Hill Bar Pairs Celery Syrup Cocktail With Hazelnut Shrimp for Cocktail Week

D.C. Cocktail Week kicked off today (Monday) and three local businesses are serving up special drink and food pairings.

Near Stanton Park, Bistro Cacao is serving the Baiser Rouge martini with pan-seared duck breast. For $20, customers can order the cocktail at 320 Massachusetts Ave. NE with pear vodka, red wine and creme de cassis along with duck, braised endives and a ginger cherry wine sauce.

In the Mandarin Oriental hotel in Southwest, adventurous eaters can order the Ground to Glass cocktail and hazelnut shrimp at Empress Lounge. The 1330 Maryland Ave. SW bar is serving for $30 a drink with Cointreau and house-made celery syrup, plus hazelnut shrimp with a cream sauce anddaikon seaweed salad.

“The small plate is perfectly complimented by the refreshing yet delicate Ground to Glass cocktail infused with fresh house-made celery syrup, leaving a unique and fresh finish,” a statement from the lounge said.

And on Pennsylvania Avenue SE, a mezcal cocktail is served with tuna tartare at Hank’s Oyster Bar. The drink called the Oaxacan Silk Road contains mezcal, Japanese ponzu sauce and Contreau, and is served in a glass with a white sesame-soy salt rim. The tuna tartare dish includes sesame, capers and cucumber. The pairing at 633 Pennsylvania Ave. SE costs $19 per person.

D.C. Cocktail Week runs through Sunday. Eaters can enter to win prizes at participating restaurants by posting photos of the cocktails and food with #DCCocktailWeek. For the full list of participating businesses, see the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington’s website.

Photo via Flickr/npmeijer