The first Summer Saturdays put on by the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA) will kick off this weekend with an overwhelming amount of activities for the area\u2019s locals and visitors alike to indulge in celebration of warmer months.<\/p>\n
From beer making to myriad specials offered by businesses, it\u2019s a way to bring the community out to support the area\u2019s local proprietors, said BKBIA Executive Director Blair Cohn. The design of the event specifically puts people inside local businesses up and down Long Beach Boulevard and Atlantic Avenue and aims to get more BKBIA members outside of the pedestrian zone involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real mission of the event is to have the business host an activity that showcases what they do and what they do best,\u201d said Cohn.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Bjvl8E7gUhk\/<\/p>\n
Cheese Addiction, for example, is offering cheese and wine pairing classes, Deep Blue Swim School\u2014in line with the event\u2019s theme: Mermaids & Seadragons\u2014is offering a free \u201cswimming with a mermaid\u201d event and The Merchant is discounting pastries to 40 percent off. A \u201cBeer Trolley\u201d will be transporting jolly imbibers to and from locations like Liberation Brewing Co. and SmogCity at SteelCraft \u201cto get our \u2018Brewery Knolls\u2019 theme going,\u201d said Cohn.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spectrum goes from a silent movie with live score to a blues brunch and a dance party,\u201d Cohn said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve met our goal of coming out the gate strong, doing it differently, and making it all interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Personally, Cohn said he\u2019s going to see how many places he can stop by within the allotted three hours. He has a list printed and ready and will be starting at one end of the street and working this way throughout the entire district.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think I\u2019m most looking forward to taking my daughter Marley swimming with a mermaid at Deep Blue Swim School, hopping on the Beer Trolley and stopping at Knolls Restaurant for some 80s hits and a drink, getting some of those pancakes, checking out the barefoot dance party, and enjoying the local artists,\u201d Cohn said. \u201cIt will be a fun challenge to see and do it all but we are up for it.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/BjvqxADh-SM\/<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, July and August will feature different themes, with Cohn anticipating even more businesses jumping on the bandwagon. The challenge of organizing a day-time event are not lost on Bixby Knoll\u2019s most avid promoter, but with such \u201cextra special\u201d programming and guests able to stick around for dinner after the classes and music, Cohn isn\u2019t worried.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if people just go to The Pan restaurant for the amazing pancakes for $1 each, we have met the mission of the event,\u201d said Cohn. \u201cBut I do hope that people will make multiple stops, try something new, meet the business owners, meet neighbors, and just be very happy and proud to live in this area. They should look forward to the next month\u2019s event and our upcoming Concerts in the Park(ing Lot) series, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cThe real mission of the event is to have the business host an activity that showcases what they do and what they do best,\u201d said BKBIA Executive Director Blair Cohn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":66240,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[400],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-summer-saturdays","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=725"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}