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.

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.

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.”

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.)

If, much like our government, you’ve instituted a spending freeze in your budget to cope with the times, you’ll be pleased to learn about Elephant & Castle’s weekly drink special. Every Wednesday night starting at 8, the 19th Street, Northwest, location of the British-inspired pub chain offers a happy-hour menu with 11 takes on a martini—each for only $5. While the cocktails aren’t particularly inventive, their price should be enough of a wow factor to lure many. Below, see a demonstration of one the more popular martini spinoffs on the menu, the Castle-tini, and make sure to get the recipe after the jump.

With more than 150 wine varietals and 130 types of Scotch, there’s plenty to drink at the new British gastropub Againn. Luckily, Elli Benchimol, who was previously at Potenza, Zola, and Zola Wine & Kitchen as beverage director, is there to guide you. In addition, Benchimol crafted a cocktail menu with ten specialty drinks. Included on the menu is, of course, a version of the Pimm’s Cup, a staple British drink. Benchimol’s version, named Pimm’s Cup No. 13, has Hendrick’s gin, but you can substitute your choice of liquor. Check out Benchimol’s demonstration below and make sure to get the recipe as well as browse Againn’s full cocktail menu after the jump.