By Sacha Delfosse
Throughout the month of May, Merivale will be hosting Cocktail Mayhem, which features a range of events to celebrate World Cocktail Day and showcase quality cocktails to consumers.
Merivale has run events celebrating World Cocktail Day for the past two years, but its approach for 2012 is one of 'less is more', according to group bar manager, Mike Enright, who said that focusing on a smaller number of events this year aims to ensure they are all well-attended and successful.
Cocktail Mayhem kicked off on May 5, with a Cinco de Mayo party at El Loco and other events including a Rat Pack-themed night every Wednesday at hemmesphere, a week of tacos and Margaritas at El Loco, a Bloody Mary degustation brunch at Ms.G's on May 12, a Mother’s Day’s cocktail lunch at The Beresford Hotel and a Vintage Cocktail Night that will be held at the ivy on May 15.
For the Vintage Cocktail Night, the ivy’s Den bar will be transformed into an old-fashioned speakeasy that will be manned by some of Sydney’s bartending legends such as Phil Bayly, Marco Faraone, John Gakuru, Jared Plummer, Ben Davidson and Petr Dvoracek, who will be joining Enright, in a celebration of old-school bartending.
"It is more aimed at consumers although I’m hoping people from the trade come along. We turn it into a fun night and basically get all the old boys together and take guests on a journey through cocktails," Enright said.
"With the bartenders, half will be behind the bar and the other half will be on the floor, chatting and interacting with guests."
While the format and set up of Cocktail Mayhem is slightly different to the March Into Merivale food celebration, the aim is similar, except this time the spotlight is on quality drinks.
"I guess it’s the cocktail equivalent to March Into Merivale… the key message we want to send out is that we are as serious about our drinks as we are about our food," Enright said.
"We probably have close to 1200 original drinks on our database, as well as all the classic cocktail recipes."