pocketing anything.
It's just all going back so spend generously
And it's going to be this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
And again, we'll mention the forecast.
Sunny Friday with a high near 76.
Sunny Saturday with a high near 85.
Sunny Sunday with a high near 86.
What are the hours, by the way?
So Friday, we open at three.
We go to 11.
Saturday, we're from 11 to 11.
And Sunday, we're from 11 to 7.
Perfect.
All right.
Well,
good luck.
Yeah.
Thank you.
The weather, if you guys set it up right, the weather is perfect.
Yep, it's Mother Nature and us.
We're on speed dial.
Now, we're in Kenosha again, is this?
It's at the Harbor Park.
If you know the Kenosha Public Museum and the Kenosha Civil War Museum, we are right on the lakefront, right in front.
Sounds good.
Yep, free event, free parking.
But
you got to pay for the food.
Well, you got to pay for the
food.
All right.
Thanks, Ron, for coming in.
Thank you.
Ron Horner, everybody.