As the producers of Bonnaroo and Outside Lands, Superfly may be best known for its work on major music festivals. But this year, the firm turned its attention to cocktails, hosting its first Cocktail Magic events in New York and Boston.
"We initially got into the culinary space after seeing the success of highlighting San Francisco culinary and beverage offerings at Outside Lands," said Kerry Black, Superfly co-founder. "We also follow our passions, and have become big fans of the craft-cocktail movement. We wanted to design a similar converged experience with the stars [of the event] being the best bars and bartenders in the world."
Superfly is based in New York, and organizers looked at nearby markets when considering where to host Cocktail Magic's first run. In New York, the event took place at the event venue Weylin B. Seymour's on March 19; Boston's iteration took over the Castle at Park Plaza on March 26. Organizers worked with cocktail experts Julie Reiner and Andy Seymour—whom Black referred to as "spirit guides"—to devise a list of bars in each city that specialize in innovative craft cocktails. From there, they narrowed the list down and invited select bars and bartenders to shake up drinks at the events.
At the New York event, guests could sample cocktails from such venues as Dead Rabbit and Mother of Pearl. In Boston, bartenders represented venues like Alden & Harlow and Backbar. Both events also featured bars from other states, including William & Graham in Denver and Broken Shaker, which has outposts in Chicago and Miami.
To make the events stand out from more typical culinary gatherings, planners drew on their music festival experience. "Much like the bands and artists that we showcase at our music festivals, we focused on the bars and bartenders as the stars of the event," Black said. "A lot of cocktail showcases are based on showcasing certain spirits; here, we let the bartenders create whatever they wanted. Like a festival format, we wanted to provide a lot of discovery of new bars and ingredients." Producers rounded out the cocktail tastings with entertainment that included impromptu magic shows and DJ sets; guests also had snacks from Brooklyn pizzeria Roberta's.
Superfly is making plans plans to host more Cocktail Magic gatherings. Here's a look inside the inaugural New York and Boston events.
![The event also took place in Boston (pictured). At both the events, magicians entertained guests with card tricks and other types of magic. 'The original idea [for Cocktail Magic] came from the concept that this event would showcase the 'magic' that bartenders create when they make amazing cocktails,' said producer Kerry Black. 'It was a pretty natural progression to actually include magicians to round out the experience.'](https://img.bizbash.com/files/base/bizbash/bzb/image/2016/04/magic_tricks_boston.png?auto=format%2Ccompress&q=70&w=400)
