You’ve celebrated beer, now enjoy Bellingham Cocktail Week

During the first Bellingham Cocktail Week, you can sip holiday cocktails at Redlight, celebrate the end of Prohibition with a cocktail crawl and learn how to pair scotch with cigars at Uisce.

Those will be among the events meant to showcase what organizers are calling the city’s cocktail culture in much the way Bellingham now celebrates local beers and breweries with Bellingham Beer Week.

Bellingham Cocktail Week runs Monday, Nov. 30, to Sunday, Dec. 6.

It’s organized by Chelsea Farmer, owner of Temple Bar, and Rebecca Ogden, owner of Redlight. Ten bars and restaurants are participating in a week geared toward the public as well as bartenders and others in the industry.

“We want to grab people’s attention,” Farmer said. “This event is meant to be fun and not exclusive.”

The week kicks off Monday with holiday cocktails at Redlight during happy hour. The bar also will share recipes. Or head over to the Temple Bar that same day for the launch party and step back into the 1950s and ’60s with the bar’s ode to martinis, Manhattans and old fashioneds.

Organizers said they also are showcasing other local vendors in their creations.

For example, Ogden said, Redlight’s holiday rum-coffee drink will include Chokola tea from Flying Bird Botanicals and Old Busker coffee liqueur from Chuckanut Bay Distillery, both of Bellingham, as well as Sun Liquor rum out of Seattle.

Farmer and Ogden said they wanted to bring attention to the cocktail culture that has made its way from big cities to Bellingham, where it has picked up in the last three to four years.

Cocktail culture, Farmer explained, is an interest in the history of cocktail making and its roots — going back before Prohibition through speakeasy and tiki culture to the resurgence that started in the 1990s — and the craft of making a good balanced drink. It’s the idea of a bartender being like a chef and organizing components and flavor profiles.

If you have just one day to experience Bellingham Cocktail Week, your best bet is probably Saturday, Dec. 5, for the Repeal Day Cocktail Crawl.

Dec. 5 is Repeal Day, which is the day when the U.S. Prohibition on alcohol ended in 1933.

On that day in 2015, Temple Bar will serve up French cocktails, Daphne’s in Fairhaven will focus on classic cocktails, Uisce will throw a bootleggers ball, and The Real McCoy will shed light on tiki night, among other offerings.

“There is so much going on,” Farmer said. “It’s pretty amazing.”

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 12:10 PM with the headline "You’ve celebrated beer, now enjoy Bellingham Cocktail Week."