Fight cancer, make your drink pink

Deirdre Newman

Pink is the color associated with breast cancer awareness, and now

the color will infuse Martinis at a local restaurant to honor the

upcoming Race for the Cure.

Yard House Restaurants, USA, which has a restaurant at Triangle

Square, is promoting a pink martini to raise funds for a breast

cancer foundation.

A portion of the proceeds from the “Pinktini,” in honor of the

pink breast cancer ribbons, will go to the Susan G. Komen Breast

Cancer Foundations’ Race For The Cure.

It is just one part of the company’s efforts in the fight against

breast cancer. The Irvine-based company has been supporting the

Orange County chapter of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer

Foundations’ Race For The Cure for the past four years, and will be a

part of the Sept. 26 race in Newport Beach again this year.

The disease has touched a few of the company’s employees and their

relatives, including company President and Chief Operating Officer

Harald Herrmann, whose wife, Kathy, succumbed to breast cancer in

January.

“Raising money for Susan G. Komen was a good fit for us, so over

the years, we’ve been involved with Susan G. Komen and [our support]

has kind of progressively gotten larger and larger over the years,”

Herrmann said.

The first year Yard House just fielded a team for the race. Now,

it’s one of the major sponsors, Herrmann said. This year the team

hopes to raise $20,000 for the foundation.

Yard House will also donate gift cards for members of other teams

as an incentive for raising certain dollar amounts.

Since martinis are a popular drink at the restaurants, the company

thought creating one in honor of the fight against breast cancer

would be a good way to raise more money for the foundation, Hermann

said.

The Pinktinis -- a combination of banana vodka, pineapple rum and

watermelon pucker, with splashes of cranberry and pineapple juices --

will be offered for a limited time at the restaurants in Costa Mesa,

Irvine and Long Beach at $8.50 each with 20% of the proceeds going to

the foundation.

The restaurant’s support is invaluable, said C.J. Calderon,

director of development for the local chapter of the foundation.

“To have that type of support in the community just validates

breast cancer awareness as a need in Orange County,” Calderon said.

“And I think the Yard House has such a reputation of being cutting

edge and young and hip, and people always think of breast cancer as

an older woman’s disease ... and it affects women of all ages.”

* DEIRDRE NEWMAN covers government. She may be reached at (949)

574-4221 or by e-mail at deirdre.newman@latimes.com.