64 drinks will compete to be named the favorite during six-week cocktail bracket challenge at restaurants and lounges throughout Pasadena

Patrons get to decide which cocktail is Pasadena’s favorite during SIP-tember: a celebration of the cocktail in Pasadena. From August 15th through September 26th, local restaurants will serve cocktails that will be paired against each other in a competition. 64 cocktails, ranging from drinks specially concocted for the competition to margaritas and sangria, will begin the competition that will last six weeks and culminate in a live taste-off of the four drinks that win their bracket.

Brackets will be unveiled on the Pasadena Restaurant Week website on Monday, August 5th

at 2pm. Which drinks will be paired against each other in competition? Will 2012’s favorite cocktail, the Broad Street Hurricane, stand up to this year’s competitors?

The 64 cocktails competing in 32 brackets will be available for viewing at the Pasadena Restaurant Week website at www.pasadenarestaurantweek.com on Monday, August 5th.

The first challenge will take place over two weeks and pit 32 pairs of cocktails against each other. Each week following the winners will be paired head-to-head with another winning cocktail until, on September 27th, the four finalists will be matched in a live tasting during the annual Taste of Pasadena hosted by the Pasadena Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, September 26th from 6pm to 9pm at a special venue in Pasadena.

Voting in the cocktail bracket challenge goes live on Wednesday, August 15th.

Complete participant and cocktail information will be posted at www.pasadenarestaurantweek.com.

SIP-tember kicks off with a citywide cocktail party to celebrate the 101st anniversary of the birth of  America’s first celebrity chef and Pasadena’s own Julia Child. The Julia Child Pasadena Cocktail Party on August 15th will take place in restaurants all over Pasadena, culminating in a citywide happy birthday toast at 7:00pm. Patrons will be encouraged to dress for a 1950s, 1960s or 1970s era cocktail party.

Restaurants wishing to enter cocktails in the SIP-tember Cocktail Bracket Challenge can email paul@pasadena-chamber.org for information and details.