Hundreds of people swarmed Gilroy’s downtown streets Saturday
afternoon, drinking wine and visiting local businesses during the
city’s inaugural Downtown Wine Stroll.
Hundreds of people swarmed Gilroy’s downtown streets Saturday afternoon, drinking wine and visiting local businesses during the city’s inaugural Downtown Wine Stroll.
Organizers sold 40 more tickets beyond the 500 they initially planned to sell, and they actually had to turn away 15 people, according to the Gilroy Visitor’s Bureau.
“I thought it was an absolutely fabulous event,” said Satori Cellars co-owner Sandy Moller, who poured wine at Shag Salon on Fifth Street. “I’m so happy that they sold out.”
Fifteen businesses paired up with Santa Clara Valley wineries during the event, which included entertainment at some businesses and special deals at participating restaurants.
“I was not aware of any hitches at all,” said Realtor Sheila White of Starritt Realtors, which participated in the event.
She said she met several out-of-towners who said they normally just stop at the outlets or drive right through Gilroy. Some participants also patronized downtown businesses on Saturday, buying antiques, she said.
“Some people came into establishments that they didn’t even know were there,” White said.
Just as the wine stroll provided exposure for local businesses, it helped regional wineries get their products known.
Moller said the stroll was one of her favorite wine events in which she has participated. She loved the community focus of the event and said it was particularly helpful in exposing the winery to local residents, she said.
“For us, these events are the perfect way to share who we are and what we are,” Moller said. “I felt there was a huge amount of new exposure for us.”
Several downtown eateries were slammed with customers after the stroll.
“It was awesome,” said Socrates Diego, co-owner of Garlic City Cafe.
Although the cafe is usually only open for breakfast and lunch, it stayed open late on Saturday to accommodate the crowd, he said.
Gary Walton, who owns Lizarran Tapas Selectas restaurant, said Saturday was the second-busiest day the restaurant has had since it opened last year.
Walton spent most of the event talking to wine stroll participants at La Aldea, the live-work complex he owns at Fourth and Eigleberry streets. The event appeared to provide downtown with lots of exposure, he said.
“It seemed like the people I talked to had a good time,” Walton said. “A lot hadn’t been downtown for awhile, and some didn’t know about the improvements that had been made.”
Some of those improvements had taken place within the past couple of weeks. For instance, a kiosk at Fifth and Monterey streets was installed last week. In addition, some downtown merchants took it upon themselves to spruce up the area before the event. Amber Madrone of Mango Street Kids worked with the St. Joseph’s Family Center street team – which pays local homeless and low-income people for cleaning up downtown – to make improvements to a few downtown buildings.
In addition, Mike Bonfante of Bonfante Collision Center paid for $3,000 to $4,000 worth of landscaping along Lewis and Railroad streets.
Eric Howard, president of the Gilroy Downtown Business Association, also gave kudos to Cindy Parks – a property manager for her cousin, Gary Walton – who sold 67 tickets to the event. The business association asked each business to sell at least 10 tickets, Howard said.
In many ways, the wine stroll was a collaborative effort, Howard said. Gilroy Garlic Festival provided wine glasses for the event, and half of the proceeds from the event are going to a downtown community garden that the Leadership Gilroy program is installing for its annual project.
The event allowed people to see that Gilroy has a nice, safe downtown, Howard said.
“People were happy,” Howard said. “To a ‘T,’ it came off well.”
The biggest disappointment was that some of the merchants were not open to take advantage of the event, Walton said. He said he told Mayor Al Pinheiro that the city needs to have more such community gatherings.
Pinheiro, who was among the attendees on Saturday and posted a Facebook message about his enjoyment, had only good things to say about the event.
“I thought it was a complete success,” he said. “It’s what we want to see our downtown be all about.”
