CROW or Clinic For The Rehabilitation Of Wildlife is one of the businesses that has reopened on Sanibel Island following Hurricane Ian. However, the facility is not 100% operational. There are a couple of annual events that raise money for the organization. Here is a delicious Sneak Peak At CROW’S Taste Of The Islands. Over the last few years the popular food festival has had to pivot due to COVID and Hurricane Ian but the show still goes on.
The event highlights some of the best food and drink from Sanibel and Captiva restaurants. However, many are still closed following Ian. To help compensate, several off island establishments are participating. If you dine at one of them and order their featured item, they will donate a portion of sales to CROW. Besides a fund raiser, this event is also a competition. Each menu item gets judged in advance. In addition, everyone who attends votes for the People’s Choice Award.
Official judging took place over the weekend but the actual event is on Saturday November 18th. I was fortunate enough to be on the panel. As food judges, we were not privy to which restaurants prepared the drinks and the dishes we tasted. In addition, several were not available for judging for various reasons. After all ballots were taken up and put away for counting, we found out who created what. You’ll see them below. Here is a video as well.
Taste Of The Islands
Taste Of The Islands looks a little different once again this year. Rather than having all restaurants set up in one spot there will be a crawl. Shuttles will transport residents to and from participating businesses. If you think about it, the quality of the food and drinks will be even better since they are coming right from the kitchen and bar. It also gives you a chance to step through the doors of places you might not have been or at least haven’t been in awhile.
CROW still needs to raise money to rebuild several of animal enclosures as well as a new sea turtle area. The animal hospital is back up and running but most of the animal ambassadors have not returned yet. The gift shop is open and so is the education center. Admission is free while CROW continues to get back up to speed. This is going to be a fun and delicious event if you can attend on Saturday. And it’s for a good cause.
