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Date: 6/13/2023
WORTHINGTON — Eric and Aaron Frary, co-owners of the Goldenrod Country Inn, will be prime suspects on June 17 in the sip and solve murder mystery, a collaboration among five local watering holes.
“Folks will come through and each place will have their signature drink offerings,” Eric Fray said. “While people are sampling they will also be collecting clues for a murder here in town…fingerprints, different items found at the crime scene, as they go to each location. Then they’ll be able to make their guess and enter it for a chance to win some prizes.”
The group of five businesses staged a zombie pub crawl last October that drew hundreds of partyers to Ridge Road, where all but the Goldenrod are located. Patrons gave the zombie walk rave reviews and clamored for warm weather events. The new business owners served many new customers, who got to see the significant investments made by the owners in their properties.
David Pollard, co-owner with his wife, Helen, of The Links at Worthington, one of the businesses involved, is also a suspect in the murder game. The Pollards, long time members of the club they bought in 2018, invested in a new outdoor deck and other significant improvements. They also appreciate the new cooperation among town businesses.
“I’ve lived here my whole life and I don’t remember businesses collaborating in this fashion,” Pollard said. The interactive events help dispel the COVID-19 hangover. “Things like this help bring the [people] back out of their homes and back into the community.”
The pub crawls are a new strategy to draw patrons to town. The events are also a sign the town is evolving. Many of the businesses, such as the golf course, changed hands in the last few years or saw new owners take over. The Pollard’s didn’t want the golf club, established in 1904, to close or be moved somewhere else.
Liston’s Bar and Restaurant was an Esso filling station and a bar before Jessica Yarmey and Brigid Ryan took it over. They closed Liston’s for a year, tore down the old building and built a new sports bar.
“Everyone was itching for us to reopen and come visit us,” Ryan said. “We didn’t expect to be busy, but we also knew we would have the locals who always came to the old Liston’s, and the people who were excited to see the new building.”
The two local women were employed in the banking industry, but running the bar wasn’t completely foreign to them. Both worked as bartenders at Liston’s when they were fresh out of high school. Now they serve a popular corn beef Reuben and stock a variety of top shelf bourbons. The special offering during the sip and solve will be oysters fresh for the shucking.
Jarod Sena, operator of Sena’s Farm Brewery, also took over an existing business — the family farm — and departed from the ways previous generations made a go of it. His grandfather grew produce, used the big building on the property as a potato barn, but also ran an auction house. His father and uncle operated a cross country skiing center on the farm for many years, until 2004.
“I’m gonna have this new Czech style pilsner on draft,” Sena said. “I’m gonna have this new gluten free guava mango beverage.” Sena finds it a challenge to keep up with the demand for his flagship brew, gentle meadow, but will make sure there’s plenty for the sip and solve. “I call it a pale ale, it’s just not quite as bitter. It’s like a New England style, heavy mosaic dry hop on it, and I just can’t keep up with that. That’ll all be ready for the pub crawl.”
Annie and Matt Lagoy, Pollard’s sister and her husband, run Stone Cellar Cidery, which sits on Ridge Road midway between The Links and Liston’s. The couple reclaimed an apple orchard in 2017 and began making cider varietals. During the sip and solve they too will be suspects in the murder and also serve up trays of five or six samples of hard cider.
“It’s a labor of love,” Matt Lagoy said. He mentioned two varieties, smoke and HD254, that are very popular right now. “Both are dry ciders, but it really depends on what the apples give us.”
At the Goldenrod Country Inn, where the murder victim was employed as a bartender, visitors can start by trying the delicious soft cheeses the couple makes from the milk of their own goats. They also use garden grown herbs and whey, left over from the cheesemaking process, to mix up craft cocktails.
Hopeful detectives can start at the inn or at Liston’s, which anchor each end of the 2.4 mile line along Ridge Road and into town. Designated drivers are encouraged. The festivities will conclude at the inn, where Katherine First and the Kitchen Band will play on an outdoor stage. The crawl will run from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. on June 17.
Eric Frary was still thinking about who did the dirty deed. “We only have a very small police force,” he joked, “so they need help in solving the crime.”