P’ville Rotary’s Popular Hudson Valley Fermented Returns in Person
News Based on facts, either observed and verified directly by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
For those who have loved attending the Pleasantville Rotary’s Hudson Valley Fermented to sample delicious food and great wines, spirits and ciders, there’s great news.
One of the biggest fundraisers of the year for the club is back, and in person, this Saturday afternoon from 12 to 3 p.m. at Pace University’s Pleasantville campus with no shortage of mouthwatering food and refreshing beverages that promises to make the event as special as ever.
For the first time since 2019, the Pleasantville Rotary will be offering Hudson Valley Fermented as an in-person event, although attendance will be capped at 250, said Henry Leyva, the club’s current president. (The 2020 renewal, scheduled right at the time of the March 2020 COVID-19 shutdown, was canceled and last year organizers went ahead with a virtual event, which was encouraging but without the selection and social interaction.)
“One of the things that we did was decide to do it as a smaller event,” Leyva explained about this year. “So we decided from the beginning to limit it to 250 guests. There are some limitations from Pace in terms of capacity at the Kessel Center, so we thought that’s not a bad idea, we’ll just have fewer people and try to spread things out.”
Initially, the Rotary marketed Fermented as a VIP event, a sort of smaller but exclusive three-hour window for people to try their favorite foods and experiment with beverages for $100. But as sales slowed, Leyva said the Rotary offered general admission tickets for $60. General admission tickets will admit patrons from 1 to 3 p.m. and those ticketholders will not receive the event t-shirt.
For this year, Hudson Valley Fermented will be at Gottesman Hall, rather than the Kessel Student Center. With this arrangement, patrons can choose to head outside, particularly if the weather is good, Leyva said. All of the vendors will be inside, and the guests can mill about and spread out in comfort.
“We’re going to keep those doors open the whole time and we’re going to encourage our guests to go out and enjoy the café area,” Leyva said. “We’re going to have our band, The Station Agents, playing outside, and it’ll be an indoor-outdoor event that I think will let folks feel more comfortable and make it a safer event, quite honestly.”
What will be the same as past years are the outstanding food and beverage choices. Previously, Hudson Valley Fermented was only for New York State-based breweries, distilleries and cideries, but for this year it has been expanded to include close to 20 different wines from France, Spain, Italy as well as the West Coast of the United States, Leyva said.
Add about five or six distilleries and a couple of cideries and there will be no shortage of great selections to try.
However, the 10 food establishments are all local, the majority of which are located in Pleasantville such as Dolphin South, Chatterbox, Second Mouse Cheese Shop, Tesoro D’Italia and Old Village Craft Pizza & Beer.
Perhaps best of all, the money raised will be donated toward various charities and organizations. In 2019, Hudson Valley Fermented raised about $45,000, according to its website.
This year’s three primary beneficiaries will be the Pleasantville Fund for Learning, Break the Hold, which addresses mental illness, and Team Fox for Parkinson’s Research. Smaller amounts will be donated to a variety of charities
“We continue our fundraising so we can continue to help causes like that, and since its inception, Hudson Valley Fermented has been the biggest fundraiser for our club every year, so we’re really focused on a successful event to be able to fund all these different endeavors both local and international,” Leyva said.
If tickets are bought online through Friday, patrons will continue to pay the $60 general admission price or the $100 VIP ticket. For day-of-event purchases, including online, tickets will increase to $70 and $115, respectively.
For tickets and more information, visit www.hvfermented.com.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
