A great cocktail: Definitely a day-brightener. Giving to a good cause: Ditto. Doing both at the same time: Awesome.
Consider it charitable multi-tasking. From 6 to 10 p.m. Tuesday, you can enjoy New York-themed cocktails AND benefit victims of Hurricane Sandy as four of the city’s best barmen do duty at Dallas’ Windmill Lounge to raise funds for bar and restaurant owners in Manhattan’s East Village.
The effort, called All 4 1, is the handiwork of four accomplished bardudes — Omar Yeefoon and Julian Pagan of Cedars Social, Libertine Bar’s Mate Hartai and Marquee Grill & Bar’s Jason Kosmas — who last week stepped behind bars in Austin, Houston and San Antonio raising money for the cause. Originally the four had been looking for a way to do guest spots around Texas, but when the largest Atlantic storm on record pummeled the East Coast last month, they suddenly had a purpose.
Kosmas, a New York transplant who still co-owns Manhattan’s Employees Only, personally knew people in the East Village whose businesses had been devastated by the superstorm. A fun idea turned into a focused one.
“We’re just trying to make sure some of these places don’t shut down, or at least not for long if they do,” Yeefoon said.
Tuesday night, the four will be at the old-school Windmill Lounge making New York-themed cocktails for a minimum $5 donation apiece. T-shirts will be available too.
“Of course we have a good time while we’re doing it, but now we’re, like, really into the charity,” Yeefoon said.
Go. Be like Omar. Have a good time while you’re doing it, and be really into the charity. It’s a double-whammy of feel-good.
The event is one of two going on around town Tuesday as the ongoing Manhattan Project moves northward to Plano’s Whiskey Cake (not Hibiscus, as originally planned). From 7 to 9 p.m., the bar will be dishing up free Manhattans in a periodic series of events designed to promote whiskeys, and the classic cocktail, throughout the colder season.
Some of the whiskeys available for sampling at ongoing Manhattan Project events.
— Marc Ramirez, posted 11/18/12