FREEPORT – It’s common to pay at least $20 a person for a dinner out. It isn’t unusual, in fact, to pay far more than that for a good meal. Add a concert and you’re talking an expensive night out.

But there’s an alternative in Freeport that’s easy on the pocketbook. For the past three years, from January through May, MASISTA and the accommodating folks at the Freeport Community Center have hosted Freeport First Fridays – a 6 p.m. performance followed by a sit-down dinner. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door.

MASISTA consists of Maryellen Carew and Sam Hunneman, and stands for Maryellen and Sam in Support of the Arts.

Last Friday night, Jan. 3, a capella group BluTonic performed its repertoire of jazz and pop standards. The dinner menu included a mixed green salad with citrus, chicken with mushrooms with couscous and a roasted green veggie, and gingerbread surprise with whipped cream for dessert. Gluten-free and vegetarian options are also available.

Carew loves the First Fridays arrangement, with the music first, followed by the dinner.

“The concert starts the night,” she said. “Then, you sit down to dinner with people you just enjoyed the music with. You might not even know them. It’s an opportunity in time that doesn’t happen a lot. It’s just a blast.”

MASISTA is still working on the entertainment for the Feb. 7 show. Freeport Community Services is with them, every step of the way, and Hunneman is grateful to Executive Director Melanie Sachs and her crew.

“She has taken this in hand and has worked to make it sustainable,” Hunneman said. “Sometimes people get burned out. She just makes sure that doesn’t happen.”

Sachs is well aware of the impetus Hunneman and Carew have provided.

“It is an absolute joy, both professionally and personally, to work with Sam and Maryellen,” Sachs said. “Their commitment to and advocacy for the arts – indeed, all art – has truly enriched this community.”

Hunneman and Carew started MASISTA just about the time the Freeport Performing Arts Center opened, in 2003.

“Both Maryellen and I have kids who were theater nuts,” Hunneman said. “We were involved with Freeport Community Players, and the school.”

Carew and her husband, Ken, were on the building committee that helped secure grants and get the Freeport Community Arts Center built. Money was needed to make it fully operational.

“So Maryellen decided to make painted pins in the shape of stars,” Hunneman recalled. “We wanted to outfit the Freeport Performing Arts Center correctly. “We made between $2,000 and $3,000 on those pins. Then we got to be an entity. I came up with MASISTA. I can hear her laughing now, when I came up with it.”

Flash forward to four years ago, when Carew saw a piece in a newspaper about a piano and cello concert, and a mime, at the Performing Arts Center.

“It was all for $10,” Hunneman said. “I thought, ‘Holy cow, that’s fabulous.’ Bob Lyman, who was director at the Community Center before Melanie, had set it up.”

MaryLou Carhart and Barbara Bardack served as cooks for that event, Hunneman said.

“The people who showed up were just the most amazing spectrum of folks,” she said. “They put on this program that was just knock-your-socks-off classical music, and a great meal.”

Food for though, as well, as far as Carew and Hunneman were concerned. The two put together a team three years ago, and Freeport First Fridays is the result.

“We picked it up and carried it on from there,” Hunneman said. “We would line up the talent and MaryLou and Barbara and Mabel Gerquest did the cooking.”

A little later, Carhart moved, and help was needed in the kitchen. Along came Sachs.

“Melanie said the Community Center would make sure everything was lined up, including the cooking,” Hunneman said.”

Freeport First Fridays has drawn upwards of 100 people, and due to limited seating, people are advised to call for reservations.

“But we’re very comfortable if we have 60 or so people,” Hunneman said.

Since the bands are not paid, the only money they take home comes from the tip jar.

“But they love coming back because the crowds are engaged,” Carew said. “It’s just such a unique atmosphere that gets created.”

Carew said that she and Hunneman, as music lovers, are making themselves happy.

“The best thing that I can do to appreciate it is to allow other people to appreciate it,” she said. “We really believe that music is food for the soul. What we offer is food for the body and food for the soul.”

A CLOSER LOOK

Freeport First Fridays are held at the Freeport Community Center from January through May, starting with a 6 p.m. performance followed by a sit-down dinner. Upcoming dates are Feb. 7, March 7, April 4 and May 2. Tickets are $15 in advance, $20 at the door. For reservations, call Kim Hudak at Freeport Community Services, 865-3985, ext. 202.

Sam Hunneman, left, and Maryellen Carew are MASISTA, which enlivens the Freeport arts scene with First Friday concerts and dinners at the Freeport Community Center every month through May.