all photos: Shauna Alexander, all words: Svetlana

As is tradition now, at the very brink of spring,Washington DC spends a couple of weeks happy-hour hopping through some of the city’s best bars trying cocktails concocted by our finest mixologists inspired by the works of art in the Corcoran. All proceeds support ArtReach, the Corcoran’s award-winning arts education program, celebrating its 20th anniversary this year., at the end of the long drinking rope is a long, drinking night where everyone dons their party outfit best and trots out to dance, romance and imbibe the night away at the annual Artini Gala, which, we over here at BYT love in the kind of well-documented way that we reserve only for the finest events around town.

Anyway, so this past Saturday, we put on our sparkliest outfits (as inspired by our Creative Cocktailwear how-to guide), forgot to eat dinner and headed over to see what the city’s best drink makers had in store for us:

The official winners of the competition were P.O.V.’s Joe Ambrose (the critic’s choice) and Art & Soul’s Ronald Flores with his fragrant take on Aaron Douglas’ Into Bondage (the reader’s choice winner) but with an evening that included everything from Tabard Inn Chantal Tseng’s smoky and sweet creation on to Oyamel’s AMAZING tequila refresher 2 ways (with a drink AND the most sophisticated jello shot we ever laid our eyes on, nestled neatly inside a lime rind) -this was the kind of night where EVERYONE was a winner.

With the warm, outdoor drinking months ahead, lets hope some of these beauties find their way onto the bars’ regular menus.