Encore! Encore!

Encore is an early 18th century French word meaning “Do It Again!” And last Saturday evening in the Montrose Shopping Park, cries of “Encore! Encore!” echoed throughout. Not only our many ticketed guests, but our participating merchants as well found this First Annual Montrose Spring Wine Walk to be, well, just to quote a few, “A fabulous time!” “Huge success!” “Wow! Wow! Wow!” “An amazing night!” “So excited I’m not sure I can sleep!” “Best event ever!”

If you’ve ever come to the Montrose Shopping Park to attend an open house at one of our 180 businesses, you know how enjoyable it can be to chat, sip and chew one-on-one with shop owners while you peruse their wares. Now picture 30 open houses all taking place at once! “Wow! Wow! Wow” says it all … what a night!

To our co-sponsors, the wonderful ladies of the La Crescenta Woman’s Club, thank you and God bless you for helping us navigate the choppy waters of newness.  We weren’t quite sure what to expect and, as it turned out, the turnout was indeed astounding!  Somewhere around 500 Wine Walkers showed up to taste our wines, munch our hors d’oeuvres and, in many cases, explore some Shopping Park businesses for their first time!

To our guests who had to wait in a somewhat substantial line that wound around the corner, our apologies and the sincere hope that, once you got out there and started tasting, the pain of waiting in line dissipated quickly and that you, too, had “an amazing night.” Pictured here are three such Wine Walkers wearing their T-shirts proclaiming “Wine Sisterhood” and showing off their souvenir totes and wine glasses.

Mayor Paula Devine and husband Art, two of our many VIPs in attendance, appeared to have a fabulous time as well. Here’s the mayor with shop owner Mary Dawson.  Someone shouted “Encore!” and these ladies told us they were “all ears” to hear when this might happen again.

So if you did not take us up on our first offer to “Come taste the wine! Come hear the bands!” you’ll have another chance later this year as we begin to plan for our Holiday Wine Walk in November. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and from time to time visit our web site www.shopmontrose.com to see what we’re up to next.  Cheers, everyone!

This week our Sunday Market features fresh harvested salmon, fresh herbs (rosemary, chives, & mint) and probiotic drinks (Kambucha & bone broth). And for your listening pleasure the music of Liz Randall and The Wheelhouse Band. Visit the shops and restaurants in the Montrose Shopping Park open on Sunday for your enjoyment and pleasure. See you Sunday at the Market!