The city’s best mixologists are getting together to play Santa, and cocktail lovers are getting a great gift out of it, too. Dogwood Southern Table & Bar bartender Brian Lorusso has organized a charity event on Monday, Dec. 10 starting at 5:30 p.m. at South End’s The Gin Mill, with Colleen Hughes, Kel Minton, Stefan Huebner, Bob Peters, and Amanda Britton joining him behind the bar. The event is called “Generosity in Spirits: Cocktails for a Cause.”

Lorusso recently went by Mechanics & Farmers Bank to grab some names off of the angel tree. An angel tree is decorated with tags identifying kids in need and the gifts they want for Christmas. Good neighbors will grab tags and purchase the kids’ gifts.  The tree at Mechanics & Farmers Bank, on the West Side, is a partnership with the McCrorey YMCA.

“I really wanted to get all the tags off the tree and couldn’t really do that,” Lorusso says, “I thought, ‘How can we get all the names on the tree taken care of?'”

Brian Lorusso, the bartender at Dogwood in SouthPark, put together the charity event. Photo by Peter Taylor.

He came up with the idea of a star-powered popup. His brother is co-owner of the The Gin Mill, which is donating the use of the bar for the event. Space secured, Lorusso reached out to Colleen Hughes of Haberdish, Kel Minton of Soul Gastrolounge, Stefan Huebner of Dot Dot Dot, Amanda Britton of Bardo, and Bob Peters, longtime Punch Room bartender who is now consulting. They all said yes to being part of the event.

“I’m lucky that we’re all friends, and wanted to donate our time to the greater cause of giving Christmas presents to some kids in the Charlotte area,” Lorusso says.

Olde Mecklenburg Brewery is donating beer, and Lorusso is seeking a few more snacks to have on hand. (Any chefs interested? Let us know, and we’ll put you in touch.) The event will charge a cover of $20 at the door, and cocktails will be $10 each. There will also be wine and beer available for purchase. Each bartender will serve a signature drink; guests can order from the bartender whose drink they want to sample. The goal is to raise $5,000; Lorusso says that $2,500 is required to buy the rest of the gifts on the angel tree, but $5,000 would allow them to provide gifts for the kids’ siblings, too.

To help out, we’ll donate $5 for every Unpretentious Person that attends. Tag us in a photo from the event on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and we’ll give Lorusso some cash to add to their earnings. All of the money made will be donated directly to the McCrory YMCA. —Kristen Wile