Cocktail Hour at the Cafe Combines Drink-making and Art in Westerly
Guests will learn hands-on mixology instruction while being surrounded by an amazing art collection.
Curator Hilary Pierce, President of the Art Collector’s Athenaeum.
“Cocktail Hour at The Café” is a fun and educational hands-on, drink-making experience offered once a month at The Café, a local eatery in Westerly. The experience is similar to a classic New York-style bar and grill in all its glorious din – packed with people, great food, drink and laughter. The Café Happy Hour sessions are offered once a month and feature special guest experts who speak on a variety of topics. The next session, ABSINTHE! is scheduled for Tuesday, June 24 and will feature master distiller and author Ted Breaux, a world-renowned absinthe expert who reverse-engineered vintage absinthes 150 years after they were declared illegal and reintroduced the spirits to the marketplace.
The brainchild of Chuck Royce, Daniel King and Stephen Corrigan, The Cafe is connected to The United Theatre Arts Complex and has become part of its mission to create resources that unite the community. It also features an amazing art collection curated by Hilary Pierce. Royce gave her one guiding principle: Make it feel like the 21 Club (New York’s famous speakeasy). She did just that and much more.
Christinne Gerra and Robin Kelly O’Conner enjoying the show. Below photos courtesy of Jill DeGroff, @thecafeRI.
Pierce’s selection celebrates the passion, creativity and culture happening in America, from the turn of the 19th century through the 1950’s. It includes iconic photos, film posters and some of the greatest artworks, caricatures and cartoonists in the world, including satirist extraordinaire Georges Goursat a.k.a. SEM, Ludwig Bemelmans–– illustrator of the beloved Madeline series and Hotel Splendide, and Barbara Shermund, a fierce, witty and prolific cartoonist who became one of the first women cartoonists to be published in The New Yorker. As the special guest presenter of a previous Cocktail Hour session, Hilary Pierce took guests on a marvelous romp through the 1920’s, ’30s and ’40s, bringing to life the art and social history of America – sharing the colorful stories behind the characters, illustrators and cartoonists who captured each era. At intervals between stories, participants return to the bar for the cocktail-making segment, where each has been given all the necessary bar tools, ingredients and shakers for the mixology lesson.
An earful of thunderous cocktail shaking at The Cafe.
They measure and pour as they learn how to make some of the classic drinks from the era, with guidance provided by the talented team of bartenders at The Cafe, including Charlie Bullis, Tom Pereira, Patricia Poitras and sommelier David Foulke. Then comes the thunderous rattle of ice-loaded cocktail shakers being shaken by each guest, from one end of the bar to the other!
Book early at theCaferi.com. Sessions fill quickly.
The Scofflaw Cocktail Recipe
1 ½ ounce Rye whiskey
½ ounce Dolin dry vermouth
½ ounce Dolin Blanc vermouth
½ ounce Grenadine
½ ounce fresh lemon juice
1 dash orange bitters
Garnish with a gourmet cocktail cherry
Shake all the ingredients well with ice and strain into a chilled cocktail coupe.
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