2014 September First Friday at Albany Square Recap

Another amazing First Friday cel­e­bra­tion is in the books! We say it every month, but it seems like each First Friday is bigger than the last!

We wel­comed back our favorite celebrity bar­tender, Nick Peterson (he was off working with Give Kids the World last month) and he did a fab­u­lous job serving up our sig­na­ture cock­tail from the Junior League of Tampa’s Cap­ture the Coast Cook­book. Guests also enjoyed delec­table flat­breads gen­er­ously pro­vided by Boca Tampa. Located just around the corner, Boca is an amazing restau­rant with the phi­los­ophy of sea­sonly fresh ingre­di­ents from local growers. If you have never been to Boca, you must go! Want proof of local and organic items being used in your food? Check out their living wall of greens. That’s right, in place of art­work, there are sev­eral areas that are “dec­o­rated” with live let­tuces, greens and herbs that are actu­ally used in your meals!

The ladies from the Junior League of Tampa were in the house as our spot­light charity. So much more than just cook­books (which are fab­u­lous!), the Junior League of Tampa is 1,800 ladies strong and respon­sible for giving back 75,000 hours of ser­vice to the com­mu­nity and over 60,000 vol­un­teer hours, each year. Focusing on crit­ical com­mu­nity needs, the league is com­prised of pow­erful ladies from all walks of life. Stu­dents, politi­cians, busi­ness owners, CEOs, and stay-​​at-​​home moms all make up the won­derful force that is the Junior League of Tampa. We are pleased to announce that we expe­ri­enced our highest sales of the night for a First Friday with 20% of the sales going back to the League. Thank you to all of the Lea­guers that came out to sup­port Clayton Gray Home and we are so happy to give back to the community.

It has been so much fun to watch First Friday grow over the last few months, with more and more neigh­bors joining in on the party. From the Oxford Exchange down to Malindy Elene Cou­ture for the Bride, shop­pers were able to visit many of our friends including Soho Cycling Studio, and the awe­some col­lab­o­ra­tion of Pow­er­Sto­ries and Buddy Brew Coffee for open mic night.

Once again, Michael Trefry of michaelJon Pho­tog­raphy did a fab­u­lous job cap­turing the moments of the night. Michael is an up and coming local pho­tog­ra­pher that has cap­tured sev­eral of our First Friday moments and we are very thankful for his sup­port. He is avail­able for all kinds of ses­sions, check out his Face­book page for more information.

We have amazing plans for October, so if you missed First Friday this time, save the date for October 3rd. As always, if you are inter­ested in joining us as a First Friday par­tic­i­pant as a charity, food or beer/​wine sponsor, please con­tact us at the shop for more info.