Wicked Fun: Cape businesses join forces for Rum Crawl
Several businesses in downtown Cape Coral are once again joining forces to offer a pub crawl, but this one aims to thank the city’s year-round residents for their business and marks the approaching season.
The South Cape Party in Paradise Rum Crawl will take place Saturday from 4-11 p.m. Sponsored by the South Cape Hospitality and Entertainment Associations, the event features 10 participating bars and restaurants that will be offering $2.50 tropical drink specials, as well as deals on appetizers and food.
Many of the speciality drinks will feature the Cape craft distilled Wicked Dolphin Rum.
“We do a whole lot of events in season – everybody does when the snowbirds get here,” Lynn Pippenger, president of the South Cape Hospitality and Entertainment Associations, said Thursday.
“We wanted to do something specifically out of season, aimed toward our locals,” she said.
Since the crawl runs over seven hours, there is time to visit all of the venues.
“You can go to dinner with it,” Pippenger said. “There’s plenty of time to hit all of them.”
All of the locations are within walking distance, but taxis are also an option.
“There’s plenty of time to stretch this out,” she said.
To take part in the crawl, pick up a “passport” at any of the participating venues the day of the event. It comes with a map and location guide; participants should have their passport stamped at each stop.
Stamped passports can be turned in at the end for entry into several raffles. Pippenger explained that many businesses donated items for the raffles and the grand prize is a Wicked Dolphin gift basket.
“Any participating bar can take them,” she said of turning in the passports.
Along with the drink specials, the venues will offer deals on food.
“They are definitely at a discounted rate to encourage folks to try them,” Pippenger said.
There will also be live entertainment at many of the locations.
“It’s a Saturday night, so we’ve all got our own thing going on,” she said.
Outside of the 11 venues participating in the crawl, other restaurants and hotels located in the downtown Cape will add to the enticement of the event by offering their own discounts.
“There’s a number of restaurants offering dinner specials,” Pippenger said, adding that the speciality dishes will have the same “end-of-summer tropical theme” to them like the pub crawl will.
The Dolphin Key Resort is offering a special hotel room rate of $75 per night, and the Holiday Inn Express is offering a deal of $85 per night for the event. Both of the rates will include breakfast.
“They are offering some special rates if you want to make a night of it down here in the Cape – we make it easy,” she said. “If you have a little more (alcohol) than expected, we also make it easy.”
Free parking is available in any of the city-owned public parking lots.
“Plenty in Club Square, across from the Dixie (Roadhouse) and in Big John’s,” Pippenger said.
She encouraged people to check out what is guaranteed to be a fun event.
“There’s a lot of unique venues down here that are working together,” Pippenger said. “It’s great that we come together and work together to put these events on for the South Cape.”
The South Cape Hospitality and Entertainment Associations are two groups with the same mission. According to Pippenger, owner of the Dixie, the associations are made up of area business owners who have partnered together to expand on the activities offered in the South Cape and improve on them.
“The idea is that our customers discover what else is down here,” she said.
The goal is to host an event every month, whether it is a trolley run, crawl or something else.
“Something that gets folks down here and moving around,” Pippenger said.
The groups have joined forces before on other pub crawls.
“The pub crawls that we’ve done together have all been successful,” she said.
The Dolphin Key Resort is at 1502 Miramar St. For reservations, call (239) 540-8454.
The Holiday Inn Express is at 1538 Cape Coral Parkway E. For reservations, call (239) 542-2121.
For more information about the South Cape Party in Paradise Rum Crawl, visit online: www.facebook.com/
SouthCapeHospitalityAndEntertainmentAssociations.