The Back Story
A few years ago I participated in a crawl through Deep Ellum. I truly enjoyed walking around from bar to bar, interacting with the group, meeting new people and experiencing bars I had never visited before. This was my first crawl experience (I even left with free Mavs tickets from a nice person I met in our group). With my love for minority and women owned businesses I thought it would be great to do something like this for those businesses. I sat on this idea for the longest, but finally got the courage to move forward with it. I wanted to highlight black owned bars in Dallas first. My dilemma was that I could only come up with one true bar (Shoals in Deep Ellum). There were also some lounges, clubs and restaurants that could fit with this style of event, but with them being spread apart so far it really wasn’t feasible for a true crawl experience. My wheels got to turning and I thought about all of the mobile services the city has to offer. Gathering all of these businesses under one roof could be beneficial for the businesses as well as the consumers. How often do you book a service without getting a sample of what they have to offer first? Putting different mobile mixologists, bartenders and chefs under one roof gives the consumers a chance to see what they can expect if they book their services and gives the businesses a chance to leave a lasting impression. Thus the Culture Crawl Cocktail Competition was born.
The Culture Crawl vision comes to reality
After several months of planning the night finally arrived. Guests were greeted by a table where they received souvenir bags from The Eans Team and souvenir tasting glasses curated by 17% drip. The sounds from DJ So4kis hit your ears and kept the crowd grooving throughout the night. Guests were drawn in to the jungle like feel brought on by life size animals in one of the many instagram worthy displays that Alijo Props created throughout the space.
Emowa socks came through and showed us how you can exude culture all the way down to your socks. Their boldly printed cultural socks add a bit of flair to your style. Froot Kaves specializing in PH balanced lemonade offered a variety of drinks to sample. 17% drip showed their custom glassware in addition to curating the custom glassware for all guests.
Our featured local brand Berkshire Farms Winery was a hit. They had a variety of their locally produced wines, but it was their bubbly sangria that stole the show. Featured mixologist Potent Pours did a cocktail demo, giving you a little glimpse into what it would be like at her mixologists workshops and offered samples to the crowd. Chef Meika of Graze set up a beautiful grazing table that was almost too pretty to eat (almost lol). The cocktail competition featured Jazzy Lady Bartending, Drunk-N-Fruit and Envious Bartender. Envious Bartender was the ultimate winner of the competition with Drunk-N-Fruit being named the people’s choice. All three did an amazing job. You can’t have bar drinks without bar food. The bar bites competition featured Unseen Cuisine, Chef Shelby and Chef Derricka. Ultimately Chef Shelby came out on top with Chef Shelby being named the peoples choice. Each chef came with it that night, and all deserve a round of applause.
If you are into the arts then The Culture Crawl was right up your alley. The sultry sounds of Dallas native Monique Renee really got the crowd going as she performed a mix of soulful and R&B songs. We also took in the art work of Melanin Meshone which is not only beautiful but has powerful messages if you look deeply within each piece. Bringing in the full bar experience there were familiar bar games like corn hole, giant connect for and giant chess.
We are already in the planning phases for the next one. Don’t have FOMO. Stay tuned so you can get in on the action. The cocktail and food competitions are open to all vendors, so keep an eye out for the application to open.
A special thank you goes out to every volunteer that helped to make the event run smoothly. Also, thank you to Cormeshia of SheBatty Shoots for the event photos.
For all inquiries please e-mail brandisfoodiediary@gmail.com.
Until next time….