The past two years have driven many local bar and restaurant owners to drink.
The profound, persistent challenges of the COVID pandemic may be relieved — at least for a day — this coming Saturday, April 30, at 1-5 p.m., for Moline Centre’s 17th-annual Cabin Fever Pub Crawl.
Teams of four compete in the Quad Cities’ only putt-putt pub crawl through downtown Moline. $40 per team. There are prizes for 1st place and Best Hole. It’s up to bars and restaurants to get teams signed up, said Geoff Manis, Main Street manager for Moline Centre.
“Once the day comes around, people come down and bring a golf ball and their putter and go from establishment to establishment, basically playing a big ol’ round of putt-putt golf,” he said recently, noting each place creates their own hole or course, and can provide clubs and balls for patrons.
“Businesses get super creative — the more creative, the better,” Manis said. “Participants have an opportunity to vote on their favorite hole, and whatever establishment gets the most votes gets a traveling trophy.”
Last year, the Svithoid Club of Moline won that honor. The businesses involved over the years have said the pub crawl is among the top days of the year for sales, Manis said.
“Hundreds and hundreds of people come out and participate in this,” he said. In past years, it’s most been the first Saturday of April, and Manis moved it to the last one of the month to have nicer weather.
“So much of it happens outside, going bar to bar to bar,” he said. The best performing team gets a free round of golf at a local golf course and Stern Beverage (a big beer distributor) has donated a lot of prizes. “They have a connection to a lot of the bars, so it helps them as well,” Manis said.
The past two years have been incredibly difficult for bars and restaurants, so this year’s pub crawl will give each place’s proceeds back to the business.
Drink specials are available and each player receives an awesome gift compliments of Stern Beverage, Inc. The following locations are participating:
- Analog II, 1405 5th Ave.
- Bad Boyz Pizza and Pub, 313 16th St.
- Bent River Brewing Company, 1413 5th Ave.
- Bierstube Moline, 415 15th St.
- Broken Saddle, 1417 5th Ave.
- Chimies Taco Bar, 1409 5th Ave.
- Galena Brewing Company, 1534 River Drive
- O’Keefe’s Sports Pub & Grub, 1331 5th Ave.
- Pour Bros. Craft Taproom, 1209 4th Ave.
- Pub 1848, 1601 River Drive
- Rebellion Brew Haus, 1529 3rd Ave. A
- Suzi’s Pub, 514 16th St.
- Svithiod Club of Moline, 1522 6th Ave.
- The Other Bar, 1522 River Drive
- Tommy’s Bar, 1302 4th Ave.
From helping downtown back to businesses
Though Manis works to offer family-friendly events downtown (since he began in the job in 2019), the pub crawl is clearly not that. The pub crawl is for just a sliver of the Quad Cities, and he planned in 2020 to do one to benefit Junior Achievement.
“My thought was, if kids can’t participate, we’d make it a fundraiser to give back to the kids,” Manis said. In 2020, of course, it had to be cancelled due to COVID.
In all its previous years, the funds raised went back to Moline Centre for downtown beautification or other projects, Manis said. The pub crawl came back in a limited way for 2021, with many holes outside, but instead of benefitting any nonprofit or Moline Centre, all proceeds went back to participating bars and restaurants.
“Everyone knows that almost all the businesses impacted by the pandemic and economic crisis that was brought on by it, the bars and restaurants took the biggest hit,” he said. “In downtown Moline, they certainly did.”
“You talk to any restaurant, if you can only seat 50 percent of people indoors, that’s not sustainable,” Manis said. “There still is that interest in the pub crawl; they can make thousands and thousands of dollars. Instead of raking that back to Moline Centre or a nonprofit, all proceeds go to help the small businesses in downtown Moline that are participating, that have been profoundly impacted by COVID-19.”
“It’s been an economic tragedy for these businesses,” Manis said. “It may seem that this pandemic or endemic is over for a lot of the general public — for them, financially, it’s not. It’s far from over. They have a lot to recoup, a lot of momentum to get back, to having a sustainable small business.
“They’re surviving month to month anyways,” he said. “When you roll in a pandemic, with rigid, strict mandates from the state of Illinois enforced on the small businesses — especially the bars and restaurants, that this is still a very real thing to try and come back from.”
It’s been great in recent months in downtown, as the TaxSlayer Center has been booming with big sports and entertainment events, with good attendance, which helps the downtown bars, Manis said. “Things are beginning to feel like normal again and this pub crawl is just another thing to add to that.”
New bars look to benefit
Among the April 30 participants, Suzi’s Pub & Slots is new, after overhauling the former Christopher D’s, at 514 16th St., this past winter.
“We are very excited to be participating in the Cabin Fever Pub Crawl. We opened January 14th and this will be our first Moline Centre event,” Brandon Zeglin, the bar’s social media, marketing and events coordinator, said recently. “We look forward to having all the participants see how much work we have put into remodeling our pub. Our putt putt hole is going to be pretty cool too.”
Owned by Susan McAfoos, the bar is the 23rd Suzi’s location in Illinois, but its first pub. Suzi’s has several video gaming locations in the QC area, including four others in Moline, plus East Moline and Silvis. McAfoos did a total renovation of the interior in downtown Moline, including repainting and new barstools.
She is friends with the former Christopher D’s owner, who retired after running the place 40 years. She’s leasing now with the option to buy, Zeglin said.
Business has been spotty since opening, but picks up with nice weather like this past weekend, he said. “We’re looking forward to this pub crawl to show off our new digs. We have some great bartenders and great drink specials. Nice, big 65-inch TVs — we’ve got plenty of those, and we have the only pool table in downtown Moline as well.” (There are no slots yet.)
He hopes the pub crawl boosts business. “We’re hoping it picks up just for everybody,” Zeglin said.
Pour Bros. Taproom, at 1209 4th Ave. (another newcomer), also is optimistic about the event.
“We look forward to introducing customers to our business and the ‘Pour Your Own’ concept,” co-owner Rob Mathisen said Monday. “We have been really excited about the support we have received from Moline.”
Since opening in January, patrons use a debit card or credit card to get a Pour Bros. card, that uses RFID technology to scan at each self-serve tap, and customers can pour whatever amount they want, within a 1/10 of an ounce.
Each of 28 taps is topped with a small tablet that shows what the drink is, where it’s from, its price per ounce (generally 38 cents to 80 cents), alcoholic content, and if you tap the screen, you can get more detailed information.
Of the 28 rotating taps, four on the left are typically wines. The taps range from mead and hard cider, to seltzer, and dark, amber, ale, traditional, fruit and sour style beers. If you get a full pint from the taps, prices average $6 to $9 a glass.
The downtown Moline bar is the third Pour Bros. location — in addition to Champaign and Peoria Heights, Ill.
