Uptown merchants to celebrate “Galentine’s Day” Thursday night

About a dozen businesses in uptown Lexington will be celebrating Galentine’s Day Thursday, February 9, with extended evening hours from 7 to 9 p.m., raffles, free gifts with purchase and other sales specials.

Krista Miller-Jarvis, the owner of Cooper Road Collection at 110 S. Main St., which sells women’s plus-size clothing, and the director of the Open Market Collective at 114 S. Main St., said she decided to organize the event based on the success of Cooper Road’s “Girls Night Out” sales events in the past. The OMC is a nonprofit business incubator designed the help local entrepreneurs test the market for a brick-and-mortar presence without a lot of overhead.

“We always got a lot of people in the door for those events,” she explained. “So, I pitched the idea to other merchants. It’s basically a big group of merchants coming together and supporting each other.”

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Galentine's Day is a “day for women to celebrate their friendships with their lady friends.” So, essentially, the meaning of Galentine's Day is Valentine's Day for your gals. The event’s creation is attributed to Leslie Knope, the fictional deputy director on the “Parks and Recreation” TV show who celebrated her female friends with brunch and gift exchanges in an episode from 2010.

“I’m pleasantly surprised how many people have jumped on board,” said the entrepreneur. “It’s our first event and I hope it will become an annual thing.

“I want to bring people into our amazing little town.” Miller-Jarvis added she has several of out-of-town Cooper Road customers who are planning to come to town just for the event.

She has ordered hundreds of neon pink glow necklaces and bracelets for customers to wear that evening and participating businesses will have pink balloons on sidewalk signs to signify their participation. A map will be available online and at participating businesses, which are primarily on the first couple of blocks of South Main St. and on West Second Ave.

The more than 10 booths at the Open Market Collective will be open that evening as well as a pop-up (temporary) booth for Bleu Boutique, a Lexington-based online women’s clothing and accessories shop owned by Carley Mitchell. Most of the OMC booths feature women’s clothing and accessories, home décor and handmade items.

At one of the booths, Rosemary’s Emporium, Tanya McCarn will be creating “permanent jewelry,” a new trend in which gold and silver chains are measured to fit around wrists and necks and then welded together at the ends. The delicate chains are meant to be worn all the time.

Miller-Jarvis noted customers who purchase items from the booths totaling $50 or more will be entered into a raffle for a gift basket that includes dinner for two at Roots on Main as well as items from the various vendors. In fact, Roots on Main, at 102 S. Main St., will have several dinner specials Thursday evening as part of the event.

At her boutique, Miller-Jarvis is offering a free gift with the purchase of $75 or more. She will have a pop-up shop in her store, Finklepott’s Original Fairy Hair. “Fairy hair” is tinsel in a variety of colors that is fused to a person’s real hair to create shimmering highlights. She said appointments are already nearly full.

Baked goods from Sinfully Delicious at 28 W. Second Ave. will be sold at Cooper Road as well as Riverhouse Emporium at 23 S. Main St., which will also be open that evening. The business is already selling raffle tickets for a Kate Spade tote bag and vintage leather-wrapped flask and two glasses. Raffle proceeds go to OMC in support of small businesses.

Fellow uptown businesses participating include Kickin’ Creations Artisan Market at 100 S. Main St., Pig City Books at 16 Court Square, Magnolia’s gift shop at 107 S. Main St., Elite Salon Spa and Tanning/Gunpowder and Lead boutique at 15 W. Second Ave., Black-Eyed Susan Apothecary at 25 W. Second Ave., Clara Jane Boutique at 21 S. Main (which will host a Simply Petals Build Your Own Bouquet pop-up shop), Lexington Souvenir Shoppe at 7 N. Main St. and Gabrielle Chic Boutique at 16 W. Second Ave. (which will host a BAM Nutrition pop-up shop featuring beauty supplement samples). The Smoke and Oak premium bourbon and cigar lounge at 127 W. Center St. will offer a specialty cocktail that day called “Lady in Red.”

Uptown restaurants will be open so Miller-Jarvis hopes customers will spend the evening having dinner and shopping. She added the event will be a good time for all people, not just girlfriends, to search for special Valentine’s Day gifts for the following week.

 “I’m really excited about it — I think it’s going to be good and a lot of fun,” she said.