Eat, drink and be merry in Merced at St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser

This year’s St. Patrick’s Day offers a chance to drink beer, eat corned beef and help out a Merced nonprofit all at the same time.

The Merced Art Hop Pub Crawl is 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday in and around Main Street. The Art Hop’s Epekel Gallery, 1733 Canal St., serves as the headquarters but more than a dozen restaurants, bars and shops are involved in the night’s events.

Outside of the money the city of Merced contributes to the quarterly Art Hop, the crawl serves as the event’s biggest fundraiser, according to Kevin Hammon, the co-creator of the Hop.

“And it’s good, because it’s helping the bars and restaurants,” he said.

The crawl on St. Paddy’s day is the second of its kind, he said, noting that another crawl is held around Halloween. The event that promotes drink specials, free trials and other offers, averages about 100 crawlers.

On top of the cheap beer at Gabe’s Tavern and free tacos at J&R Tacos, to name a few, the event offers a scavenger hunt around downtown. The hunt, which includes 10 riddles, can win someone a night out for two that includes movie tickets, dinner and more.

Another drawing is a chance to win a $50 Best Buy gift card.

For tickets or more, go to www.mercedarthop.org or call 209-349-8682.

This story was originally published March 15, 2017 at 4:42 PM with the headline "Eat, drink and be merry in Merced at St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser."