Cary Trick-Or-Treat Hot Spot Draws Hundreds To Hot Cocoa Bar

MCHENRY COUNTY, IL — The Halloween hot cocoa bar got its start five years ago.

It snowed that year, and Patrick and Karen Rowan of Cary, who typically handed out a couple dozen full-sized candy bars to local kids on Halloween, decided to also provide hot chocolate to warm those who braved the weather up.

"It wasn't a crazy amount of snow, but there was snow on the ground," Patrick Rowan told Patch on Monday. "I was sitting with my wife, and just was thinking, 'These kids are going to muscle through the day, and wouldn't it be cool to have some hot chocolate for them.'"

The first year was pretty modest. They set out about eight different toppings for the hot chocolate and maybe had 40 children stop out, he said.

He wasn't sure at the time if people would be uncomfortable with the setup since the hot chocolate and toppings would be unsealed and people would be using tongs and scoops to share it with their kids. Thankfully, everyone seemed on board with the setup.

"People just went crazy for it," he said.

Fast-forward five years and things have "escalated," he said.

"It just happened, and now we have a problem," Rowan joked, adding that West Main Street near his home in Cary will be lined with cars much of Halloween evening as people stop out to make their own hot chocolate creation. The line to get hot chocolate will be 50 to 75 people deep at its peak, he said.

This Halloween, several family members and friends will man stations outside the Rowan's home to scoop the toppings into trick-or-treaters drinks. There will be 20 different types of marshmallows to choose from —those will be set up on a separate "marshmallow island," which is an eight-foot table full of any and all marshmallows the family could find leading up to Halloween.

The other table has about 50 other toppings, including: cookies, brownies, donuts, coconut, peppermint, sprinkles, chocolate-covered pretzels and basically "anything you could put into a Blizzard," Rowan said.

"It's that wow factor. When the kids walk up, and they see the table, you can't really put words on that," he said. "It's pretty neat."

Last year, the Rowans handed out 320 full-sized candy bars and had more than 500 candy bars available for trick-or-treaters this year. The family is planning to share more than 600 hot chocolate drinks with children and adults.

Rowan said he's not sure how much they spend — and "he doesn't really want to know" the total amount. They buy the items throughout the year as they stock up in preparation for Halloween.

Trick-or-treating in Cary begin at 3 p.m. and continues through 7 p.m.