Jennifer Martinez of Aurora has this thing for hot chocolate that she just can’t seem to shake.
“They’ve had a Cocoa Crawl here in downtown Aurora the past few years and I’ve come to every one of them,” she said while sitting inside Tredwell Coffee Friday night. “I got my mother-in-law and my brother from Plainfield to come here with me. I really hyped it up.”
Aurora’s final First Fridays event of the year featured a sweet holiday finish as the Aurora Downtown group once again offered its popular Cocoa Crawl, leading visitors to a variety of venues with mugs in hand waiting to sample various hot chocolate concoctions.
A total of 40 venues helped close out the eighth year of First Fridays and the third Cocoa Crawl, following last year’s modifications due to the pandemic. A total of 30 of the venues taking part in First Fridays offered samplings of hot chocolate, with options ranging from a vegan version featured at Creative Cocoa Fusions to the Aurora Tap House serving up a spiked version for a slightly additional cost.
Other options included Tredwell Coffee offering a Mexican hot chocolate and Holz Fine Art, which elected to serve hot apple cider instead.
Manager for Aurora Downtown Marissa Amoni said participation was strong for the final holiday event and that the Cocoa Crawl “was once again nearly sold out” just 48 hours before opening.
“We have a number of new businesses that opened this year that are also participating in the Cocoa Crawl including a new toy store and another business that relocated from Broadway to River Street,” Amoni said. “This is also the first for Society 57 where we’ll have our official photo booth set up there.”
Shannon Gutierrez of Aurora, owner of Wyckwood House at 14 W. Downer Place, confirmed that Friday’s crawl was indeed a sell out and that she and her staff were looking forward to serving up their own formula of hot chocolate.
“I can’t tell you what’s in it or it wouldn’t be a secret recipe,” she said as she set up things on the hot chocolate bar. “We actually had a couple of people call here just an hour ago to see if they could still buy tickets, and we had to tell them they were all gone. We’ve got cans of whipped cream and some neat toppings and we’re going to blow through them all. It’s a fantastic event. It brings the community out.”
A holiday bazaar was also offered for the first time at Gallery 1904 which included more than a dozen artists offering handmade cards, art, jewelry, head pieces, mixed media art and more.
Merchants like Isabel Martinez of Aurora, manager of Tredwell Coffee, said it was great to welcome people downtown to celebrate the holidays and that the Cocoa Crawl “was a good way to end the First Fridays season.”
“It’s nice to have people out and about again and getting them to come downtown while still being safe,” she said.
Martinez said the store has been part of all the Cocoa Crawls to date and that “the hot chocolate we are serving uses a traditional hot chocolate that a lot of Mexican or Latin families like and we’ve been serving it since we opened.”
Tredwell owner Chad Dawes was seen setting up a coffee bar outside and reflected on this year’s First Fridays season.
“I think it went well. It was definitely pared down but I feel the city did a great job in accommodating people through the pandemic,” he said. “Tonight, I know they sold this out.”
Jennifer Martinez’s mother-in-law Diana Carbajal of Plainfield admitted Jennifer convinced her to try the Cocoa Crawl.
“I don’t have any agenda on where I’m going, I’m just going to go with the flow,” she said. “If there are 30 hot chocolates I’ll probably try around 10.”
Meka Elme of Aurora said she has come to a number of First Fridays and “has pretty much shopped” during each visit.
“I got to know a lot of different small businesses and I feel like you find products you won’t find at other places. I really appreciate that about First Fridays,” she said. “It’s a way for small businesses to show what they have to offer.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
