Hours following the horrific mass shooting at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub last week, Johnny Ciani didn’t want his Facebook post to be the one that just sat there.
One status, nearly 40 tagged friends and 80 comments later, the active member of the United States Bartenders’ Guild’s Tampa Bay chapter had a benefit to plan for the victims and their families alongside the Florida-wide bar community.
Joining Bay area spots like Caretta on the Gulf and The Living Room on Main that have donated to those impacted by the attack, Ciani and a good friend he met in the business, Christopher Ritch, who represents some spirits brands, teamed up to spearhead the upcoming #WeAreOrlando fundraising event.
The benefit is slated for 6 to 9 p.m. June 28 at Proof: Cocktail Club and 260 First (aka the upstairs portion of the downtown St. Pete building at 260 First Ave. N.). It’s set to spotlight 10 bartenders serving up $5 specialty cocktails, and the proceeds will go directly to Equality Florida, a large nonprofit that’s raised close to $6 million for victims’ families and survivors of the Pulse shooting.
“I started reaching out to bartenders; restaurants were like, ‘I’m in.’ Everybody I’ve asked for something, nobody’s said no,” Ciani told CL.
Chef Justin Sells from Station House, Peter Ketchum of Proof, Datz general manager Morgan Zuch, swah-rey dessert bar owners Leslie Ann and Gregg Ciccone, and The Mill restaurant’s crew are among the cadre eager to help the event come to fruition. Competing liquor brands — nine in total — have also come on board, which is a rarity in itself.
The “why” in all of this is simple. USBG Tampa Bay and their cocktail-mixing counterparts in Orlando are close.
They’re gearing up for July’s Tales of the Cocktail, an annually held premier cocktail festival in New Orleans that Ciani says unites them even further. Plus, they’re still organizing events to raise money for another dear friend of the bar community who recently lost his wife and soon-to-be child. The attack at Pulse took place days later.
“They’re like family. They were all affected from people they knew, and it’s their community,” Ciani said. “Not to be on a soapbox, but I knew they would do it for us if it happened over here. Whether it was related to us or not, I knew they would come over and do what they could.
And the fact that it’s extremely tragic, that it happened. No matter what the reason was, we wanted to look past that. We didn’t want to talk about anything else but taking care of the victims and the families.”
#WeAreOrlando will highlight a 50/50 drawing at the door and another raffle with special items (think bottles of booze, swag and dinner for two at The Birchwood) in, ideally, five baskets valued at $350 and up. A drag show featuring performers Jaeda Fuentes and Monica Moore, courtesy of Kelly’s Chic a Boom Room, is planned. Every $20 ticket, which can be purchased online, grants guests access to eats from the four aforementioned dining destinations: swah-rey, The Mill, Datz and Station House. And dapper married couple David Andrews and Kirk Slater will act as honorary hosts for the benefit.
“They’re just awesome dudes. We figured they represented the community really well, whether it be LGBT or the straight side,” Ciani said of Andrews and Slater. “They’re as much a part of the USBG, too, as enthusaiasts.”
The bartending lineup includes Montana Kroll, Kamran Mir, Dean Hurst, Ryan Pines, Tracie Franklin and Jaryd François; they’ll be spread out across multiple bars around the venue, putting Angel’s Envy, Rhum Clément, Tito’s Handmade Vodka, Fratelli Branca, Suerte Tequila and others to use throughout the evening.
Ciani and Ritch aim to draw a crowd of at least 300 people. Their fundraising goal has shifted from $3,000 to $10,000.
“It’s already hard putting together [an event] outside of charity, but this has been a breeze because everybody just wants to help. USBG is really behind it. They’re eating all the cost for transactions on Eventbrite for us,” Ciani said.
Duane Wildridge, North Florida area manager for Tito’s, which pledged on June 13 to match donations up to $25,000 to Equality Florida’s Pulse victims fund, assisted the duo with deciding where to donate.
According to Ciani, they wanted to avoid the fakers and have the money funneled through the right pipeline. Support for the #WeAreOrlando charity event has allowed them to donate everything — admission, each bartender’s tips and cocktail proceeds — to Equality Florida, which was important for the twosome.
Like Ciani says, it’s all for family.
