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St. Joseph’s College is encouraging its more than 3,000 students in Patchogue to fan out into the local areas and shop between classes.
To do so, they’ve arranged for discounts at almost two dozen participating restaurants and other businesses.
To kick off the initiative, they sent the school’s mascot, “Hot Wyngz,” across Waverly Avenue on Thursday to the closest participating restaurant, Sweet ‘n’ Savory, for a crepe and a bottle of Evian water.
What crepe did the big Golden Eagle order from owner Ivan Albert?
Why his namesake Hot Wyngz crepe, of course.
Along with his crepery’s discount agreement with St. Joseph’s, Albert has now named one of his more popular crepes after the school’s mascot.
What’s more, he’ll be donating $1 to the college from each Hot Wyngz crepe he sells.
“St. Joseph’s is right across the street from us, so besides giving them a 15 percent discount … we wanted to give a little more back, because they’re going to be a big part of the people who come here,” he said.
Albert also owns a crepery by the same name in Port Jefferson. He just opened locally in September in the King Kullen shopping center along Sunrise Highway.
He said he’s looking to encourage a college vibe in the Patchogue location.
“We want them to come, do their homework, bring their laptops and just enjoy eating the food, and relaxing and hanging out,” he said.
Re-naming the menu’s crepe No. 25 — buffalo chicken, cheddar, bacon and blue cheese — after Hot Wyngz was a no-brainer and the perfect fit, given the ingredients, he added.
Besides, the crepe had already been called The Wing.
On Thursday, as the big bird sat in a booth, plastic knife and fork in hand and ready to devour his namesake crepe, cameras from St. Joseph’s were rolling.
The school is putting together a video feature and plans to spotlight the Hot Wyngz crepe across its social media platforms — namely YouTube, Facebook and Twitter — as it kicks off the student discount initiative.
“The students are all going to eat, so why not keep them local?” a St. Joseph’s spokeswoman, Melissa Kuehnle, said of the idea behind the discount program, which also gets the school’s commuter students participating more in the local economy.
Related: Dorm rooms are coming to St. Joseph’s
And, she said, because of its location across the road, Sweet ‘n’ Savory was the ideal participant.
“The students like to hang out around campus,” she said. “So if they stop in and order a Hot Wyngz crepe, they will be supporting a local business and the college at the same time. I spoke to some of my co-workers in social media and marketing and we decided to use this as the launch of the student discount page on our website.
“And, we thought it would be really fun to have the mascot come and actually order his crepe.”
Any businesses looking to participate in the discount program should email mkuehnle@sjcny.edu.
Photo: Hot Wyngz ponders what to order from the Sweet ‘n’ Savory menu. (Michael White)
