Although Grand Old Day festival is taking a hiatus in 2019, that’s not stopping a group of St. Paul restaurants from hosting a soiree of their own.

According to organizers, Summit Beer, The Lexington, Iron Ranger, Red Rabbit, Tavern on Grand, Billy’s on Grand and Dixie’s on Grand are among a growing list of establishments that have joined forces to host a bar crawl starting at 10 a.m. Sunday, June 2.

The idea started when, on Tuesday, Grand Old Day organizers announced the festival that has been around for 45 years would not be held this year in order to revamp and refresh the annual one-day event that draws more than 200,000 people along Grand Avenue.

Shortly after, Ashley LeMay, the daughter of the Tavern on Grand owner, and Andy Rodriguez, a St. Paul resident who lives on Grand Avenue, created a Facebook page with the phrase “Grand Old Day Anyway” and the idea of still gathering along Grand Avenue gained steam. Then The Lexington joined in the effort, and it grew from there.

“I wanted to piggyback on that and coordinate with them so we reached out to the bars to start the bar crawl,” said Sara Luoma, general manager at The Lexington. “We want to capture an audience that was looking forward to this and to create an opportunity for businesses.”

Tickets are $25 and include a T-shirt, which gets you a complimentary Summit beer, unlimited $4 Summit taps at participating businesses and a map of bar crawl locations. Grand Old Day Anyway tickets can be purchased through The Lexington website, which is coordinating the pub crawl. When purchasing a ticket, attendees can choose a T-shirt pickup location from a list of participating restaurants.

A website where updates can be found also has been launched.