Thursday, June 25 at 6 p.m. at The Riverview in Simsbury, Conn.
—Tickets are $60 for general admission and $25 for designated drivers. Tickets are limited, and must be reserved by Wednesday, June 17; order today!—
HARTFORD, Conn. (May 29, 2015) – The annual celebration of all things martini returns to Connecticut with the fifth annual Faith Middleton Food Schmooze® Martini Competition! Part of the Faith Middleton Food Schmooze® Signature Event Series, this year’s competition will take place on Thursday, June 25 at 6 p.m. at the elegant Riverview in Simsbury.
Hosted by two-time Peabody Award-winning WNPR broadcaster Faith Middleton, this event gives bartenders from across the state the chance to reinvent and reinterpret the classic martini. The resulting specialty cocktails are sampled by guests, who vote for their favorite delectable drink. Special guest Anthony DeSerio, past president of the Connecticut chapter of the U.S. Bartenders Guild, will be on hand to add his vote as well. Before the end of the night, the cocktail with the most votes will be announced as the winner!
The Faith Middleton Food Schmooze® Martini Competition also includes music, dancing and a variety of sweet and savory “noshes” from some of the state’s top restaurants. As always, this one-of-a-kind evening supports the local programming initiatives of WNPR.
Plus, this year, an application has been filed with the Guinness World Records organization in hopes that the Faith Middleton Food Schmooze® Martini Competition will qualify as the World’s Largest Martini Competition!
The competition is off to a good start in this quest, with a number of restaurants, bartenders and food service providers from around the state scheduled to participate in this year’s event. They include olea Restaurant; Tisane Euro-Asian Café; the Half Door; Plan B Burger Bar; Barley Vine; NIXS Hartford; the Restaurant ON20; Bobby V’s Restaurant and Sports Bar; Cure Restaurant & Bar; RIPE Bar Juice; Hardcore Sweet partnered with Bohemian Pizza; Lyme Grill; Spice Catering; Backstage Eat. Drink. Live.; Feng Asian Bistro partnered with Hartford Flavor Company; Blue Plate Kitchen; Kawa Ni; Firebox Restaurant; Acqua Restaurant, Z Hospitality Group; Front Street Bistro at Spotlight Theatres; the Inn at Middletown; DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol; and Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ. Additional participants will be announced atCTMartini.org.
Music, lighting, photography and entertainment for the fifth annual Faith Middleton Food Schmooze® Martini Competition will be provided by Powerstation Events of Cheshire.
Tickets for the event are $60 for general admission and $25 for designated drivers. Only guests 21 years and older will be admitted. The price of admission includes all cocktails and food. Tickets, which must be reserved by Wednesday, June 17, are available atCTMartini.org/tickets.
Additional information about the event can be found at CTMartini.org, or by calling the Connecticut Public’s Audience Care Department at (860) 275-7550. Members of the media who would like to request a press pass can contact Lolly Nicol at (860) 275-7258. Bartenders, restaurants or food service providers interested in participating in this year’s event should contact Lolly Nicol by Wednesday, June 3 at (860) 275-7258.
WNPR’s The Faith Middleton Show is a two-time Peabody Award-winning show widely recognized for fostering insightful, thought-provoking conversation. Faith Middleton offers her listeners some of the world’s most fascinating people and subjects. Lori Mack and Jonathan McNicol co-produce the program, which has been inducted into the Connecticut Magazine Hall of Fame as “Best Local Talk Show.”
The Faith Middleton Show airs on WNPR Mondays through Thursdays at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., with The Food Schmooze® airing Wednesdays at 3 p.m. and 9 p.m. and Saturdays at noon. The Food Schmooze® features Faith Middleton and special guests discussing recipes, wine picks, food tips and more. For more information, visit WNPR.org.
About WNPR
WNPR is an affiliate of National Public Radio, Public Radio International and American Public Media. As part of the Connecticut Public (CBPN), WNPR serves 276,000 listeners weekly in Connecticut, New York and Rhode Island with news and information. WNPR has also been the recipient of many esteemed awards, including two George Foster Peabody Awards, five Ohio State Awards, two Gracie Allen Awards and over 60 Associated Press Awards, including eight Mark Twain Awards for Overall Station Excellence. WNPR’s award-winning local programming lineup includes Where We Live, The Colin McEnroe Show and The Faith Middleton Show. Overall, the network brings a broad spectrum of public affairs, entertainment, sports and educational programming to viewers, listeners and readers. CPBN also includes CPTV, a media service that is a locally and nationally recognized producer and presenter of quality public television programming, including original documentaries and educational programming. CPTV offers 11.5 hours of positive, nurturing children’s programs each weekday, reaching 450,000 households each week. CPBN also includes two affiliate channels: CPTV4U, a 24/7 television channel featuring award-winning drama, news and talk programming, concert performances, independent films, nature shows, British comedy and more; and CPTV Sports, Connecticut’s only 24-hour local sports network, covering statewide high school, college, semi-professional and professional sports. CPBN also houses the Learning Lab, home to the Journalism & Media Academy Magnet School satellite campus and the Institute for Advanced Media, which includes the Veterans Vocational Training Program. For more information, visitWNPR.org.
To download a PDF of this press release, click here: 2015 Faith Middleton Food Schmooze Martini Competition_052915