Cocktails and Artistry Collide at The Art League

Alexandria’s fine arts and fine cocktail communities collided last week at The Art League’s Art on the Rocks event at the Torpedo Factory.

Five local mixologists from Old Town watering holes were challenged to create cocktails inspired by a juried piece of artwork from The Art League’s October exhibit, “Body Language.”

Trae Lamond from Chadwicks took top honors on the evening for his “Johnny Ringo,” which consisted of whiskey, grapefruit juice, orange bitters and St. Germain.

“It’s an awesome event,” said Lamond, a previous Art on the Rocks winner. “It really gets the creative juices flowing and allowed some smack talk between the bartenders. It was a really great turnout, too.”

Representatives from Bastille, Columbia Firehouse, The Light Horse Restaurant and Union Street Public House also participated in the event.

More than 175 paid attendees sampled the cocktails and voted for their favorite while nibbling on appetizers and checking out The Art League’s exhibits.

All the proceeds from the event go toward supporting The Art League’s outreach programs, which include a ceramics class for Fort Belvoir’s Wounded Warriors called IMPART, the Alexandria Seaport Foundation’s Easel Project and Space of Her Own. The proceeds also help provide art class scholarships to low-income children.