The details are mostly in place as the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) gets ready for its first Cider Walk in the city.
For the June 17 event, 18 businesses will be included, Shannon Maute said. The walk will be from 4-8 p.m.
“We thought about it last year when we were trying to add events,” said BID Executive Director Shannon Maute. “We didn’t want to add a third one last year, so we waited until this year.”
The Cider Walk will kick off BID events this year, she said.
“The Wine Walk and the Beer Walk are extremely popular. When we had asked the people participating what they thought about it, they said that they loved it, but a lot of them said they wished we had cider,” Maute said. “The two stops that did have cider were their favorite stops.”
BID thought, “Why not have a cider walk?” she said.
“We’ve been planning it for about six months. The businesses knew about it,” she said. “We’re just starting to advertise to the public. We’re still trying to get a couple more cideries. The more cideries that come in, the better, but the planning was pretty smooth for this. We had great participation with a lot of local cideries.” Maute estimated 100 tickets remain for the June 17 walk.
“We haven’t really been advertising, so that’s pretty good,” she said. “Anytime we can get people downtown is a great event.”
Cideries including Tree Hugger, Clarksburg, Blue Toad will be coming to downtown sites and pouring their offerings. There will be a map at the registration site, at Legacy on Main.
Iburi Photography at 35 Jackson St. will be a pouring site, as will T.F. Browns, Eli Fish Brewing Co., Roman’s, Bourbon and Burger and The Coffee Press.
“Of course, we have Empire Hemp, the Spa Artemis, places like that,” she said. “There’ll be a full list at registration.”
Tickets are $30 each. Tickets for designated drivers can get tickets for $10 each.
“In June, it will be nice weather. People love to get out,” she said. “Businesses are ready for more feet downtown.”
The 100 tickets should be gone pretty quickly after BID really starts to advertise, she said.
“I would say within the next two weeks, we’ll be completely sold out,” she said. “We only did 300 (tickets). We kept it small. We wanted to see how it went this year and next year, we’ll grow it.”
The BID executive director said the participating businesses will have special deals.
“I know the restaurants will have special promotions on food and drinks,” she said. “They ticket holders, get a glass. They get 18 tastings.”
The topic of a Cider Walk came up April 27 at the BID annual meeting and awards. The award recipients included BID Volunteer of the Year Lauren Becht and Business of the Year for Eden Cafe and Bake Shop and owner Judy Hysek.
Eden Cafe’s first location was in the incubator inside Eli Fish.
“The great thing about Eden was, nobody else in Batavia was doing that. She (Hysek) has proven there is a need for it. She is really thriving and we’re very proud of her for opening her own brick and mortar,” Maute said. “I just wanted people to in her celebration of her doing well.”
Maute said Becht is on all the BID committees and helps with everything.
“She is just a great asset and a great person all around, and is always willing to help or do whatever we need her to do for downtown.
In a show of humor, My Cut Barbershop was given the Best Dressed Award.
For every event, they always dress up and look really cool and have a lot of fun with it,” she said. “They showed up at the annual meeting in suits and they looked really cool. I gave them the award for best dressed.