MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) -
Cantina Restaurant General Manager Ryan Dougherty says he's recuperating from the 4-day Staycation traffic.
"I saw a lot of people come downtown that have never been here before," Dougherty said.
But he's not complaining at all, in fact, he's happy that the restaurant that just turned a year old last month is growing.
This was the restaurant's first year participating in Staycation and he says it was a huge success.
"I think we are all getting to a point where we are all working cooperatively together to promote downtown and if people didn't know, now they do," Dougherty said.
He says when Pub Crawl kicked off at six o'clock Friday night business started to boom and didn't die down until memorial day evening.
Food and drink specials popularized new items like chicken nachos.
"Memorial day weekend could be an opportunity where revenue would be lost because people would be going away but I think what the city is doing with the Staycation, it's absolutely is keeping people here and keeping people downtown where they are discovering it's a great place to spend some time with your family," Dougherty said.
Nearly 9,000 people turned out to downtown Montgomery and the city's Riverfront for Staycation events and activities.
From the two-day Watercross events, memorial day family fun day and pub crawl, it was a big economic boost for this four-day period.
"You're looking at roughly around $500,000 generated from the event you know through the ones who decided to stay in a hotel and gas and food and restaurants," Riverfront Facilities Manager Tom Pierce said.
Staycation was originally set for labor day weekend, but was moved up to coincide with the Watercross event, which took place over the weekend on the Alabama River.
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