Last year’s Taste of Cambridge event took place in Harvard Square. Tomorrow’s event is in Cambridgeport, near Central Square. (Photo: Taste of Cambridge)

The Taste of Cambridge returns Tuesday for a 10th year, with more than 70 restaurants and local specialty shops participating, including some 19 taking part for the first time.

The event, scheduled for 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at University Park Common and Sidney Street, Cambridgeport, costs $60 per person at the door and draws “foodies from near and far,” said Robin Lapidus, executive director of the Central Square Business Association, “to sample the delicious, creative, healthy and award-winning cuisine that illustrates why The Boston Globe and National Geographic Traveler stated that many of the best restaurants in Boston are in Cambridge!”

Cambridge is a highly acclaimed restaurant destination throughout New England and the rest of the world, she said, and in this case the food is accompanied by “lush landscaping, café seating, beer and wine gardens, celebrity DJs, live bands and an opportunity to meet the nonprofits who benefit directly from this exciting event”: The youth “Keep it Kool Program” at The Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, which fights drugs and drinking in the Area IV neighborhood; On the Rise, which works with homeless and recently housed women; a Cambridge Community Television program focused on alcohol education; Caspar’s First Step Community Outreach to the homeless; and the Institute for Health and Recovery’s services for families, youth and young adults.

Highlights of the year’s Taste of Cambridge, Lapidus said, include:

• Tasting Tickets for those age 6 to 12, accompanied by a parent, at $15, with kids under 6 getting in free.
• Each adult ticket includes four glasses of certain beers or wines from the beer gardens.
• There will be a VIP area with  “amusement themed” foods such as bacon-flavored cotton candy, a Jasper White Summer Shack clam bake and beer from the Pretty Things Beer & Ale Project.

New participants include Beantown Taqueria, Dosa Factory, Dwelltime, Four Burgers, Fuji at Kendall, Garden at the Cellar, Kika Tapas, The Middle East, Moksa, Park, Sidney’s Grille & Lounge, Sola Café, Thelonius Monkfish, Veggie Galaxy, Z’rant and Zuzu.

This post was written from a press release.