June 2018 Cocktail Events Round-Up

I’m writing to you from the road to bring you this slightly overdue list of June 2018 cocktail events in D.C.  It’s June, so that means Negroni week – check out the options below.  And as always we have classes and other cocktail-themed events for you to explore this month.

To start, although this isn’t really a “cocktail event,” per se, you could do worse than spend one of your June nights at a Rake’s Progress.  Rake’s is using unique ingredients, with an emphasis on local products, and it has one of the most thoughtful cocktail menus I’ve seen in the District.  Plus, the drinks just look good:

Read more in my review of Rake’s.  Then consider your other options for June:

Negroni week.  That’s right, the annual event is back in the first week of June.  This is one cocktail event that is so widely celebrated that it’s not really possible to give you comprehensive coverage of D.C.-based celebrations.  But there’s a website for that – check out the Negroni venue locator at negroniweek.com, the joint project of Campari and Imbibe Magazine.  A few D.C. spots have dedicated pages to the event, including Free State Bar (events through Friday, June 8), Farmers and Distillers (events through Sunday, June 10), and Buffalo and Bergen at Union Market (events through Sunday, June 10, with funds raised going to charity).  Prefer to celebrate at home?  Do it D.C.-style with my Cherry-Blossom Negroni recipe, which replaces Campari with Cerasum, the cherry-blossom-flavored liqueur by D.C.’s own Don Ciccio & Figli.  Pretty much everywhere that owns a bottle of Campari, including (I should hope) your own kitchen; June 4 through June 10.

Cocktail Class:  “Italian Frozen Cocktails” at Via Umbria.  Always seasonally appropriate, Via Umbria’s cocktail class this month shifts focus to the frozen variety.  And perhaps in an oblique nod to Negroni week, the focus is on Italian cocktails specifically.  No frozen Negronis are on the menu (but if that’s your game and you want to make one at home, try an excellent recipe for the “Frogroni,” published in the Washington Post last year here; my Instagram photo of same here).  But Via Umbria will show you how to assemble a Frozen Umbria Red Sangria; an Aperol Spritz Granita; and a Sgroppino.  Tickets are $38.50 and available here.  1525 Wisconsin Avenue N.W.; June 13 at 7:30 p.m.

Cocktail Class:  “Seeds + Sips:  Cocktail Making with Fresh Herbs” at Up Top Acres.  Up Top Acres is “reimagining what a farm looks like.”  It’s a D.C.-based group that aims to bring agriculture to the city – think green rooftops.  And this month, they are both showing you how to grow things like rosemary and ginger at home and how to use these fresh ingredients in your homemade cocktails.  $30 tickets get you three plants to take home, two cocktails to drink, and one fun evening at the Navy Yard – available here.  55 M Street S.E.; June 14 at 6 p.m.

Master Cocktail Class Series:  “The Evolution of the Old Fashioned” at St. Regis.  St. Regis’s monthly cocktail class strikes a Father’s Day theme in June, suggesting its session on how to make Old Fashioneds is “a perfect gift for dads.”  It would indeed be a good gift for my dad, although he already makes a mean Old Fashioned, but St. Regis might be underselling the appeal here since I know several women and childless men who enjoy the drink as well.  No matter – whoever you are, if you enjoy Old Fashioneds and want to learn how to make the original as well as two variations (the Oaxaca Old Fashioned and the hotel’s paradoxically named “modern” Old Fashioned), this class is for you.  (I also offer you yet a fourth variation on this very blog here.)  Tickets are $55; more information here.  923 16th Street N.W.; June 16 from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Cocktail Class:  “Agave Spirits” at barmini.  I had a great experience at barmini’s infusion class last month (and am planning to post one of the drinks we made on Instagram later this month).  This month the focus is on agave spirits – tequila, mezcal and the like.  Barmini promises to school you in the “adaptability of agave spirits,” which sounds like something I could have used before brainstorming the recipe for Ted’s Tequila Cocktail, although I eventually figured it out.  As always, you will be greeted with a cocktail on arrival and learn to make three more.  Tickets are $145 and available here.  501 9th Street N.W.; June 27 at 5:15 p.m.

That’s it for June.  As always, please send me any events you’d like to see featured here!