SIP-tember: a Celebration of the Cocktail returns August 15th!
Cocktail Bracket Challenge culminates at Taste of Pasadena at the Rose Bowl on October 10th!
This is a Pasadena Restaurant Week event, presented by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by Wells Fargo.
Five years ago, the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce inaugurated SIP-tember: A
celebration of the Cocktail and SIP-tember Cocktail Bracket Challenge.
SIP-tember kicks off on August 15th and culminates with a live taste-off at the Taste of Pasadena at the Rose Bowl on October 10th. Online voting will be live from August 15th to September 30th.
Our SIP-tember Cocktail Bracket Challenge pits drinks from various establishments against each other in an online bracket challenge over the course of six weeks.
Here is how it works:
- Voting in all but the final round is done online.
- 64 drinks from various establishments are entered in the challenge.
- Each entrant can have no more than two (2) drinks entered.
- Each drink is randomly paired in competition with another drink from a different establishment for the first round, with there being 32 individual competitions taking place over the first two-week period. Patrons are encouraged to visit each establishment and vote for the drink they favor. The one that garners the most votes of the pair in the first round moves on to the second round.
- For the second round, 32 pairings of the winners of round one compete against each other during the third week with the individual winners moving on to the next round.
- For the third round, 16 pairings compete to get to the round of eight in the
fourth week. (We will think of fun names for each one.)
- From the round of 8 we will get down to our Four Finalists.
- We will again host a Taste of Pasadena event for the finals where attendees can sample the final four drinks and vote for the one they want to be named Pasadena’s Favorite Cocktail 2019. We will host the SIP-tember Cocktail Bracket Challenge Finale and Taste of Pasadena at the Rose Bowl on Thursday, October 10th from 6pm to 9pm.
Voting for all but the final four round is done online through a bracket system that is developed for the Pasadena Restaurant Week website.
Lounges and restaurants enter at least one mixed drink of some sort (with a maximum of two entries per establishment). This could be a mixed drink, sangria, wine or beer based drink, margarita, or whatever you want to enter. Brackets are selected randomly and drinks are paired against each other in a way that promotes friendly competition among peers and encourages patrons to visit as many establishments as possible during the six weeks of the event.
Each venue can enter no more than two drinks. Drinks can be liquor, wine or beer based, but must include at least two ingredients.
The competition works similar to the March Madness NCAA basketball online brackets, except voting is ongoing, as opposed to set in advance. Last year’s Favorite Cocktail was entered by the Langham Huntington Hotel and their TapRoom.
This year's participants include:
- The Taproom at the Langham Huntington Hotel
- Trejo's Cantina Pasadena
- Mi Piace
- Lucky Baldwin's Trappiste Pub
- Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
- Otis Bar at La Grande Orange
- El Cholo
- White Horse Lounge
- Roy's Hawaiian Pasadena
- Dog Haus Biergarten
- Brookside Golf Club
- And more
We encourage patrons to enjoy SIP-tember responsibly.
Our idea is, using minimal expense, to promote the event aggressively and drive
business to your establishments. We would certainly encourage everyone to enter one or more drinks in the competition. If you want to highlight items on your menu, we can do that through the Pasadena Restaurant Week website.
You can also visit the website at www.pasadenarestaurantweek.com.
Pasadena Chamber member restaurants also have the opportunity to be part of our Taste of Pasadena event at the Rose Bowl on October 10th.