4 new restaurants join Capital Crawl after St. Patrick's parade in Dover on March 16

After the St. Patrick’s parade in Dover on Saturday, March 16, eight taverns and restaurants including four new dining spots are inviting adults to stick around for food and drink specials at the first “Capital Crawl.”

Organized by the nonprofit Destination Downtown Dover, the Capital Crawl for ages 21 and older will be from 2-6 p.m., after the parade on Loockerman Street, which starts at 1 p.m.

The key to the Crawl is the event T-shirt for $25, available on the Destination Downtown Dover website and also while supplies last Friday, March 15, at Agapé Body Piercings, 135 S. Bradford St. from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. or Saturday, March 16, at 1:45 p.m. at Rail Haus, 92 N. West St.

“Your T-shirt is your ticket to access the special deals and contests,” said the group’s president, Devon Hoerner.

In addition to Rail Haus, participating taverns and restaurants are:

• Stonerail Market, 25 W. Loockerman St.
• La Hacienda, 33 W. Loockerman St.
• Irish Mike’s Old Towne Pub, 107 W. Loockerman St.
• Golden Fleece Tavern, 132 W. Loockerman St.
• 9 East Taphouse, 9 E. Loockerman St.
• 1857 Jackson House, 144 Kings Highway SW, between Loockerman and Division streets
• Grey Fox Grille, 140 S. State St., just north of Loockerman St.

“We want to keep people downtown after the parade,” Hoerner said.

What do you get with your ticket?

Along with the event T-shirt, Capital Crawlers can get food and drink specials, shuttle bus transportation to the restaurants and the chance to enter two contests.

One contest is “most festively dressed” with a chance to win two VIP wristbands to the OktDoverFest party Oct. 5. The other contest is to spotlight the tavern or restaurant with the best drink, with voting open to T-shirt holders.

New restaurants part of the March madness

Four first-year Dover restaurants will be joining the Capital Crawl.

Rail Haus held its grand opening Nov. 18 featuring a German beer garden set-up, with a variety of indoor and outdoor seating, a bocce court and big sandbox where kids can play while parents sit nearby.

More:See the new Rail Haus indoor-outdoor beer garden set to open in Dover

9 East Taphouse opened in September in the former Frazier’s building. For the Capital Crawl, the restaurant and bar is planning a variety of Irish-themed drinks with Irish whiskey and Irish cream along with green tea shots, and dishes that have Irish influences like corned beef featured in the grilled Reuben sandwich.

Another new restaurant on the Crawl is 1857 Jackson House, which opened in May in the former site of the Governor’s Café.

For Saturday's event, Jackson House will feature several options for ticket holders, said Selena Alvarez, restaurant and bar manager, starting with the mini-boxty potato pancake appetizer and the Irish soda bread grilled cheese sandwich with sharp white cheddar and corned beef.

The spotlight entrée will be bangers and mash, which is sausages with Guinness onion gravy and colcannon — mashed potatoes with kale and chives.

Alvarez said another popular snack for people dropping in Saturday afternoon is the dip trio with whipped feta, roasted garlic hummus and beet baba ghanoush.

Drink specials will include Guinness discounts, the “fighting Irishman” with Irish whiskey, elderflower liqueur, orange bitters and lemon juice and “feeling lucky” with Tullamore dew honey Irish whiskey, ginger simple syrup, lime juice and amaro liqueur.

The restaurant features wine dinners with a wine consultant working with the chef to pair drinks with each stage of four or five-course meals. Alvarez said a new event gaining popularity is “cocktails and crochet” where people can learn to crochet while sipping on their favorite beverages.

Also opening downtown in May was Stonerail Market and wine bar, specializing in craft sandwiches that you can pair with your favorite drinks, along with soups and appetizers.

For the Capital Crawl, owner Theresa Owens said the market will be serving a green-themed appetizer — asparagus wrapped in bacon. One of the featured sandwiches will be the blackened chicken mushroom wrap with goat cheese, bacon, roasted peppers, pesto mayo and spring mix greens on a sun-dried tomato wrap.

A variety of Irish-themed drinks will be served, with specials for those in Capital Crawl t-shirts.

With the restaurant’s growing wine list, Owens said she caters to customers, stocking their favorites.

The restaurant is open for lunch Tuesdays to Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with longer hours Saturday for the Capital Crawl until 6 p.m. Owens said she plans to hire more staff to extend hours.

“We are excited for our future growth,” she said. “Our goal is to provide a unique experience…where you can sit and do paperwork, have a meeting or just enjoy some lunch with friends. We want you to feel like family when you come into our café.”

Stonerail Market is also available for parties and private events.

More Destination Downtown Dover events planned

A group of business owners and community leaders, Destination Downtown Dover organizes block parties like this to bring people downtown and spread the word about the area as a place to live, work, shop and dine.

More downtown developments:$25 million 'jumpstart' to Dover revitalization for apartments, shops, parking

While this is the first Capital Crawl, the group has run OktDoverFest for close to 10 years with bands, food and drinks. Another downtown celebration, History, Heritage and Hops, has been held in May but is “on pause” this year while the group sees how well Capital Crawl works, Hoerner said

After covering costs, money raised by the group goes to promote more downtown events and to beautification projects like planting flowers along the streets.

Reporter Ben Mace covers real estate, development and business news. Reach him at rmace@gannett.com.