Business & Tech

Gingerbread Man is On the Lam

Meet Middletown's man-about-town. Whoever guesses his location first each day wins a free pound of cookies.

Once there was a gingerbread man,
Baking in a gingerbread pan.
Raisin eyes and a cherry nose, 
Trimmed right down to his fingers and toes.
A gingerbread man in a gingerbread pan!

There is a young man on the loose and he’s being pursued around the city. You may have seen him: dark-skinned, about 5 inches tall, sporting a bowtie and a friendly disposition.

If you’re the first to spot him, there’s a bounty on his head — a pound of handmade gourmet cookies.

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Meet Middletown’s man-about-town, Ginger, the object of Fusion Bakery & Patisserie’s Where’s Ginger contest. Since Dec. 1, fans of the bakery’s Facebook page are offered early every morning a photo of Mr. Man somewhere in the city. Whoever guesses his location first wins a free pound of cookies.

There are actually six Gingers, says pastry chef Jen McGuinness of Middletown's Main Street Market. She’s used the original since day one of the contest. And he’s a strongman. “I over-baked him,” she says. Purposely.

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By Friday, McGuinness had taken a majority of the photographs ahead of time.

“My husband has lived in Middletown all his life so he knows the area really well, so he and I have been driving around trying to find spots to prop the gingerbread cookie up,” she explains.

On Dec. 2, a surprise-faced Ginger with an “oh” of a mouth tucked himself behind the “Beware of Foul Balls OR Broken Bats At All Times” sign at Palmer Field, McGuinness says. It was a tight fit, so Ginger remained behind — presumably "enjoying" the company of hungry squirrels.

Ginger really gets around. He (he's a male despite the popular name for girls) has been spied at Crystal Lake, the Wadsworth Mansion, Main Street Market, St. Sebastian Church and Russell Library.

The first day, Ginger was seen leaning up against a yellow railing on a blue perforated surface. It was 2 p.m. before someone guessed correctly — the Farm Hill School playground.

“We were giving them hints because we didn’t want the first day to be like no one got it on the first day,” McGuinness says.

After that, folks were hooked on the Facebook contest.

“I didn’t expect people would be going on so early and guessing so early,” she says. “One person asked Steve if he knew where she’d be tomorrow,” when they stopped by the bakery.

Fusion co-owner Steve Pikos jokes about one of these days posting a photo that’s so vague no one will guess it. “And at the end of the day, we’ll say, ‘Oh, that’s Middletown, N.Y.’”

Obscure locations have been ruled out, McGuinness says.

“We’re trying to go for landmarks that people can identify so we’re not going to do the cross street of Main and Washington.”

Steve Kovach, who works at It’s Only Natural Market, was in Friday picking up his pound of cookes. “I liked figuring out where it is,” he says. “It’s just interesting. It’s different.”

Deftly, Kovach guessed where Ginger was from the photo of him propped up against a sea of pink granite. It was a tough one. But not for Kovach.

It was St. Sebastian Church.

The contest runs Tuesdays to Saturdays through Dec. 24, from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. You don't have to live here to guess. Just know the city really well.

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