Le Mixeur Sharky Nine Stories: Boston, NYC, PDX

April is officially Shark Month. Well, maybe not officially. I'm not sure how anything becomes official. But April is Shark Month nonetheless, with not one, not two, but three Le Mixeur Sharky Nine Stories happening around the country. And for once in this blog's god forsaken life, I'm going to get right to the important information folks need to know. Here is your breakdown of each event and how to go to there.

BOSTON

Date: Tuesday April 10, 2012

Time: 6pm-9pm

Where: The Hawthorne, 500A Commonwealth Ave, in The Stone Room

Cost: $20/person, purchase at the door

Your Hosts: Misty Kalkofen, Jackson Cannon

Your Money Goes To: Massachusetts Advocates For Children's (MAC) Autism Center

Nine of Boston's most gifted bartenders have created their own interpretations of JD Salinger's Nine Stories. Your $20 admission grants you tastings of any or all of these nine cocktails, made by their creators. The leadership of MAC will be in attendance to share the incredible work they do.

In addition to the tastings, Hawthorne manager Jackson Cannon has graciously placed a selection of Le Mixeur Sharky drinks on the bar menu for the evening. Purchase one of the drinks from the bar and the proceeds also will go to MAC.

"Since its inception in 2002, (MAC) has become a vital force within the autism community in Massachusetts, providing training, legal assistance, advocacy, and services to thousands of parents and professionals to ensure that children with autism overcome lowered expectations and receive equal educational opportunities."

NEW YORK CITY

Date: Sunday April 15, 2012

Time: 5pm-2am

Where: Dutch Kills, 27-24 Jackson Ave, Long Island City

Cost: per drink, about what you'd figure to spend on a cocktail in NYC

Your Host: The Honorable Mr. Richard Boccato

Your Money Goes To: The New York Center for Autism (NYCA) Charter School

Richie Boccato, a closet Seattle lover, will be offering a selection of the drinks from the original Le Mixeur Sharky event held in Seattle this past March. These drinks were created by nine of Seattle's best bartenders, each based on an assigned tale from Nine Stories. Proceeds from these drinks will go to the NYCA Charter School, a specialized school for children with autism providing individualized education.

"The school promotes the achievement of high educational standards and the full intellectual, social, physical, and emotional potential of each of its students. It extends its educational programming beyond the school’s walls through training, consultation, and support for students’ families. The school also offers ongoing professional development opportunities to its staff, as well as to other educators in New York City and the surrounding area."

PORTLAND

Date: Sunday, April 22nd

Time: 6pm-10pm

Where: Teardrop Lounge, 1015 NW Everett St.

Cost: $60/person (RSVP required!)

RSVP: daniel@teardroplounge.com

Your Host: Preacher Man Daniel Shoemaker

Your Money Goes To: The Northwest Autism Foundation (NWAF)

Your $60 admission gets you open bar for the duration of the event, plus food generously provided by Jennifer & Ken Norris (Riffle NW), Scott Dolich (Park Kitchen), Alex Yoder (Olympic Provisions), & Bridgeport Brewing. Daniel has recruited nine star bartenders from Portland to create yet another round of boozy interpretations of Salinger's stories. These bartenders will be taking overlapping shifts behind the bar. Representatives of NWAF will be in attendance to talk about their work, so try to stay a little sober. I know there's nine cocktails being served, but...

Note: This event is rapidly approaching capacity, fullness, sold out status, impenetrablity, surrounded by force field, etc. RSVP soon.

"The original goal of NWAF was to provide education, resources and information to parents, family, friends, caregivers and professionals treating children on the autism spectrum on a donation only basis. Shortly after its inception, NWAF expanded its goals to include facilitating early diagnosis and effective treatment for individuals with ASD."

SOME IMPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT ALL THESE EVENTS

• The people organizing these events have done this for no charge out of the goodness of their hearts. And the spaces in which these events will take place have been provided to us for free.

• The bartenders making your drinks at these events, and the people serving drinks and cleaning tables and taking out garbage and washing dishes have volunteered their time, effort, and skills. Please show your appreciation for them.

• The expenses of these events have been greatly reduced thanks to many generous donations of product from our sponsors. Please make a note of who they are and think pleasant thoughts of them. Their donations will increase the amount of money we raise for children with autism by literally thousands of dollars.

• These events are amazing and fun to plan and create. You should totally do one wherever you live. I will help you as much as I can. Email me at t (dot) mixeur (at) gmail (dot) com, or post a comment to this blog if you'd like to host your own version of Le Mixeur Sharky.

THE BOSTON MENU

Since Boston is coming up so soon, let's give a little sneak peek. Your bartender lineup for the evening will be (in order of appearance) :

Sabrina Kershaw of The Citizen

Tyler Wang of No. 9 Park

John Mayer of Local 149

Ted Kilpatrick of No. 9 Park

Rob Kraemer of Chez Henri

Scott Holiday of Rendezvous

Sean Frederick of The Citizen

Ted Gallagher of Craigie On Main

John Gertsen of Drink

The bartenders will be presenting drinks in the order the stories appear in the book. So you'll begin the night with the overwhelming angst of Seymour Glass in bananafish, but by the end achieve spiritual enlightenment thanks to Teddy (note: my name's Ted, there's two bartenders at this event named Ted, the final drink and story is Teddy, and there's a movie coming out called Ted that Sharky is already campaigning to be allowed to see despite its R rating. Month of the Shark. Year of the Ted.)

Here's the menu for tomorrow night...

This version of the menu is designed to be cut up into bookmarks. If you would like to make your own bookmarks as a souvenir of the event, send me your contact info via email or a comment on this blog (which I will not publish) and I'll send you a high resolution version to print and snip.

Well, I guess that's about it. No go part like a rock star and make a difference in the life of a child. Isn't it nice when you can do both at the same time?