So apparently Rochester has this wonderful thing called First Friday whereby a whole bunch of neat arts and cultural organizations and local shops and eateries in the city pull together for a free shindig on the first Friday of every month, hosted by a different location. This March 1 First Friday was at Writers & Books, an awesome organization where my friend Kristen works and where the Young Professional’s book club I am in originated and meets. To accompany the “If All of Rochester Read The Same Book…” selection of Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea, the festivities were Mexican themed. Selena’s donated delicious free Mexican food to eat including rice, beans, tortilla chips, salsa, and empanadas (and as a born-and-bred Texan who is a pretty harsh critic of other state’s feeble Tex-Mex attempts, I have been fairly impressed with Selena’s food), my friend Kristen mixed me up a drink of tequila, cranberry juice and fresh lime, there was a live Mariachi band, The Magnificent Seven (the movie that, in part, inspired the book I’m reading) was playing on the TV, a few friendly faces I knew were there to chat with and, of course, I had Into the Beautiful North to finish before this week’s book club meeting. It was a pretty chill and wonderful evening. I’m thinking I’ll be participating in more of these First Friday events in the future. Also, they had a scavenger hunt where they hid a handful of tiny little toy iguanas at participating venues across the city. If you found and brought back an iguana by 9 p.m., you received a free copy of Into the Beautiful North. I’m a total sucker for scavenger hunts, so this is obviously fate.
Does your city have a First Friday?
