Taste of Downtown goes digital for 2020

Sarasota Opera’s annual Taste of Downtown fundraiser will assume a different form this season, but the purpose of the event will remain the same – benefitting the organization’s Youth Opera.

Because of COVID-19 concerns, the event is now an online fundraiser instead of its traditional presentation, which included the best of downtown restaurants and specialty food shops on the stage of Sarasota Opera House.

For a donation of $75 or more made through Oct. 2, guests will receive a discount card to use at a collection of locations.

They are:

• Tsunami Sushi & Hibachi;
• Mattison’s City Grille;
• Mattison’s Forty-One;
• Clásico Italian Chophouse;
• Brick’s Smoked Meats;
• Mediterraneo;
• Nancy’s Bar-B-Q in Lakewood Ranch;
• Five-O Donut Co.;
• Noela Chocolate

Discounts available on the card will vary by the individual business and will be valid from Oct. 1 through Nov. 15.

Through their annual gifts, donors supporting the  Youth Opera enable the organization to provide tuition help to about a third of participants.

Following a successful online summer camp, the Youth Opera's online fall semester is underway. Programming includes acting lessons taught by Sarasota Opera stage director Martha Collins, Music 101 to further develop participants’ music reading skills, and guests who work in the opera industry to talk to the students about different career paths and careers in the art form. Youth aged 8 to 18 can participate regardless of musical skill or ability to pay tuition.

To learn more about participating in the Taste of Downtown, visit sarasotaopera.org/taste-2020 or speak to Sarasota Opera’s Development Director, Scott Guinn, at 941-328-1304.