Paulius Musteikis
Mariah Renz of Julep is making sure women bartenders are in the mix.
Much like the city’s cocktail culture itself, Madison Cocktail Week is in the throes of a major expansion this fall, with organizers pulling out all the stops to create a six-day, 30-event extravaganza showcasing bartenders and spirits from throughout the Midwest.
From Oct. 11 to 16, more than two dozen venues will host cocktail week festivities. Yes, there will be cocktail dinners, spirit tastings, drink-making demonstrations, educational seminars and bar takeovers, but this year’s offerings include a strong focus on inclusion and unexpected collaboration — with an emphasis on whimsical, over-the-top fun.
Organizers Hastings Cameron (Imaginary Bar, Gib’s), Tom Dufek (Merchant), Chad Vogel (Robin Room) and Mariah Renz (Julep) have spent the last several months holed up at Black Locust Cafe in Robinia Courtyard throwing around possibilities.
“We really challenged ourselves to think about what a cocktail festival is and could be,” says Dufek.
Madison Cocktail Week debuted in 2015 as lead-in to the annual Distill America spirit-tasting festival held in February, but organizers soon realized that shifting cocktail week to fall would provide a better opportunity to highlight what the city has to offer. For 2016, they held a scaled-back version of cocktail week in February as a “teaser,” but the October event is the true magnum opus.
“This is the highest-stakes iteration,” Cameron says. “The execution and scale of the event have pretty much tripled.”
Renz joined the effort this year after noticing that few female bartenders were part of the February event. As a service industry veteran, she knows that cocktail culture can be a bit of a boys’ club, so she took it on herself to make gender inclusion a focus of this year’s event. On Oct. 12, a team of women bartenders are taking over Gib’s and Merchant, and the events will feature women DJs.
“It’s not that Madison is not supportive of women bartenders, but there can be a lot of ego [in bartending],” she says. “For me, and a lot of women, we’re not here to judge — we want to create that warm, nurturing environment.”
The kickoff on Oct. 11 is a “synchronized startending” event at the Majestic, where teams of bartenders will perform coordinated drink-making routines on stage, set to music. Other not-to-be-missed events this year include the Midwest Wiffle Invitational on Oct. 13, which will feature 60 bartenders from Madison, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and Chicago competing in a wiffle ball triple-header at Breese Stevens Field. It will likely be as much fun for spectators as it will be for participants, and drinks will be provided by Barmadillo. On Oct. 15, bartenders will take over the Dane County Farmers’ Market for a “power shopping” challenge and cocktail competition that highlights fresh, local produce.
Other events feature surprising collaborations, like a Badgers football tailgate party on Oct. 15 held at Rocky Rococo’s on Regent Street, featuring an appearance from Captain Morgan (as well as Bucky Badger) and drinks from Robin Room.
Dufek draws inspiration from high-profile industry events like Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. But when networking with other bartenders at such festivals, he’s noticed Madison doesn’t get the name recognition he and many other local industry folks feel it deserves. He hopes the growth of Madison Cocktail Week can change that.
“We’re passionate about bartending,” he says, “and we’re passionate about the city.”
