Cocktail month
We’re used to seeing 10-day “beer weeks,” so it’s not entirely unexpected that Oakland Cocktail Week would overflow its calendar boundaries. But this year’s spirited effort includes an entire month of festivities aimed at keeping the city’s bars and small businesses afloat in the midst of 2020’s significant challenges. Funds raised during the month will go toward emergency grants for small business owners through the Oakland Indie Alliance.
“Oakland is a city with a legacy of bars surviving Prohibition and the 1918 influenza pandemic, so yet again we’re testing the concept of community strength in Oakland, ” says OCW co-founder Daphne Wu.
This year’s cocktail week — which runs from Thursday to Oct. 11, www.oakland cocktailweek.com — will be a virtual affair, which means everyone can join the fun, starting with a screening of the 2018 documentary “Town Spirit: A Tribute to Oakland’s Enduring Bar Culture.” Downtown Oakland’s music scene joins the festivities for Friday Happy Hour concerts Sept. 18 through Oct. 9, with livestreamed performances and, of course, libations at home. Mixologists will take to Instagram Live to share cocktail tips and tricks on Sept. 21, 23 and 30 and Oct. 7.
And the monthlong celebration ends with a virtual Town Throwdown cocktail competition that asks, “Which Oakland bartender can craft the best love letter to Oakland?” Last year’s Throwdown, a mai tai extravaganza, was held in real life at a rooftop lounge near Lake Merritt.