An international event: Cape Coral venues to host beer, food fest with worldly taste
Tickets are now on sale for next weekend’s International Beer Fest in downtown Cape Coral.
Sponsored by the South Cape Hospitality and Entertainment Associations, the trolley event will run from 7 to 11 p.m. Nov. 16 in the South Cape. Eleven participating area bars and restaurants will serve up samples of international beers to ticket holders; some venues will pair the beer with an appetizer.
Several of the locations will also feature live music.
“It’s all imported beers,” Lynn Pippenger, president of the associations and owner of the Dixie Roadhouse, said. “Each location picked a country, and we’re going with a beer from that country.”
Some of the represented counties include Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Holland and Mexico.
Dixie picked Germany, while the Tiki Hut at the Dolphin Key Resort got the United Kingdom.
Magdalena Tengroth, vice president of the associations and owner of the Tiki Hut, explained that her business will be serving up Bass Pale Ale, along with a $5.95 food special to festival-goers.
“As a special that day, we’re doing fish and chips with green peas,” she said.
“We’re probably going to be doing something that we serve with it, too,” Tengroth said of a possible appetizer or food sample to go with the Bass. “But I don’t know what that will be.”
Tickets cost $10 per person and can be purchased in advance at the participating venues.
Tickets are limited to 1,000. As of Thursday, about 200 of them had been sold.
“We have a lot of tickets left because people always wait until the last week,” Tengroth said.
Organizers urged people to get tickets early, though, because they go fast.
“In general, our trolley events do very well, so they sell out often,” Pippenger said.
During the events, a fleet of trolleys transport ticket holders between the participating venues.
“Everybody has pub crawls, but not trolley runs the way we do them,” Tengroth said, adding that residents from surrounding areas, like Naples and Sarasota, even take part in the trolley events.
A similarly themed event has been held before in the downtown Cape.
“But the hospitality association has not done that,” Pippenger said, adding that the groups thought it would be fun. “We’re always looking for new ideas to get people down here and walking around.”
Tengroth explained that Red, White and Brew, which is held during the summer, has an American theme. So, they thought that they would do something with an international theme for the fall.
“We see that we have more tourists – it’s November,” she said.
“Why not in the winter before season starts?” Tengroth asked.
Pippenger pointed out that several area businesses are again partnering together to put on an event.
“We just want people to come our and check out what’s happened in the South Cape,” she said.
All ticket holders will need to check in by 8:30 p.m. to receive a wristband and passport. Check-in booths will be located in the Big John’s plaza and Club Square, and they will open at 6:30 p.m.
Festival-goers may park in the public parking lots, then ride the trolleys for free.
For information, visit: www.facebook.com/SouthCapeHospitalityAndEntertainmentAssociations.