A Running List of Virtual Cooking and Bartending Events From D.C.

While the coronavirus crisis keeps customers out of D.C. restaurants and bars until at least May 29, idle bartenders and business owners around town are translating their talents online. Webinars, Zoom hangouts, and IG Live streaming services are designed for those isolated eaters and drinkers yearning to get some face time with their favorite hospitality pros, and maybe to learn a thing or two along the way.

Here are a few free e-events to put on the iCal:

Thursday, May 21

Virtual Trivia With Lou’s City Bar

What: The Columbia Heights sports bar just flipped into place for virtual trivia. This week’s trivia game, kicking off at 8 p.m., is for all the sports fanatics out there.

Details: Register team names by texting 202-740-4893.

Reservations at Home Virtual Cookbook Release

What: The Yards development in Southeast releases a virtual cookbook, Reservations at Home, featuring recipes from more than 20 restaurants dotting the waterfront neighborhood (Albi, Anchovy Social, Chloe, and Agua 301, to name a few).

Details: The cookbook can be purchased on Eventbrite for $10. All proceeds benefit The Yards’ virtual tip jar, supporting the restaurant employees impacted by COVID-19.

Friday, May 22

Friday Night Pours With Maxwell Park

What: The wine bar’s new TGIF series continues at 7 p.m. on its Shaw location’s IG Live. Maxwell’s sommelier owners Brent Kroll, Niki Lang, and Daniel Runnerstrom will have special guest somm Jamie Smith. This week’s “quantum-tine” theme delves into four wines that represent trends of the past, present, and future.

Details: Drink along and head to Maxwell’s site to buy wines at a 30-percent discount (order at hello@maxwellparkdc.com by 6 p.m. for a code and password).

Happied x Thamee APA Series

What: In celebration of Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month, Thamee bar manager Richard Sterling co-hosts a new happy hour series every Friday in May, making classic cocktails and Asian American riffs. At 8 p.m. he teams up with Daikaya alum Monica Lee, who’s currently with Ellē.

Details: A portion of ticket sales from each of the five classes will go to an APA-serving organization. This one ($15) donates to MLOV. On Saturday, May 23, at 7 p.m. Happied hosts a virtual pisco party at Pisco y Nazca ($12) with drink kits starting at $30.

Virtual Happy Hour With Serenata

What: La Cosecha’s Latin cocktail bar Serenata hosts a weekly Zoom cocktail class at 5:30 p.m. Tune in to learn how to “tropicalize your bourbon” with Kentucky maker Bardstown Bourbon Company. Participants will taste its Fusion Series #2, Discovery Series #2, and The Prisoner Collaboration and make three cocktails each.

Details: Participants can buy a cocktail kit for pick-up via Toast or delivery via UberEats/DoorDash. Each kit for two ($70), available until Friday at 2 p.m., includes base spirits, mixers, garnishes, shared food items, spirit tastings, and Zoom ID to join the class.

Virtual Noir Bar

What: D.C. veteran mixologist Chantal Tseng hosts an at-home bartending class at 8 p.m. as an extension of her long-running #GetLit happy hour series at Petworth Citizen.

Saturday, May 23

Whiskey Tasting With Virginia Distillery

What: D.C.’s The Whiskey Library hosts a virtual tasting with Virginia Distillery Co., the single-malt whiskey maker nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Details: Each ticket ($35) includes a whisky tasting kit, access to the live Zoom tasting class with The Whiskey Library’s educators, and a donation to Friends & Family Meal to support the local industry. Pick up tasting kits at Wardman Wines in Brookland (625 Monroe St NE).

Sunday, May 24

Sunday Night Family Meal at Service Bar

What: Shaw’s hot cocktail bar will stream its popular weekly gathering online, complete with live bartending and DJ sets.

Details: The bar also just created its own You Tube channel. Subscribe for crafty cocktail intel and donate to support its team. On-demand 32-ounce cocktails and snacks are also available daily from 5 p.m. to 10 pm.

Wednesday, May 27

What: Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery’s chef David Guas just debuted a new weekly docu-series on Forbidden Feast’s YouTube channel, exploring the powerful role of food in Cuban culture. The eight-part series shows Guas and his Cuban-born father visiting his childhood home in Havana and dining at the same crumbling palladars he once frequented. Episodes are released every Wednesday at noon.

Details: Guas hails from an elite Cuban lineage: his great-uncle, Dr. Rafael Guas Inclán, served as the last elected vice president under Fulgencio Batista before the revolution (and was later elected Mayor of Havana just before Castro seized control). The web series airs every Wednesday at noon. Check out episode one here:

Virtual Tastings With District Winery

What: The Yards winery does live virtual tastings on Facebook every Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. Sip along and engage in a real-time conversations with winemakers.

Details: Wine tasting packs are available for purchase ahead of time, with free shipping.

Virtual Happy Hour With Bidwell

What: These days Bidwell’s bar boss Cassie Womack is “missing the sense of community I feel when I’m behind the bar,” at Union Market. So every Wednesday, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m., she’s hosting a Zoom virtual happy hour whipping up a few of her cocktail hits.

Details: Check out Bidwell’s booze list here, then join here and enter meeting ID 852 395 1346. Cocktail demos are followed by a “show and tell” drinking segment with the group and booze-related trivia with swag giveaways (she’s doing safe drop-offs herself).

Big Cork Vineyards Virtual Wine Tastings

What: Maryland winery Big Cork Vineyards is setting up a Zoom-based wine tasting with its master winemaker Dave Collins. Big Cork Vineyards is now offering free delivery to Washington or Frederick counties with orders of $75 or more (with free shipping with the purchase of six or more bottles).

Details: Launch this Zoom meeting link at 7:30 pm. on Wednesdays to learn more about wine and Big Cork Vineyards’ varietals.

Make Morris Cocktails at Home

What: Join Doug Fisher, beverage director at Shaw’s Morris American Bar, for an at-home cocktail tutorial.

Details: Every Wednesday at 5 p.m. Got a birthday? A Morris carryout cocktail is on the house.

Thursday, May 28

Chefs for #StJude

What: The children’s hospital debuts a new cooking demo series through June to raise money for patients and their families. Each online class (6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.) is hosted by a different top chef, starting with Brian Duffy of Bar Rescue. Future classes star Spike Mendelsohn (June 4), Kayla Robison (June 7), and Brian Malarkey (June 13).

Details: The costs is $36 per demo, which feeds a family of four at St. Jude for a day.

Ongoing

• Pearl Street Warehouse lives streams a series of virtual concerts, including acoustic sets.
• The Hamilton Loft, Clyde’s, and The Tombs are streaming free music on their social media channels.
• Cantina Bambina hosts Zoom happy hours through its Facebook page.
• Cordial at The Wharf is offering virtual wine tastings on Facebook Live.
• Tiki TnT owner Todd Thrasher hosts a virtual mixology class almost every night of the week on IG Live at 7:30 p.m.
• Danny Lledó, owner/chef and sommelier of Glover Park’s Slate Wine Bar and its new sister spot Xiquet DL, debuts two new virtual series in May (Paella Cooking Classes on Wednesdays and #SommNights on Thursdays). The hands-on cooking and wine classes will stream live on Zoom from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Paella tutorials are $35 and #SommNights are $85-$120, co-hosted by Lledó and sommelier Francisco Astudillo of SAWM Imports, a Richmond-based importer, distributor and wholesaler of fine Spanish wines.
• Joe’s Seafood, Prime Steak & Stone Crab exports its beloved happy hour deals from 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. Order half-price bottles of wine, $2 beers, and half-price cocktails ($7 each). And from 4 pm. to 7 p.m. from Monday to Saturday, sister spot RPM Italian offers an aperitivo hour package for two (600-day prosciutto, imported burrata, fried Olives, fried mozzarella and a pint of RPM’s Negroni) for $35.
• Convivial’s former pastry chef Eva Kronenburg is churning out YouTube videos almost daily, teaching viewers how to make treats like Swedish cardamom buns, croquettes, and tarts at home.
• Mark Henry, the Jamaican-born founder of sausage and jerk seasonings shop Island Bwoy Cuisine, teams up with his daughter to do playful cooking demos in their kitchen.

• How Coronavirus Is Impacting D.C.’s Food World [EDC]
• D.C. Restaurants Can’t Reopen Dining Rooms Until At Least Mid-May [EDC]