Thousands flock to Long Grove's Cocoa Crawl; ‘The launch of the 2025 festival season'
As the event started, Ryan Messner, a Long Grove business owner and Historic Downtown Long Grove Business Association president, said, 'Cocoa Crawl is the launch of the 2025 festival season in Long Grove.
'It's a family fun, friendly event,' he said.
Free hot chocolate stations around Long Grove drew crowds of patrons.
'You've got six flavors of cocoa that you get to walk around and try,' Messner said. 'Who doesn't like coming out for free hot cocoa to start the season?'
Messner's son Logan, 14, volunteered with his father, checking on the beverage inventory at hot cocoa station tents around town.
'Volunteering is kind of good because you can really help everyone,' Logan Messner said. 'You can help the community. You can give back to everyone what they've given to you.'
Several businesses new to Long Grove were busy with Cocoa Crawl customer traffic.
Sylvia Salimi, the owner of Blooming Boutique Flowers, shared space inside with Hana Weber, the operator of Sorelle Italian Market. Weber offered free hot chocolate and signature cookies as a thank-you to those who stopped by.
'It's been fantastic,' Weber said.
Blooming Boutique Flowers opened in May and is located next to the historic Robert Parker Coffin Road Bridge.
'We love Long Grove,' Salimi said. 'We live in Long Grove, so it just made sense with our little ones to open a business here.'
Her husband Ari said, 'As a family and a business, when we moved from the city we looked for a spot and we knew we wanted to be in the (Adlai E.) Stevenson (High School) district. We love family, and we want to give back to the community as well.
'When we saw and heard of Long Grove, we decided to plant our roots here for the next 18 years until our three children go through and graduate,' he said. '(Sylvia) picked the spot, the iconic bridge that everybody knows about is the backdrop for her shop. We thought it was going to be something great.'
Sylvia Salimi added, 'We couldn't miss out on this opportunity here right by the bridge, and the festivals are all fun. The Cocoa Crawl's a great turnout. We've had a ton of people here.'
John and Jenna Rickard moved to Long Grove from Los Angeles, with their children Will, 5, and Riley, 2. Jenna Rickard grew up in Buffalo Grove, and was a 2004 high school graduate.
'We came back to Lake County for the schools,' Jenna Rickard said. 'And we wanted a nice place for our kids to go to school in the public school system, and this was a great place.'
John Rickard added, 'This just seemed like a good spot to settle down and raise our family.'
On the same retail side along the flower shop is storefront business Ritzy Christmas, which opened later last year and operated by siblings Amanda and Ramona Aesho. The inventory of Ritzy Christmas includes Christmas ornaments, but also seasonal items of all holidays, including birthday gifts and a Valentine's Day ornamental tree with oversized jewels.
'The Cocoa Crawl is bringing in customers,' Amanda Aesho said. 'It's been busy. It's wonderful.'
Attending the Cocoa Crawl with visitors from Wisconsin was Deb Bello of Kildeer.
'Lake County is just great,' Bello said. 'We love the small-town feel of Long Grove and all of the little shops, and just enjoy coming here and all the little festivals.'
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