Update: $20 raffle tickets are now available in every Patchogue Village restaurant as well as participating places outside the village, such as at Rudi’s Bar & Grill on Route 112.
Patchogue’s restaurants are pooling their resources to offer two grand prize winners the chance to win gift baskets overflowing with gift cards for local eats.
$20 tickets to win “30 Days of Eating in Patchogue” will be available at most local restaurants (list below), as well as the Greater Patchogue Chamber of Commerce offices at 15 North Ocean Avenue.
Each basket will be worth over $2,000.
“I think it’s an incredible idea; how can you go wrong?” said David Kennedy, the chamber’s executive director. “It’s a gift that will just keep on giving.”
The money is being used to fund the ever-growing Midnight on Main St. ball-dropping celebration, which happens at 9 p.m. on New Year’s Eve.
The idea originated from James Gilroy at Fulton’s Gate, who for a past St. Baldrick’s Day fundraiser collected gift cards from local restaurants for one raffle basket.
It wound up being the most popular basket of the night by far.
“Almost $2,000 came from that raffle alone, and I told the restaurant committee, if we can do this thing we’ll be able to fund Midnight on Main Street, which is a terrific event in town but it’s one that neither the village nor the chamber have the budget for.”
And it’s already proven to work.
While crediting Gilroy with the idea, Mike McElwee, a co-owner of Local Burger Co. in Bay Shore, helped set up a similar raffle that helped fund the hamlet’s Alive by the Bay street festival series.
“It’s one of those things,” Gilroy said. “It helps everybody out.”
Participating restaurants will likely be from all over the area, including North Patchogue and East Patchogue — not just downtown.
The winning tickets will be pulled during Midnight on Main St.
Each basket also includes four tickets to the Jan. 27 installment of Vintage Vinyl Live at Patchogue Theatre for the Performing Arts.
The Colony Shop in Patchogue is also selling tickets.
Photo: The Tap Burger at The Tap Room. (Credit: GreaterPatchogue file photo)
