From June 30th to July 4th, Como will be the center of Italy’s best signature mixology with the 2022 edition of Lake Como Cocktail Week, an evocative festival overlooking the bucolic views of the enchanting Lake Como.
Now in its third edition, Lake Como Cocktail Week will see five days dedicated to quality mixed drinks and the finest food pairing, with a drink list of 50 cocktails, including alcoholic and alcohol-free versions, served at the counter of Lake Como’s most charming luxury hotels, street bars and restaurants.
Celebrating History & Creativity on Lake Como
A landmark event in the food & beverage sector that aims to educate on responsible and quality drinking and to strengthen community ties, Lake Como Cocktail Week is a multi-sensory experience that is the manifesto of a new wave of creativity and experimentation, which comes to life behind the bar counter, a place where mixing is transformed into storytelling that enchants.
“I strongly believe that Lake Como Cocktail Week is a project of all of us that cultivates in itself a great potential, thus destined to grow over time by attracting more and more a public curious to discover the values of our territory. – declares Annalisa Testa, journalist and founder of Lake Como Cocktail Week – What we are all contributing to is an ode to quality mixing that aims to help guests discover the art of drinking, little but well and responsibly, celebrating the history of the city and the shores of our lake.”
Nearly 30 locations are involved in this edition once again this year. The great hotels on the lake, from Villa d’Este to the Mandarin Oriental, Lake Como, from the Grand Hotel in Tremezzo to the Imperial Hotel in Moltrasio, passing through the historic Villa Serbelloni in Bellagio, to Il Sereno and Filario on the eastern shore. And then the Hilton, the Sheraton Lake Como, the historic street and restaurant cocktail bars of the walled city, the beating heart of Como’s movida, and a highly anticipated new entry this summer, the new Mor Lake Como, the luxury beach club latest acquisition of the Omnam group, set on the west shore of Tremezzina.
The Theme of Cocktail Week 2022
Cinema is the guiding theme of the event, which bartenders will have to follow to create their own Signature Cocktail: a true work of art served only from June 30 to July 4, in a limited edition, paired with a dish, finger food, sweet or savory canapé made by the chef. Cinema thus becomes storytelling of enchanting glimpses of Manzoni’s lake, reinterpreted in cocktails that will accompany guests on a tour to discover the locations of famous films.
On the other hand, Woody Allen, Alfred Hitchcock, Luchino Visconti, Sergio Leone and Steven Soderbergh are just some of the great directors who have chosen to set their films among the most scenic villas and villages, parks and views of the Como area, capturing their grace and elegance and then transforming them into the set of an unforgettable love story or adventure.
From Villa d’Este to Isola Comacina to the village of Nesso, participants were inspired by the filming locations of Hitchcock’s first film, The Pleasure Garden (1975), or Villa Balbianello, where Martin Campbell, director of Casino Royale (2006), framed the kiss between Eva Green and Daniel Craig, the same location chosen by George Lucas in 2002 to set Senator Padmé Amidala’s residence-shelter in Star Wars: Episode II, Attack of the Clones and, then again, vacation spot of Vanessa Redgrave, Miss Bentley in the film A Month at the Lake (1995) directed by John Irvin.
And then there are Danny and Tess Ocean (born George Clooney and Julia Roberts) who, in Ocean’s Twelve (2004), visit rival thief Night Fox (Vincent Cassel) in his magnificent Villa Erba in Cernobbio, as well as the Gucci family, starring in Ridley Scott’s film House of Gucci (2021), which sees Villa Balbiano as the main set of the saga. There is no shortage of old-fashioned masterpieces such as Rocco and His Brothers, Luchino Visconti’s 1960 drama film, which transforms Bellagio and the legendary Grand Hotel Bretagne into the protagonists’ love nest.
New for this third edition is the competion The Best Cocktail on the Lake, staged on Monday, June 27 in the beautiful setting of the Kitchen garden, the Michelin-starred restaurant of the Sheraton Lake Como Hotel, the bartenders of Lake Como Cocktail Week will bring before a jury of mixology experts their Signature Cocktail, evaluated under the technical, aesthetic and sensory profile.
Also this year among the protagonists of the drink lists will be the non-alcoholic Signature Cocktail. The idea is reinforced through observing trends and promoting responsible drinking. Three declinations of Seedlip, Diageo Group’s non-alcoholic distillate, will be available to participants, as well as the opportunity to narrate the importance of water both as a side to the cocktail and also in the preparation and as an ingredient in the cocktail itself.