Here’s the perfect way to impress a date. Through the end of June, the Capital Grille (1450 Larimer St.) is offering Luxury Martinis, elegant drinks made with Cîroc Vodka and blackberry-flavored Crème de Mure liqueur.
And while drinks and dinner at a posh steak house are nice enough, it’s the garnish on Denver’s version of this martini that makes it a major showstopper. Forget about cocktail onions, stuffed olives or even exotic fruits; this cocktail is finished off with an 18k gold, pavé diamond stacking ring.
Naturally, the diamond-studded stir stick doesn’t come cheap. This sipper has a $1,000 price tag and was designed specifically for the Denver Capital Grille location by jeweler Steven Lagos.
“We created martinis for each different market,” said Cory Delafield, a PR rep for the Capital Grille. “So the martini for Denver is the Mile High Martini, since the pavé diamonds sparkle like the snow in the mountains. We have one called the Royal Palm for Miami that has green quartz with diamonds, and the martini for NYC is called the Gotham.”
As of last week, 108 martinis had been sold nationwide, including one of the Mile High Martinis here in Denver.
There’s more to the Luxury Martinis than just good looks, however. For each $1,000 martini sold, the Capital Grille will donate the profits – $500 each – to the Share Our Strength organization’s efforts to end childhood hunger in America. That means $54,000 has been raised so far since the drinks were launched at the beginning of May.
Now that’s impressive.
A Fair look at some older tunes
Toronto native Luke Fair has spent the past month jet-setting to clubs around the world, spinning his blend of house music for fans in Asia, Australia, Canada and now the U.S. So how does an aspiring DJ break into the global house circuit?
“I worked my way up from the bottom,” Fair said last week as he prepared for his gig that night in Minneapolis. “I was a busboy at Industry nightclub, basically sweeping up vomit and broken glasses every night. But it was the best house club in Toronto at the time. I started in ’95, and I was DJ’ing there by 1998.”
By the time Industry closed in August 2000, Fair was completely hooked. “I call it black crack,” he said. “Vinyl, that is.”
Fair snagged a touring spot opening for Sasha and John Digweed, and released a 2002 mix compilation on Digweed’s Bedrock label. He’s promoting his latest mix effort, 2007’s “Balance 011,” the latest in the “Balance” series by Australia’s EQ label. For this two-disc mix, Fair wanted to re-create his own club experience.
“I basically wanted to show the progression within 2 1/2 hours of what I’d play through an entire night in a club,” he said, “starting with really deep house and then building up through all types of house music.”
And rather than seek out brand-new, unreleased tracks, Fair dug through piles of older songs looking for the perfect fit.
“There is just so much music being released all the time, I wanted to find records that came out but slipped under the radar,” he said. “And previously released stuff is never going to be big again, where new releases can break out and get so popular that people get sick of them.”
Check out Fair’s selection of funky, melodic and techy house music next week when he hits the Church nightclub (1160 Lincoln St.) on Thursday. Tickets $10 in advance at groove tickets.com, 18+, 9 p.m.
Make a splash
Summer’s here, and it’s time to get your bronze on. Take the party outdoors Saturday, when JJ Walker of JFly Presents introduces “Rehab Denver,” a monthly series of pool parties that kicks off this weekend.
The party heats up at the Parkway Center Apartments’ pool (1150 Galapago St.) on Saturday afternoon and cools off at the Jet Hotel (1612 Wazee St.) later that night, complete with a dozen ice sculptures and chilled-out cocktails at the bar.
Kat Valentine writes about nightlife Fridays in 7days. Reach her at kat@kingproduction.com or call 303-954-1568.
