Crowds of students navigated downtown Evanston with paper bags and maps on Sunday afternoon, scouting out locations for free food.

Big Bite Night is hosted annually by Associated Student Government and the nonprofit Downtown Evanston. The event featured 36 Evanston eateries that provided samples of their food.

Most sites had outdoor vendors passing out food on the sidewalk.

“It’s great for students because obviously they get free food,” said Kevin Harris, ASG community relations vice president. “They get a chance to sample restaurants they might not have tried before (and) find out some new ones.”

More than 1,800 students attended the event this year, he said.

“The numbers continue to go up every year as more and more students find out about it,” Harris said.

Students had two hours to sample as many things as possible. Some upperclassmen who had been to this event in previous years said they had the experiential knowledge to navigate the streets more efficiently.

“We had a strategical idea of which restaurants we could skip without disappointment,  and then knocked out the ones we wanted to hit twice,” Bienen senior Maria Massucco said.

Restaurant owners said they benefited from the exposure of Big Bite Night as well.

“It’s a great opportunity to get thousands of new people to know where we are and get a little taste of our food and an idea of the concept,” said Edzo’s Burger Shop owner Eddie Lakin, who added that he would be “a fool” not to participate.

Harris said next year, ASG hopes to bring back a cappella groups to perform at the event, a feature that was absent this year, in addition to making Big Bite Night more environmentally friendly.

Correction: A previous version of this article misstated the organizers of Big Bite Night. The nonprofit Downtown Evanston is also an organizer. The Daily regrets the error.

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