Free Downtown Crossing Wine Crawl

Last night, my friends Jen, Nell and I went on the First Annual Downtown Crossing Wine Crawl. The *free* event was sponsored by the Downtown Crossing Partnership, whose mission is:

The Downtown Crossing Partnership is a partnership of businesspeople and residents who work together to address neighborhood issues with one strong voice.
Our agenda is determined by our members, who share a collective vision of strengthening our neighborhood, the business environment and the natural vitality of this exciting urban area.
From ensuring clean, safe streets to promoting area events, the Downtown Crossing Partnership’s collaborative efforts are an urban success story.

The crawl started at 5:30 at Marliave, where we received our Wine Crawl Pass, a button indicating we were on the crawl, and a holiday savings pass good at many stores, restaurants & hotels in the Downtown Crossing area. (The holiday pass is also available on DCP's homepage.) By 5:50 or so, there were about 100 people gathered and a DCP representative briefly thanked us for coming and explained that we could visit the bars in any order we wished. Each bar we visited, had a variety of wines and appetizers to choose from, along with a designated spot for crawlees. Some bars even offered us 2nd glasses of wine (Max & Dylan's was especially generous.)

Cheers! (That's my man hand in the front)

We ended up going to 5 of the 7 crawl stops, stopping by Marliave, Lock Ober, Max & Dylan's, Mantra, and then Ivy for the wrap party. The crawl was so well organized and the bars actually looked happy to have us there, even though we weren't paying customers. This event was also a reminder that there are some other places to have dinner and drinks in the Downtown Crossing area besides Fajitas & 'Ritas (which is good, but it's nice to have variety.) I had never been to Mantra before, and was impressed by the layout and cool decor. Perhaps it was a little too trendy for me though, because the bathroom stalls feature two-way mirrors on the inside of the stall doors. The bathroom was empty when I went inside, but when I closed the stall door I could see 2 other women enter and start to fix their hair at the counter. Even though I knew they couldn't see me, it was still very unsettling to see them, and I was struck with performance anxiety for a bit!

Photo taken from inside the stall. You can see the stainless steel sinks through the door.

Also, I have to admit that on my way out of the bathroom, I couldn't help but wave enthusiastically at a closed stall door. Hopefully, I didn't give the girl too much of a fright!

The crawl was a fun time with friends and much better than my last documented Downtown Crossing experience.