This past Saturday I visited the Corcoran Gallery of Art for Artini 2010, an event that brought some of the area’s most talented mixologists together to construct drinks inspired by works featured in the Corcoran’s current exhibition, A Love of Europe: Highlights from the William A. Clark Collection.

The combination of the Corcoran’s classical environment and apparel requirements created sophisticated, comfortable ambiance that was extremely conducive to socializing and  and subsequently drew a young crowd looking for a good time without the overwhelming bass of club speakers (not that there is anything wrong with that).

I spent the earlier part of the evening sampling the various concoctions brought to Artini by local talents including Ronald Flores from Art and Soul, Justin Guthrie from the W, Tiffany Short from the Gibson and a host of others.  The Washingtonian hosted a poll and as of last check, Guthrie from the W seemed to be in the lead.

After feeling comfortably warmed by the mixture of cocktails, I headed upstairs for a fuzzy stroll through the Corcoran’s special exhibition, Turner to Cézanne, which I found to be a rather pleasant activity to my surprise.  After, all, who knew it would take cucumbur infused vodka to help me appreciate French impressionism.

Later in the evening, DC Chris Nitti turned on the cheese and everyone got onto the dance floor for the remainder of what turned out to be one of my more memorable evenings in recent memory.

You can find out more information about Artini and the 1869 Society on the Corcoran Web site.

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