Love The Ave en Flor: Everybody wins!
The votes are in, and Acushnet Avenue has a couple of new reasons to bloom with pride! The Love The Ave Partnership is excited to announce the winners of its first Love The Ave en Flor storefront beautification competition.
Taking First Place is Café Monte Carlo, 1478 Acushnet Avenue, followed by Mexifruit, 1602 Acushnet Avenue, earning Second Place. Congratulations to both businesses for their creativity, eye-catching displays, and commitment to making The Ave a more beautiful place to shop, dine, and visit!
And, to all the businesses that participated. In all, there were six outstanding contenders to choose from. You can see them all in the slideshow below. In addition to Cafe Monte Carlo and Mexifruit, the other Love The Ave en Flor businesses were: Claribarbi’s Design, Renew and Restore Beauty, Taquira La Raza and Continental Meat Market.
Love The Ave en Flor brought a burst of color and imagination to the North End, transforming six storefronts into vibrant displays of neighborhood pride. With $500 in seed funding from MassDevelopment at each participating location, merchants were encouraged to let their creativity take flight. The results were showcased on Love The Ave social media, where the community was invited to vote for their favorites.
Both winning businesses will receive a professional business photography session, a promotional spotlight to help share their stories with a wider audience, and a certificate recognizing their achievement.
A big thank-you goes out to all six participating businesses and to everyone who voted, commented, shared, and helped spread the word!
Because this project was about much more than flowers and decorations. It was about celebrating the people behind our local businesses, inspiring creativity, bringing merchants together, and showing the pride that makes Acushnet Avenue such a special place.
Here’s to keeping The Ave blooming! When that happens everybody wins!
Spanish-speaking Business Expo
As a commercial powerhouse in New Bedford, Acushnet Avenue serves as a starting point for many small businesses. A good many of them cater to a Spanish-speaking clientele which helps make North End the International Marketplace.
Bringing them all together for an annual business expo is the goal of Santiago Professional Services’ business expo, happening this year on Saturday, November 7 at Whaler’s Inn & Suites, 500 Hathaway Road, New Bedford. It’s the second edition of the expo.
Last year, we spoke to organizer Guelmie Santiago and she said, “We were able to provide a space for Hispanic people – for people who do not speak English as a first language but participate or operate in all sorts of businesses in the city.”
This year’s expo on Saturday, November 7 begins with registration at 10:00 a.m. and continues through the day from 11:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Find out more and follow Santiago Professional Services on Facebook for updates.
Holiday happenings at St. Anthony’s
The always eagerly anticipated St. Anthony of Padua Holiday Bazaar takes place this year on Saturday, November 7 from 9:00 am to 5:30 pm and Sunday, November 8.from 10:00 am to 3:30 pm.
As usual it happens in the Parish Hall at 1359 Acushnet Avenue. In addition to vendors on hand to help get a start on your holiday shopping, the bazaar will also be offering American and Latino food in the kitchen. That includes delicious meat pies and savory chicken pot pies! Plus baked treats. Admission is free.
And heads up, you will probably want to head back to St. Anthony’s on Saturday, Dec. 6 for the Southcoast Festival of Choirs, a celebration of sacred music for the Christmas season. More details in our next newsletter!
