Gilad Edelman Photo
Cradling a glass of Pinot Grigio at their second stop, Thali restaurant, Ben Green tried to temper expectations. “We’ll see — ” he said, before Rebecca Miller cut him off.
“It’s gonna happen,” she said.
Green and Miller (pictured) were on a mission: to taste all 16 wine samples being offered in one night in the Ninth Square.
The two Yale College seniors were attending Wine On9, an installment of Town Green District’s First Friday series in which Ninth Square businesses served samples of different wines.
Starting at 6 p.m. Friday, the 250 people who had bought tickets lined up at The Grove on Orange Street to get wristbands and wine glasses, which they would carry from place to place. Like Green and Miller, many attendees aspired to exhaustiveness.
As the night wore on, the pace slowed and lingering increased. Green and Miller, spotted an hour later nursing Pinot Noir at Bentara, said they had accepted the unlikelihood of visiting all 16 stops in two hours.
The goal of the event was to harness the power of subsidized wine to lure people into Ninth Square businesses with which they might otherwise be unfamiliar. (And to promote the Crown Street location of The Wine Thief, which provided the wines.) There was at least some indication that it was working.
“I think it’s great that they open up local shops that I wouldn’t necessarily have gone into,” said Rosa Ayala, a teacher at Career Magnet School.
Alex Messiter (at right in photo), a student at Yale Law School, said she was excited to have discovered NW Boutique next door to The Grove. “I had passed by, but I never new what it was,” she said.
As she spoke, Ide Ehigiato (at left in photo), the owner of Inspired Turkey, was busy handing out free samples of pressure-fried turkey meat and trying to take advantage of the publicity the event was bringing.
At Capture salon, the night wasn’t so different from the usual, explained owner Alex Heonis (pictured). “If a customer wants wine, we bring them a glass of wine,” she said. She said she was excited for the chance to give tours of the salon’s ornate interior, which is located in the former New Haven Water Company building.
Meanwhile, next door at Meat & Co., the presence of wine glasses seemed to transform the sandwich shop into a hip bar, and the rich smell of meat in the air suggested that the owners were leveraging the opportunity to sell food.
For the Ninth Square, it was a night when just about anything paired well with wine.
The friday before this First Friday, I participated in a Last Friday event in Troy, NY entitled TROY NITE OUT. (Home of my alma mater, Rennselaer)
I was extremely impressed with the extent of downtown participation in a completely inclusive and egalitarian event. As i have noticed again and again in my recent 'public art crusade', it is the regular folks, and underserved populations that get the most out the 'art experience'.
These ticketed events are ELITEST in every way, and do more to divide community than nurture it.
Get with the program, Town Green Special Services....though you are receiving tax money from local businesses, your job is to look beyond the 'business interests' to nurture a sustainable community for ALL.
Another huge disappointment. You have failed yet again.