Above photo courtesy of CPI.

COBLESKILL - Despite the biting wind and overcast skies, smiling faces showed up to CPI’s 3rd Annual Soup Stroll last Saturday afternoon in record numbers.

Typically held in the spring, the Soup Stroll is all about promoting what the community has to offer by partnering with several restaurants in the village.

For twenty dollars, attendees can pick up a wristband from CPI and go on to sample eight ounce cups of soup from every participating business, with all proceeds being donated to the food pantries run by the Cobleskill United Methodist Church and the Baptist Church.

This year, CPI partnered with Locomotion’s, Cowboy’s Taqueria, Brick House Bakery, Bull’s Head Inn, Pizza Shack, and Chieftain’s to fill the air with smells of broccoli cheddar, lobster bisque, fire-roasted tomato, and more.

And the businesses were more than happy to serve the incoming foot traffic. Steve Meyers, the owner of Locomotion’s, was fully behind the idea of the Soup Stroll.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “CPI is really easy to work with. People realize that we’re not just a bar, we’re a restaurant as well.”

“I see people coming back that we haven’t seen before, so we’re grateful for the new customers,” he concluded.

The workers at Pizza Shack shared the sentiment, saying “CPI organized the whole thing, which we’re grateful for. We’ve been serving the strollers our lobster bisque, and people are telling us already that they might come back, which is great.”

Finally, CPI President Bruce Tryon was ecstatic to see the turnout as he manned the wristband booth on Main Street. 

“The 3rd Annual Soup Stroll was a huge success with 251 paid participants,” he said. “On behalf of CPI and all of the strollers, many thanks to the participating restaurants for their soup offerings this year.”

“It was a great day for soup, and for Cobleskill,” he finished by saying.