The Corcoran Gallery of Art’s 1869 Society hosted its annual Artini fundraiser Saturday night, bringing together some of Washington’s most talented mixologists for an evening of cocktails, desserts, and dancing. The event was the culmination of a monthlong competition, in which a dozen mixologists created drinks based on works of art. Throughout the month, cocktail fiends sipped and slurped the concoctions then voted on their favorite. This year’s winner? The cinnamon-vodka-laced Number 9 by POV’s Justin Guthrie.
We’re showcasing some of the cocktails in competition for Artini 2010.
Artini is a monthlong competition among 12 of the area’s top mixologists to create the most artistic martini. This year, the source of inspiration for the cocktails is the Corcoran’s current exhibit “A Love of Europe: Highlights From the William A. Clark Collection.” Every Tuesday through Thursday through March 31, one competing cocktail will be featured for tasting at different venues from 6:30 to 8:30. Here at After Hours, we’ll showcase some of the cocktails. For more information about Artini, the featured nights, or to vote for your favorite bartender, go to washingtonian.com/artini.
“There’s nothing better than a drink that sneaks up on you,” says Tiffany Short of her cocktail, Forbidden Kiss. The drink is based on French sculpture Auguste Rodin’s rendering of Eve, and is quite deceptive—going down as smoothly as apple juice but packing as much alcohol as a martini. The cocktail’s layers of taste are meant to emulate the nature of Rodin’s “Eve,” which Short characterizes as being “innocent and a little mischievous at the same time.”
The Forbidden Kiss, as its name suggests, derives its name from the forbidden fruit, apples, which Short integrated into the drink in the form of a shrub—a drink concentrate made with fruit, vinegars, and sugar. Also in the drink: gin, an egg white, and a touch of Champagne to, says Short, add that note of naughtiness. Watch a demonstration of how to make the cocktail in the video above, and remember—the Forbidden Kiss ($12) will be served Tuesday from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Gibson as part of Artini’s weekly feature nights.
We’re showcasing some of the cocktails in competition for Artini 2010.
Artini is a monthlong competition among 12 of the area’s top mixologists to create the most artistic martini. This year, the source of inspiration for the cocktails is the Corcoran’s current exhibit “A Love of Europe: Highlights From the William A. Clark Collection.” Every Tuesday through Thursday through March 31, one competing cocktail will be featured for tasting at different venues from 6:30 to 8:30. Here at After Hours, we’ll showcase some of the cocktails. For more information about Artini, the featured nights, or to vote for your favorite bartender, go to washingtonian.com/artini.
Jon Arroyo, chief mixologist for Farmers & Fishers and Founding Farmers, used artist Jean-Louis Forain’s painting “The Proof” as inspiration for his Artini cocktail: He picked two high-proof spirits—Cognac and absinthe—as the main ingredients. Cognac is the base spirit, and absinthe is integrated as a foam. To see how Arroyo puts together his drink, called Case and Point, check out the demonstration in the video above. Don’t forget: The cocktail will be served today from 6:30 to 8:30 at Farmers & Fishers as part of Artini’s weekly feature nights.
We’re showcasing some of the cocktails in competition for Artini 2010.
Artini is a monthlong competition among 12 of the area’s top mixologists to create the most artistic martini. This year, the source of inspiration for the cocktails is the Corcoran’s current exhibit “A Love of Europe: Highlights From the William A. Clark Collection.” Every Tuesday through Thursday through March 31, one competing cocktail will be featured for tasting at different venues from 6:30 to 8:30. Here at After Hours, we’ll be showcasing some of the cocktails. For more information about Artini, the featured nights, or to vote for your favorite bartender, go to washingtonian.com/artini.
The New York Times has called French painter Edgar Degas an artist “constantly pulled between aesthetic extremes” whose internal struggle is most apparent when studying the images of women he often depicted. Fittingly, when creating her competing cocktail, Chantal Tseng of the Tabard Inn looked at Degas’s Two Women as something more than a straightforward portrait—she saw it as a study of contrasts.
“I see the two women as being part of the same individual,” she says. “In love one moment and then forlorn in the next.”
We’re showcasing some of the cocktails in competition for Artini 2010.
Artini is a monthlong competition among 12 of the area’s top mixologists to create the most artistic martini. This year, the source of inspiration for the cocktails is the Corcoran’s current exhibit “A Love of Europe: Highlights From the William A. Clark Collection.” Every Tuesday through Thursday through March 31, one competing cocktail will be featured for tasting at different venues from 6:30 to 8:30. Here at After Hours, we’ll be showcasing some of the cocktails. For more information about Artini, the featured nights, or to vote for your favorite bartender, go to washingtonian.com/artini.
Last year, Erik Holzherr was Artini’s surprise winner—a veritable dark horse with little buzz and a small bar in Southeast DC no one had heard of. Nevertheless, he bested 11 better-known bartenders with his cocktail the Tortoise and the Bare, which impressed voters with the smokiness of its main ingredient, Qi, a brandy-based black-tea liqueur. (Get the recipe for the cocktail here.)
