Ironton aLive hosted their third annual Taste of Ironton event on Saturday, at the Ironton Farmer’s Market on Second and Vernon Streets. The event, a fundraiser for Ironton aLive, featured food from a variety of restaurants, bakeries, cafes and delis.

Kizmet Sweets, Macie’s Tasty Bakery and Pickn’Sav, had those with a sweet tooth covered with a variety of treats and baked goods, complemented by coffee from The Chat Room, while Buffalo Wild Wings, Ironton Giovanni’s, Southernmost Café, Holy Smokes BBQ, Peddler’s Home Cooking, Marco’s Pizza, Haute Stuff Catering, Ambassador Food Truck, The End Zone, and Tudor’s Biscuit World offered everything from roast beef, meatballs and pulled pork bbq to pizza by the slice and quesadillas.

Foods were available for purchase with tickets, sold in $10 booklets, with samples ranging from $1 to $3 in tickets per item.

The idea, Ironton aLive Executive Director, Sam Heighton, explained, is to get people exposed to local restaurants they may not have tried, so that they have an idea of what they offer.

It is also a way of  introducing folks to new menu items from restaurants they might already be familiar with.

“We were starting to get more restaurants in town,” Heighton said, “and thought it would be a way to allow restaurants to sample foods.”

It helps the community, he explained, by encouraging increased traffic to local businesses, which is one of the stated goals of Ironton aLive.

“We want to make Ironton a better place to live and bring more retail business into downtown,” Heighton said.

One supports the other, Heighton explained, and the Taste of Ironton is one such example of creating an event that makes Ironton a nice place to live, or visit, while endorsing locally owned business.

Other events supported by the group include the Tuesday Night Concert series, at 6:30 p.m., at the Ironton Farmer’s Market, running now through August, the Farm to Table Dinner, with dates still to be announced later this summer, a wine tasting on Sept. 30, and the Heritage Fest on Oct. 14.