Dana Dufek
Bartenders Luke Semenas and John Waters competing in last year’s Dancing with the Startenders competition.
Tom Dufek is on a mission to put Madison on the map as a destination for cocktail culture.
“It’s not a place that people necessarily think of,” says Dufek, who serves as director of bar operations at Lucille and Merchant. “It’s not Chicago, it’s not New York. But we’re giving people a reason to come.”
Dufek co-organizes Madison Cocktail Week, Oct. 10-15, at locations around the city. Part educational exposition and part quirky bacchanalian spectacle, the week promises nearly 30 events including guided tastings, seminars with industry professionals and wild performances that may or may not include costumes, Vitamix blenders and synchronized mixology.
This is the third year but the fourth iteration for the event — there were two cocktail weeks in 2016 as organizers transitioned from having the event in February to doing it in October. “Having it not be in February is awesome,” says Dufek. “It opens up the range of things we can do.” Pleasant autumn weather gives the opportunity to incorporate outdoor venues like Vitruvian Farms in McFarland for a cocktail dinner from chefs Dan Fox of Heritage Tavern and Patrick McCormick of Oliver’s Public House and the parking lot of Rocky Rococo on Regent Street for a Wisconsin Badgers gameday tailgate, which will feature Crown Royal Boilermakers in honor of the visiting team, Purdue.
Spreading Cocktail Week events around the city is in line with this year’s unofficial event theme: connecting cocktails to the community. “We wanted to take the experience of being in a cocktail bar to other parts of the city,” Dufek says, “and showcase that there’s more going on than just drinking.”
This year’s event features eight educational seminars, twice as many as last year. Organizers upped the offerings to keep pace with demand, as previous sessions “always sold out,” Dufek says. Classes range from deep dives into spirits like mezcal, Scotch and secondary spirits like vermouth and eau de vie plus sessions aimed at service industry workers exploring topics like wellness and team-building behind the bar. Dufek says service industry workers face such challenges as nontraditional work schedules, easy access to alcohol and a cash-based economy that makes financial planning difficult. “Cocktails are a movement, but how do we sustain it?” Dufek says. “You can’t if you’re still living paycheck to paycheck.”
Cocktail Week organizers don’t keep data on number of attendees, but Dufek says last year’s event drew the biggest crowd ever — and he thinks this year’s will be even stronger. “We’re seeing some traction in [attracting people from] Chicago and Minneapolis, but there are still people in Madison who don’t know about it, so it’s important to keep growing the week,” he says. “We feel strongly that we have this really cool thing going on here, and we want to tell that story.”
The full schedule is at madisoncocktailweek.com.
