Wednesday, October 7, 2026
After a successful 2024, the Merrick Community Civic Association is putting on its second year of Live After Five this summer, featuring discounts and promotions for local shopping, dining, drinking and wellness.
The events take place one Thursday night a month from May to September along Merrick Avenue, from the train station to Loines Avenue, including the gazebo. The next one is July 31 and some area business are already promoting their sales, specials, and live music entertainment.
The start time is 5 p.m. and it runs until all of the businesses are closed for the night.
Lauren Cassidy is the Live After Five chairperson and leads the charge with Civic Association President Berta Weinstein. Last year’s event started with a few businesses, which encouraged Cassidy and Weinstein to find more. They did just that while adding live music at the gazebo.
As a result, Live After Five has grown tremendously. Cassidy knew the event had the chance to grow when she began overhearing conversations in her travles last year.
“I’d hear people, as I was passing them on the street, talking to their loved ones or somebody on the phone saying, ‘Something’s going on down here. We should come back down here for dinner,’” Cassidy said. “And that just made my day.”
Choosing to do it on Thursday nights was a conscious decision. Cassidy explained how businesses and restaurants close early in the week, and there’s already such a staffing burden on the weekends.
“We chose Thursday night, because we really didn’t want to impede on the businesses’ busy nights to begin with,” Cassidy said. “We didn’t want to add any pressure to their staffing. Because staffing is tough in every industry right now.”
Cassidy believes Merrick’s local, small-town shops deserve patrons and that the purpose of the event is not only to drum up businesses for local establishments, but to also garner a sense of community.
“I believe that it’s important to show support for the local businesses and ensure that we don’t have empty storefronts,” Cassidy said. “And that we support the little guy, before we run up to the mall and maybe do our shopping. There’s a lot of uniqueness in small towns.”
She also emphasized that most of these business owners are also local residents.
“That’s important,” Cassidy said. “They’re pouring their life into their shop, and you would want to support your best friend doing that, so let’s support our neighbors as well.”
Even large chain restaurants such as Outback Steakhouse have benefitted from the patronage.
“It brings everybody together,” said William Edsell, a manager at the Aussie eatery. “Especially the time that we live in now, I think that everybody needs to come together, help each other out. This gives them an opportunity to do that and have some fun, and grow around the community as well.”
Other business owners, such as the Pink Pineapple’s Angela Bennett, enjoy the lively feeling it brings to the town.
“It’s really nice to see Merrick Avenue alive at night, as opposed to quiet and dark,” said Angela Bennett, owner of Pink Pineapple, a clothing and gift shop.
Most nights, when it’s not raining too much, patrons could see some local student bands perform in the gazebo near the train station.
