July… A time for Summer food guilty pleasures, like ice cream trucks, BBQs, and carnival food! But let’s class it up a bit. Instead of carnival fried dough, how about we make some beignets?!

Please join us on Thursday, July 22nd for The RARE x Sugachef’s online beignet-making class where you’ll make Chef Padua’s NEW signature beignet mix with 3 tasty homemade dipping sauces. The class is on us — all you need to do is buy the ingredients for the sauces and add on Sugachef’s beignet making mix and we’ll drop the kit off to you 1-2 days before the class. (There is an option to supply your own ingredients for the beignets too, but this will be for a recipe that isn’t his proprietary new recipe).

Ideally you will prep the batter the night before or morning of the class to get optimal results. If you would like to join and cannot commit to the night before, message us and we will send you your next best option.

This is a first come first served event with limited capacity! Further details including grocery list will be sent out by Sunday, July 18th. Info below on Chef Padua too :)

About SugaChef

How do you find your voice and express yourself when you are the youngest of seven children? The answer: You take a lifelong passion and turn it into a sweet, artistic success!

Executive Pastry Chef Padua Player, also known as SugaChef, is as dedicated as they come and he is serious about his desserts. Chef Padua has been praised for his work by Vice President Biden, featured on WE TV’s Platinum Weddings and was a competitor on Food Network’s Sweet Genius and Holiday Baking Championship. He won the 2013 Capital Food Fight’s High Stakes Cake Battle in DC, hosted by Duff Goldman. Following that success, he returned in 2014 and 2015 as a celebrity chef judge and appeared on Cooking Channel’s Cake Hunters in 2018. Television called on his sweet culinary skills once again and he appeared on CHOPPED Sweets on Food Network in 2020. Chef Padua has his own line of gourmet desserts and has provided his sweet delicacies to countless celebrity clientele.

Chef Padua also lends his time and pastry talents to DC Central Kitchen. They train unemployed adults for culinary careers, serving healthy school meals, while rebuilding urban food systems through social enterprise. Chef Padua also lends his time and pastry talents to Best Buddies International. They are an organization dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement. They create opportunities for one-to-one friendships, integrated employment and leadership development for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). He has also been a celebrity chef judge for Central Union Mission’s Heart & Sole charity event, that serves the homeless population in the DC Metro area.​

Let’s admit it - we’ve all imbibed a little more than usual this past year… so now we really need to up our cocktail game, right?

Join us on Thursday, May 13th for The RARE x Swill Merchants’ online cocktail class where you’ll learn how to make 3 delicious craft cocktails. The class is on us — all you need to do is add on a cocktail making kit (or supply your own) and we’ll drop the ingredients off to you 1-2 days before the class, or supply the ingredients yourself!

This is a first come first served event with limited capacity! More info below too :)

About our co-host: Swill Merchants Co. may have been conceived during a pandemic, but Sarah Rosner, the lady who started it all, has been a legend in the DC bartending and cocktail scene for over 19 years. She has won numerous competitions, features, awards, and write-ups due to her creativity and storytelling that she embodies in her cocktail making.

Swill Merchants Co. provides curated cocktail classes based on you and your clients’ preferences. Reflecting Sarah Rosner’s curious path through life, including, but not limited to, her South Kona, Hawaii hippy upbringing, her Junior Year abroad as an Au Pair, her UNC-Chapel Hill education and 20 year bartending career in DC) she invites and engages the vast sundry of characters and events. Always with a smile and a Dad joke. Rosner most frequently hosts corporate office and realtor team meetings, client events or happy hours, fundraisers and auctions. She also enjoys casual friends and family happy hours, birthdays, bachelor(ette) parties, ladies weekends, random Tuesdays in February, etc.

Cocktail classes begin with Sarah Rosner offering a few reasons why you may want to listen to her (and so no latecomers miss the important parts).  Classes also include a general history of cocktails, while fully nerding out on the cocktails made and spirits used, with a rundown of basic bar tools and theorize on how we really taste. Throughout, she will answer cocktail, spirit, life, and bar/restaurant ordering etiquette questions and, of course, make the cocktails with you and your attendees. 

We will provide a virtual invite with a zoom link, recipe cards and shopping list, along with suggested ice, glassware and tools that you will need (including examples of simple substitutes).

Cocktail Kits

Average Price: $50 which will be dropped off by Alison (within the beltway only!)
Includes: Spirits, modifiers, sugars, other non perishables, basically most of the ingredients to make 2 full drinks of 3 cocktails. Kits typically do not include perishables like citrus, eggs or dairy.

Sign up now, yo!