TheTOGA 2010 Facebook page is slowly but surely gaining popularity with all our friends and neighbors in East Dallas and around Greenville Avenue.

But to make sure we have thousands of friends when the event opens on October 23, we are making you an offer you can't refuse...If your name is on the TOGA 2010 Facebook page when we open the gates, you will be entered in a drawing to win a gift certificate to one of the 40 restaurants participating in the event. We will do this before any certificates are given away during the day from the Budweiser stage by our master of ceremonies, by event staff wandering the grounds, and in the different little contests we will have going all day.

So what are you waiting for???

The 2010 Taste of Greenville Avenue (TOGA 2010) will be celebrated on Saturday October 23, 2010, on the five parking lots between the 5700 block of Richmond Avenue and the 5700 block of Prospect Avenue, just 150 feet from Lowest Greenville Avenue.

The Greenville Avenue Restaurant Association, LLC (GARA) was organized in 2009 to promote the variety of businesses along Dallas’ most popular street. More than thirty restaurants are members, but that number is expected to increase as TOGA 2010 approaches.

Last year’s event, sponsored by Madison Partners, LLC, which was the first of its kind and was organized in less than three months by the new association, drew an estimated 3,500 neighborhood residents and their families to the Granada Theatre parking lot on a sunny October afternoon. More than thirty restaurants and businesses from Greenville Avenue presented their signature menu items in small portions costing $2, $4, and $6.

Despite a slow start and bad economy, Christmas on Greenville Avenue 2009 was still a success. More than 1,400 toys were collected by area restaurants and businesses for Santa's Helpers 2009.

And Santa's Helpers was able exceed its goals, with enough left over to give toys to other local gift programs.

Here's a list of the top collection sites on Greenville Avenue.

The Greenville Avenue Restaurant Association made good on its promise to donate a portion of the funds raised at the first Taste of Greenville Avenue when a check for $1,250 was presented to the Robert E. Lee Elementary School PTA during the school's Fall Festival.

GARA interim president Greg Watson (Snuffer's) made the presentation to PTA president Susan Villanueva and school principal Alicia Zapata during the event. The amount was kept secret until the last minute when the check was unwrapped, and the surprise is obvious in these photos.

Lakewood Dallas Black White Read

The soon-to-be annual Taste of Greenville took place October 24th. Establishments such as Dodie’s Cajun Diner, the Greenville Avenue Pizza Co., and Pietro’s Italian restaurant each occupied a small space of the parking lot behind the Granada Theater for the 2009 Taste of Greenville Avenue.

Two rows of tents lined the parking lot on the east and west sides of the avenue, with the beer coolers in the middle and the music stage along Martel Avenue. Local alt-country bands The King Bucks and Max Stalling provided music.

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