The Peacock Brings The Kentucky Derby To Austin, This Saturday!

This weekend, The Peacock's throwing a party in honor of Kentucky Derby Day, along with Waterloo Records, Uchi, and Big Red Sun. They'll be showing a live broadcast of the annual high-stakes thoroughbred horserace -- all two minutes of it -- with attendees placing fake bets on the competing horses in hopes of winning swanky prizes and getting their polaroids taken in the winner's circle. A live performance by The Carrots starts at 7pm, followed by DJ Mike Mariconda spinning from 9pm until closing time.

And while fillies, excessive gambling, and gnarly old men running around screaming "bally-hoo!"* are fun and whatnot, the real reason why this annual tradition rooted in decadence and depravity has stuck around past the invention of the combustion engine is even tinier than the tiny jockeys flying around Churchill Downs: it's the Mint Julep, silly.

According to wikipedia, over eighty thousand of the delectable iced beverages are served on Derby Day and the day before. The Peacock, of course, will be serving organic mint juleps all night long, for just $4.50 each. But, if you simply have to have your fix beforehand, Austinist offers the following recipe, stolen from AllRecipes.com:

* 2 cups water
* 2 cups white sugar
* 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh mint leaves
* 32 fluid ounces Kentucky bourbon
* 8 sprigs fresh mint leaves for garnish

1. Combine water, sugar and chopped mint leaves in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Allow syrup to cool, approximately 1 hour. Pour syrup through a strainer to remove mint leaves

2. Fill eight cups with crushed ice and pour 4 ounces of bourbon and 1/4 cup mint syrup in each. Top each cup with a mint sprig and a straw. Trim straws to just barely protrude from the top of the cups.

Serves eight, or one Truecraig.

Kentucky Derby Day!
with Live Race Coverage, The Carrots, DJ Mike Mariconda
The Peacock
Saturday, May 6th
4pm-2am
FREE

*Gross mischaracterization