700-plus attend Ale in Autumn in Medina

Event helps showcase local businesses

Photos by Tom Rivers
MEDINA – Rose Elliott, owner of Rose’s Alterations at 104 West Center St., is dressed as a barmaid during today’s Ale in Autumn event in Medina.

More than 700 people bought tickets for the event, which is organized by the Medina Business Association.

Elliott is pictured inside the first floor of the Bent’s Opera House. She said beer-tasting has proven a fun event for the business owners and the crowds of people sampling the beer.

Meghan Fuller serves beer at ellen j goods, a store with repurposed furniture. Her parents, Lynn and J.R. Brundage, operate the business. Meghan, 35, said she is pleased to see Medina drawing so many young adults to shop and visit the community for special events.

This sign is on the sidewalk outside The Bread Basket on Main Street.

This is the seventh time Medina businesses have hosted the Ale in Autumn. Last year was a sell-out with all 750 tickets sold. The Medina Business Association topped 700 tickets sold this time, but didn’t quite get a sell-out, said Cindy Robinson, MBA president.

She was pleased with the turnout, especially because Batavia and Buffalo also had beer-tasting events today.

The event makes a few thousand dollars for the MBA, which will use some of that to replace banners in the downtown. Robinson said the MBA may use some of the proceeds from Ale in Autumn to buy new garbage cans that have a historic feel to better blend in with the downtown.

“It’s not meant to be a big money-maker,” she said about the event. “We just want to bring people downtown to see our businesses.”

Kim Keil, co-owner of The Wide Angle Art Gallery, serves beer-tastings from the gallery on Main Street. Wide Angle opened a year ago during Ale in Autumn.

Keil said the beer-tastings get people to the gallery, where they see the work of local artists and learn about classes at Wide Angle.

Andrew Meier, owner of the Hart House Hotel, serves tastings of beer. Meier, the mayor of Medina, said many of the people on the trail of beer-tastings didn’t know there was a boutique hotel in downtown Medina with six rooms.

The Ale in Autumn event served its purpose for the merchants, helping to get potential customers inside the shop doors.

“This is really about discovering the places in Medina,” Meier said.