Barman's Fund Launches NOLA 'Booze Charity Tour'

There’s good reason to feel good about your hangover this week. The NYC/New Orleans Charity Booze Tour, sponsored by the Barman’s Fund, is taking place every night this week in midst of Tales. After five nights of pro-bono drink slinging, some mighty fine local bartenders will donate 100% of their earnings to local charities including the No/Aids Task Force and Crescent City Lights Youth Theater.

The Facebook event page seems a bit geared to the locust cloud of New Yorkers that just descended upon the city (most of the group’s members reside there) but promises that “Wed-Sat, there'll be a bartender somewhere in the Quarter giving up all their tips for local charities. Ain't no better place to do your drinkin, do a little good, and meet some kickass local folks.”

The Barman’s Fund was founded last year by New York bartender Brian Floyd, who told the Village Voice that his father encouraged him to give back after the tsunami in Japan. The Vanderbilt bartender decided to donate all of one night’s earnings to the Red Cross, an idea that didn’t just appeal to his friends and other bartenders, but “spread like wildfire,” even landing in New Orleans with a second chapter run by Holly Williams. Basically, a bunch of bartenders take every penny they make once a month and pool it, and then give it to various charities.

After raising over $73,500 for charities in New York and New Orleans, The Barman’s Fund seems to refute the common-held belief that socially minded bartenders are elusive as a den of Sasquatch. Here is the schedule for those planning to join the “motley assortment” of imbibers and drink with purpose this week:

Wednesday, 8:30pm-3am at Finnegan's Easy 717 St. Peter
Thursday, 3pm-til “Sweet-Jesus-only-knows-when” at the Boondock Saint 731 St. Peter
Friday, 10pm-8am at Jimani. Chartres and Iberville
Saturday, 10am-7pm at Bootlegger's. Decatur next to House of Blues

?Gwendolyn Knapp

· NYC/New Orleans Booze Charity Tour [Facebook]