Savor Oakland's 'The Big Drink' highlights restaurants and bars

Welcome back to Mornings on 2. Well, the nightlife, the restaurant, the bar scene in the East Bay, highlighted by a very special campaign. It begins Friday. The community initiative, Savor Oakland, is kicking off. The Big Drink, showcasing special beverages from cocktails to mocktails, along with beer, wine, and coffee creations. Joining us in the studio right now to highlight the foods and the drinks is one of my favorite people. I can say it. Michelle McQueen, chef and owner of the restaurants Five and Dime, Lucy Blue, and Town Fair in the museum in downtown Oakland, and Joseph Cleveland. He's an expert. He's the beverage director of Lucy Blue. I thank you both for being here. We're so happy to be here with you today. We've been trying to get together, you and I. We've been friends for a long time. A long time. We're excited. So this is a great event. I like this idea. It's a wonderful event. Yeah, you were a part of putting it together, I would assume. Yes, you know, we're all about celebrating Oakland, and Oakland is such a wonderful and diverse city with our food, our drink, and just the people in general. So the big drink is a highlight of just that. We are celebrating not just cocktails, like you said, mocktails, coffee drinks, all the wonderful things that we have to offer here, drink-wise. You know, in Oakland. So you want people to just get close to all the good looking stuff. Yes, exactly. But you want people to be out and about and enjoying all these things you're creating. Yes. We do, yeah. We have a lot of different bars that are participating, so there's a lot of opportunity to go out there and explore and find something new that's, you know, something that's delicious and something that you can sip on in Oakland. Now, what do you have here that's delicious that you want people to know about? What do you want to start first? So I will let Joey describe these drinks. These are some of the drinks we will feature at Lucy. And the kickoff party is this Friday at five and dime. Tickets are still available. You can go on Saber Oakland on IG and get the link to buy the ticket. So everyone can come and participate. And we have a wonderful mango margarita. Tell us what's special about these. So this is the one we're featuring this Friday at five and dime. Yeah. Chipotle mango margarita with a little spicy salt on this one. This one has no salt, but it has a nice little chili mango garnish. It's tequila, blanco tequila, a little bit of mezcal inside, chili, mango, lime, agave. Oh, you just rub it in on. Right, exactly. Super delicious. What do you like, Michelle? So I love a good margarita. We have this wonderful cocktail that has a smoked black salt on it as well. And it's going to have a little Don Julio 1942 in it. So that's super cool. We're going to turn the bottle upside down. So that one's for the experienced drinker, Dave. Yeah, okay. That one's a little stronger. I'm an experienced drinker. Okay. This is kind of like our play on a Cadillac. We call it the Lux. Yeah. Oh. So that's the high-end. For the sophisticated high-end. Really? Yes. I think my wife may like that, too. I think Ms. Preacher will love that. Okay. All right. Now, what else are you going to show us here? So we will have, we are highlighting only the spirits here today, but we're also going to have wonderful food. So I will be having some past apps over at Five and Diamond. You know I make good food, Dave. You know I love your food. So we're going to do that, and any restaurant that has food will also have food pairings that go with their drinks. Talk about some of the other places that are involved with this. So I know that we have Nelson over at Sobra Mesa. I'm sure we have Paul over at Parche. We have Bardot. We have Fluid 510. We have the Town Bar. We have a ton of other bars located here in Oakland. But let's not forget about our coffee houses, too. Yes. And to check out the coffee houses. So many different, unique coffee houses in Oakland. I'm always amazed at how many pop up. They pop up just like bars pop up. So let's be sure to check those out, too. Now, I know you're the beverage director, but you really care about this as well. I do, yeah. I want people to go out, explore. I want people to try new things and expand their horizons. You know, people who don't drink, they can go and get a mocktail at a bar. Yeah. You know, it's not just coffee, wine, beer. There's a lot of opportunities to go and explore these different places, and I really want people to have fun. For example, like this one right here, it's our guava or jat margarita, and I wanted to bring some history back to Oakland with the Mai Tai, so instead of a Mai Tai, it's a... It's a Mai Tai margarita, if you will. You know, one of my favorite colleagues is Brian Gallo. He's got that look on his face like, I happen to be in the neighborhood and I need to test something. I love it. Do you even need the cup? What are you talking about? I got my straw. You got your straw? I got my straw right now. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. There you go. He came with his own cup. Yeah, right. Don't worry. Brian is the person we'd love to see this week, right? You see? That's right, Brian. We'll see how long I can hang. To get everybody out. And it really is celebrating Oakland. We all are Oaklanders. We know what a beautiful city Oakland is. Brian, put that back there. I'm watching you. Yeah. And we, you know, we want to come out and have fun with each other and support our local businesses because the local businesses are supporting the community. Okay. So it's important. So let's look at our screen. Savor Oakland, November 13th, that's Friday, to November 23rd, the kickoff party at the Five and Dime, your place, and you can get tickets at Eventbrite. Thank you for being here, Michelle McQueen. Thank you. That's spicy. Josie, that's spicy? Yeah. I tried to tell you. What am I smelling? It's balanced. Chipotle mango. Chipotle mango. Chipotle. And you got a straight version. You didn't get the one over ice. Let me go get some coffee. All right. We're good. We're going to take a quick break. I thank you for being here. You're wonderful. Sal's here.