The second annual Savor Springfield passport event kicked-off at Dark & Stormy Food Garden and Lounge at 420 Main St. on Aug. 29. The event is a month long quest to gather stamps from food establishments around Springfield in order to win prizes. VICTORIA STEPHENS/THE CHRONICLE
SPRINGFIELD – The second annual Savor Springfield passport event kicked off Thursday, Aug. 29
at Dark & Stormy, located at 420 Main St. in Springfield. The month-long contest concludes with a
celebration scheduled for the PublicHouse on Sept. 27. A raffle drawing will be held at the finale for
those who collect 15 or more stamps on their passports. Those with eight stamps are eligible to redeem
their passports for a commemorative glass at PublicHouse.
Twenty-one companies throughout the Springfield area are participating in this year’s contest.
Passports are available at participating merchants and no purchase is necessary. The event is sponsored
by Travel Lane County, Springfield Chamber of Commerce and the City of Springfield to encourage
and promote awareness of the many new businesses throughout the area. The 21 merchants located
throughout Springfield include restaurants, bars, cafes, coffee shops and other food businesses.
The Savor Springfield passport event originated last year, when it ran for one week with only 10
businesses. At that time, only businesses in the downtown area of Springfield were involved. This
year’s businesses are as far east as Vinnie’s Smokin’ BBQ at 38493 McKenzie Highway and as far
north as Hop Valley Brewing Company’s Springfield location in the Gateway area at 980 Kruse Way.
”It turned out really great and lots of other businesses were interested in being a part of it, which is
awesome, so this year we extended it to citywide and did the full month,” said Max Molzahn,
manager of the membership development for the Springfield Chamber of Commerce.
The passport event is countywide, and still unique to Springfield according to Andy Vobora, a VP
with Travel Lane County. ”Last year we were working with PublicHouse on their grand opening
event,” he said. ”We just started chatting about the fact that we had all of these brand-new restaurants
and bars opening in Downtown Springfield, and why don’t we do a little passport program.
”This year’s event has evolved to include restaurants, bars and food venues throughout all of
Springfield,” he said.
”We spread the word as far and wide as we could,” Molzahn said. ”We are very happy to see that we
had every corner of town represented.”
A complete list of participating companies with a map of locations and addresses is available online at:
eugenecascadescoast.org.
