There’s a brand new event in town for beverage lovers — from beer, wine, cocktails and spirits to coffee and tea. First Sip is a new event from the team behind First Bite Boulder County Restaurant Week and it’s launching for the first time later this month.
First Sip is a beverage-focused event slated for April 28 through May 1. Enjoy four days of drink specials, cocktail classes, tastings and tons of other creative activities hosted by more than 33 Boulder-area businesses.
The restaurants, bars, breweries, distilleries, teahouses, coffee shops and other participants have total creative freedom to highlight what makes their beverages unique. At Ash’Kara, for example, a bartender will make cocktails at your table while you watch. Supermoon is doing a “Truth or Dare” challenge that involves either sharing a secret or taking a bartender’s dare to nab a free cocktail and 10 percent off your food. Corrida is offering a cocktail class.
“It is time for the stars of our beverage scene to shine with their own event,” says Jessica Benjamin, owner and executive producer of First Sip and First Bite. “Restaurants often feel the focus of diners’ attention is on the food, so we wanted to provide a platform that would properly showcase their incredible beverage offerings — including some opportunities for a deeper dive with a handful of intimate events.”
The impressive list of participating restaurants includes:
- Acreage by Stem Ciders
- Ash’Kara
- Avanti F&B
- Basta
- Blofish
- Bohemian Biergarten
- Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse
- Cafe Aion
- Cocktail Caravan
- Corrida
- Dagabi Cucina
- Dedalus
- Dry Storage
- Farow
- Frank’s Chophouse & Tavern
- Fringe, A Well-Tapped Eatery
- Gemini
- Ghost Box Pizza
- Japango
- Ku Cha House of Tea
- Leaf
- License No. 1
- Mojo Taqueria
- OAK at Fourteenth
- Precision Pours – Coffee and Bakes
- Rayback Collective
- R Gallery + Wine Bar
- Sanitas Brewing
- Supermoon
- T/ACO
- The Greenbriar Inn
- Verde
- Zucca Italian Ristorante
There are also four ticked events hosted by First Bite in collaboration with a local partner. Proceeds from the events will benefit Food is Love, First Bite’s fund for providing people with meals when unforeseen circumstances arise.
Ticketed events include:
- Flavor Wheel of Whiskey with Boulder Spirits & Paired Bites from Café Aion, Moksha Chocolate and Ku Cha House of Tea
- Rediscovering the Wines of Tuscany with Opening a Bottle (virtual)
- European Bier Tasting with Bohemian Biergarten
- Cocktail Dynamics and the Art of the Sensory Experience with Japango
“I’m grateful there’s a community of reverent romantics in Boulder that not only admire cocktail culture but also desire to further the depth of their understanding of fine art flavors and the visions they represent. I feel that going to a creative cocktail or cuisine experience is akin to visiting a contemporary art gallery, wherein the senses are toggled and the perspectives of a people can be illuminated with various arrays of joyous affectation,” says Japango’s beverage director Stanley Usinowicz.
First Sip’s organizers will also be crowning a “Badass Bartender.” Nominations are open now through May 2, with the winner being announced on May 4. They’re looking for bartenders who go “above and beyond the job to deliver outstanding customer service or team support and is making a positive influence on the customer experience.” The winner gets $250 and fun gifts.
