The 10-day celebration of York’s greatest cocktail bars is coming to a close this weekend.
Taking part in the city-wide promotion are 26 different venues, including a couple of famous chains, as well as local legends.
To take part in the event, you must purchase a £5 wristband from the York Cocktail Week Website.
The wristband allows you to purchase any of the special cocktails or their alternative mocktails for a range of £5-£7, depending on the venue.
The event, which started on the 17th of April, and runs through until Sunday the 26th, has already attracted large crowds into York.
The Botanist drew in crowds with their strawberry shrub and elderflower mojito, costing customers only £5.
The Botanist York bar manager Alex Sykes, said:
“We had at least 500 customers who came in for the cocktail week deal on the first weekend.”
The sweetness of the strawberry shrub, and elderflower syrup is evened out with a healthy amount of mint.
The cocktail was described by the bartender as “sweet, fruity and refreshing.”
The house of Trembling Madness on Lendal chose a Michelada as their special.
A famous Mexican cocktail mixes a classic Bloody Mary with Mexican beer, completed with a Tajín rim.
To add a Trembling Madness twist on the cocktail, the Madness Michelada contains a pilsner instead.
One customer at Trembling Madness, Reece Cousins, 29, said:
“It was delicious and the extra tequila shot is a must have.”
The reaction from other members of the public however, was quite a contrast.
With a Trembling Madness Bartender saying:
“I watched one man take a sip and immediately spit the drink back into his glass and walk out.”
As Trembling Madness is a known ale house, staff were unsure why the cocktail week organisers reached out and asked them to participate, however, they were honoured to have been chosen.
Social 8 Lounge chose a spicy mango margarita, which the bartender claimed was a crowd pleaser, drawing in many customers.
The sweetness of the mango, alongside the fiery chilli creates a perfect balance that left people wanting more.
“The amount of people that have come in just for this drink on a weekday is crazy.”
“Normally we have customers come in for maybe one or two drinks but when they come in for this cocktail then they are staying a little bit longer.”
Becky Smith, 25:
“It was delicious, I liked the Tajín rim.”
“I have never taken part in cocktail week before, it inspired me to go visit bars I’ve never tried.”
Boho mixologists, which can be found in the upper level of Spark, is serving up refreshing lemon drops.
To keep with the brands buy-local ethos, all the ingredients of this cocktail were locally sourced.
The drink contained Dutch Barn Vodka from Ellers Farm, a distillery located in Stamford bridge, as well as Triple Sec, fresh lemon juice and sugar syrup.
Although this cocktail is already on their menu, the price reduction from the wristbands as well as all the advertising through York cocktail week meant Boho got a nice surge in customers.
Kennedys on Little Stonegate showed their love for spring florals with their take on the lavender lady.
The gin based cocktail was sweet, foamy, and of course had strong notes of lavender.
Although the choice of lavender was a risk, being such a unique flavour, the bartender informed me that the bar was definitely not struggling to attract customers.
Dusk, a student favourite, is treating customers with their take on a classic paloma, which they are calling the ‘Paloma Faith”
This crisp cocktail has strong flavours of grapefruit and lime, perfectly contrasted with a sugar rim.
Although some people came just for the special cocktail, Dusk is already known for it’s great cocktails, and cheap prices, so having the cocktail week deal meant the bar was doing very well with customer intake.
Cosy Club decided to take a tropical turn with their ‘The Cosy-Cabana’, a Havana 3 year cocktail with a grapefruit flavour and garnish.
The drink is light, fizzy and refreshing.
Disappointingly for Cosy Club, so far it hasn’t tempted as many customers as the bartender had hoped.
Brew York have made what they called “a pop-star twist on a classic cosmo”.
The Katy Berry Cosmo is bold, sweet and citrusy, and as I am told, best enjoyed in their sun trap of a beer garden.
The bartender explained that the company recently introduced a new and improved cocktail menu, making cocktail week a great way to show off their mixologist skills and hopefully entice customers to return for more.
Other bars taking part in the York Cocktail Week include:
- Bobos Cocktail Bar
- Vudu Lounge
- Dum Dum Tiki Bar
- Impossible
- PINK
- Manahatta
- Ask Italian
- Jalou
- Whippet Inn
- Cicchetti Lounge
- Rosa’s Thai
- Revolution
- Yemen Heaven
- Shambles Tavern
- Slug & Lettuce (both riverside and Swinegate branches)
- Tomahawk Steakhouse
- Moxy
For the many of the bars and restaurants that signed up to partake, the publicity of York Cocktail Week has made a large impact on their businesses.
With the state of the current UK economy, many bars and restaurants are struggling.
The UK Hospitality website found in a recent survey that “one-third of hospitality businesses are operating at a loss”
One York bouncer explained:
“Normally after Christmas there is a lull but by this time last year it had picked up already.”
“I just think people can’t afford to go out as much as they used to.”
Events like York Cocktail Week are seen as a great to assist the local economy, attracting more people to go out and spend money at nearby bars and restaurants.
See the mixology process of some of the special cocktails below:
