The Passenger's cocktail, inspired by Antonio Canova's "Venus" sculpture, combined Heavenly Spirits' eau de vie poire, lime juice, chocolate passion fruit syrup, egg white, pear liqueur, and chocolate bitters.
Photo: Chris Avery
Jack Rose's Verdant Passion combined mescal, honey syrup, elderflower liqueur, and vegetable juice of kale, apple, spinach, ginger, romaine, cucumber, celery, parsley, and lemon.
Photo: Chris Avery
Zentan’s Josh Berner designed a spicy cocktail with tequila, mint tincture, mango puree, habanero syrup, and drops of mint oil garnished with a lollipop.
Photo: Chris Avery
Mixologist Milton Hernandez from Ambar used apple-flavored corn whiskey, black tea, milk, and heavy cream to create his Le Corcoran artini, which he topped with an absinthe gelatin.
Photo: Chris Avery
The Gibson's Frank Jones took inspiration from Henri Regnault's "Head of a Moor" painting to create a cocktail of rye, blood orange liqueur, allspice dram, chocolate bitters, tonic, and orange peel. Jones's artini won the Critic's Choice Award of the night as determined by a select group of local food and wine journalists, bloggers, and the event chair.
Photo: Chris Avery
Bandolero served gold leaf caviar along with its gin cocktail of ginger beer, blood orange liqueur, and absinthe.
Photo: Chris Avery
Daikaya's Eddie Kim created his martini from rye, dark creme de cacao, dry curacao, armagnac, gelatin leaves, and a dash of tobacco.
Photo: Chris Avery
Joe Ambrose from P.O.V. used eau de vie poire, armagnac, elderflower liquor, pear and lemon juices, and maple syrup to create a fruity martini garnished with berry foam and a dehydrated raspberry meringue. Ambrose won the People's Choice Award as determined by votes submitted to Washingtonian.com. Prior to the event, the restaurants held a feature night to showcase their cocktail to the public, after which guests could vote for their favorite on the media partner's Web site.
Photo: Chris Avery
In the speakeasy-style V.I.P. room, guests sipped a juniper-infused gin fizz punch served in coffee cups.