Picking up where we left off… Thursday afternoon we spent some time hanging at the Octavia Bookstore in the Monteleone lobby browsing books and picking up a few to add to our collection.  Then we caught up with Chef Chris Lusk cooking up some food and fun in the Carousel Bar on the Chef and The Fat Man radio show.  More pictures and Tales…

Thursday night was the evening dedicated to the Spirited Dinners.  Great restaurants around the city host dinners with special menus and cocktail pairings.  We were at Café Adelaide (naturally) hosted by the Cocktail Chicks Ti Martin and Lally Brennan.

We were entertained with great jazz by The Joe Simon trio.

We enjoyed great food created by Chef Chris Lusk and had a superfecta of celebrity cocktail mixologists – Audrey Saunders, Lu Brow, Robert Hess and Kenta Goto.  Click HERE to see the menu from that night.  The pairings were amazing!

Also, in the gossip department, Audrey Saunders and Robert Hess came clean about their relationship.  Adorable!  And that their romance finally sparked one night long-ish ago at the Swizzle Stick Bar. Turns our Lu Brow is not only a talented mixologist but a talented matchmaker, as well.

Our friends from California, Kerry, Lance, Sue and Alex were also a part of this great evening.

We also met some new friends from our old stomping grounds, as well.   Seated at our table were Joe and Anna Keeper proprietors of Bar Keeper in the Silverlake area of Los Angeles.

We knew their store from friends who had purchased a beautiful absinthe fountain from them.   Yet another example of 6 degrees of the cocktail community.  The evening ended in traditional New Orleans style, with the a second line through the kitchen and out the back door into the Piazza.  Champagne flowed and we all took off our shoes and waded into the fountain to keep it all cool.  Another perfect night In The Land of Cocktails…

Friday: seminars and tastings. But the highlight of the day for Nancylee was the Cognac and Blues Spirited luncheon at Arnaud’s.   Styled like the spirited dinners, food with cocktail pairings, with cognac as the main spirit.  Each cocktail was crafted by an amazing mixologist: Brian Van Flandern, Dale DeGroff, Todd Appel, Ryan Margarin and Francesco Lafranconi.

They introduced their cocktail, talked about their inspiration, some actually prepared them for us.  All the while, a fantastic band played, Ernie Vincent Blues & Funk band.  Check them out HERE.  Nancylee talked to the host of the event Tony Abou-Ganim and got him to sign his book “The Modern Mixologist.”

It was also Tony’s birthday and there was a lot of joking and celebrating throughout the event.  She got to see Chris McMillian and wife Laura and talk about the drinks poured that day and the original Sidecar.  She caught up with some of the people she had met during Tales, Wendy Miller of LUPEC Seattle.

…connected with some of her Twitter pals…

Aaron Tell AKA @SavoryHunter.  And made some new friends at her table…

Gary Crunkleton (center) of The Crunkleton in Chapel Hill, NC.

But the crowning moment of the event was Nancylee’s moment with Dale DeGroff, who’s table she was seated at.  “I brought our copy of Dale’s ‘Essential Cocktail’ book to the luncheon.  Now this is a book we use in our bar.  Really use it.  Paige has tagged pages and recipes with color coded tabs, there are cocktail napkins stuffed inside, etc.  When I took the book to Dale to sign, he smiled and started thumbing through the book, seeing what we were making.  After he signed our book, I asked him for a photo.  While we were posing for our photo, the band kicked into a great song that we couldn’t resist.  We started swaying to the music and then dancing.  Yep, for a brief moment I was dancing with King Cocktail.  It reminded me of another great man, class act, a crooner and a dancer… my father.  Hard to top that.”

After the luncheon, Nancylee and Aaron ended up at Swizzle where Lu poured them a Whoa Nellie.  The talk was about home town Los Angeles, dream jobs, and how the internet has influenced what we do and drink…

Saturday we were back at the Monteleone for friend and “Mad Men” Bryan Batt’s book signing.

“She Ain’t Heavy, She’s My Mother” Bryan is always a class act, and he and his family have a long history in the cocktail culture in New Orleans.  Here’s Bryan’s segment and also brother Jay’s.   PS, we still love “Mad Men” but it’s just not as interesting without Salvatore Romano.

Then upstairs for the Heaven Hill tasting.  We met Robert Hutchins, their American Whiskey Brand Ambassador, at the Swizzle a few days before – tasting the Dubonnet cocktails (one of the labels he represents) being served at the Spirited Dinner.

He invited us to his whiskey and bourbon tasting – and we are so glad we went.  What a class event they hosted.

Each table was set up with a bread pairing — the grain of the bread coming from the grain from which the spirit was made, i.e the Corn liquor had a bowl of cornbread nearby.  This was so you could actually taste the particular grain that went into the spirit. Aside from the bread tables they were pouring Elijah Craig 12 YEAR, Elijah Craig 18 YEAR Single Barrel, Rittenhouse 25 YEAR Single Barrel

Mr. Parker Beam himself was pouring Parker’s 27 YEAR Bourbon.

Now we are whiskey and bourbon drinkers.  Someday, the Bourbon Trail in Kentucky – during racing season at Churchill or Keenland would be perfect!

So we loved and appreciated what we tasted.  And meeting their master distiller, and descendant of the Jim Beam family, Parker Beam.  We got a laugh out of Parker when Nancylee said that she was “raised” on Jim Beam.  Her dad’s favorite spirit.  And when she told him that she named the first horse she bought Jim Beam, we got poured a taste of his 27 year.

They had awesome swag, too!  See, it’s a flask AND a cigar holder.  So we left in a warm bourbon glow, swag in tow, looking forward to more events and cocktails with the Heaven Hill group.

Happy Hour cocktails at Cure with our CA friends.  We all tried something different from their diverse cocktail menu — no time for eats — and passed each cocktail around the table.  Kind of an informal cocktail tasting of our own.

We talked about their great day in NOLA, some Tales tastings and seminars, hat shopping at     Meyer the Hatter “The South’s Largest Hat Store”

the boys got barbershop shaves, the girls shopped.  We parted company as they left for dinner at Upperline (which they reported later that they loved) and we came home to regroup (and walk the dogs…)

Sunday we met our friends from CA who were brunching at Commander’s Palace…

Which if you haven’t been, will set the standard for Sunday brunch.  We took a break from Tales and the French Quarter and walked the Garden District – BTW there’s a couple of really great iPhone apps for walking tours of the Garden District, French Quarter and paranormal New Orleans.  They will cost you, but buying all three is still less than one ticket for a traditional walking tour.  Worth it and you become the expert.

But in July and August we suggest the air-conditioned tour from the comfort of your car.

Sweltering in the heat we actually walked to Simon’s Store and Gallery (at Magazine and Jackson) which is a feast for the eyes.

We caught the artist in his shop/studio and had a great time meeting him and talking about his work. And also buying a couple of things…

He looks a little gruff in this picture,but he’s actually quite nice.

We ended up at Parasol’s Bar (dangerously close to our house) for beers and hanging with the locals.

Sunday’s is a great day for Parasol’s.  But whenever you get there, save room for their famous Roast Beef Po’boy.  We like them “dressed” with  a side of gravy for dipping your french fries.  Here’s the recipe from Nola Cuisine.com. Go-cups in hand (because we can) and cashing out of the video poker machines (gambling in the bars… awesome) we wrapped up our afternoon walking back to our place looking at the beautiful architecture and imagining getting houses all near each other, a place to run to In The Land of Cocktails…

- Nancylee Myatt & Paige Bernhardt

Tales of the Cocktails is an annual event (now in it’s 8th year) celebrating well crafted cocktails in the city that claims to be the birthplace of the cocktail.  It’s become the premiere event for cocktail legends, historians, experts, and enthusiasts to gather and bend and elbow together.

So, in the name of research, (it’s a tough job but someone has to do it) we hit some seminars, events, a spirited dinner and lunch, a tour, and of course imbibed our way through the weekend.  For a complete list of the Tales of the Cocktail events and recaps check out their website.

It seemed that every bar and restaurant in New Orleans was getting in the cocktail spirit.  The Hotel Monteleone was the host hotel and the Carousel Bar was ground zero.

It was great to catch up with friends and family who joined us for the weekend, some of whom we had seen at Tales past, as well as make new friends.  Plus we got to meet in person our pals and cocktail enthusiasts from Twitter and the on-line cocktail community.

We kicked off the week with a cocktail sampling at the Museum of the American Cocktail with our friend and Bar Chef from the Swizzle Stick Bar, Lu Brow.   We got to catch up with King Cocktail, Dale Degroff and wife Jill (whose art is fantastic!)…

…as well as Chris McMillan

Seriously starting the week with cocktail royalty!  We met some of great bartenders who are making a name for themselves, as well, and sample some of their new recipes.

Kimberly Patton-Bragg

Then we were off to get our burlesque on with Dita Von Teese at the House of Blues.  It was a fun and super sexy show sponsored by Cointreau, who came up with a special cocktail for the event:  The Cointreau Teese.

1 1/2oz Cointreau
3/4 oz Apple juice
1/2 oz Monin violet syrup
1/2 oz Fresh lemon juice

Shake well and strain into a martini glass with ginger around the rim of the glass.

Can you say…Yum.

On Friday, Paige attended a seminar held at the Museum of the American Cocktail, a part of the Southern Food & Beverage Museum, which is located just off the food court at the famous Riverwalk Marketplace.
The History of Bar Tools and Bar Ware from the 1800’s to Today

Fascinating,  actual specimens of bar tools at this symposium hosted by author and collector Jim Walker at the Museum of the American Cocktail along with noted collectors Mark Biggler & Michael Silvers of Uber Bar Tools.  With Dale DeGroff shaking up delicious cocktails.

Can’t beat that!

Sponsored by:
Mud Puddle Books

Our moderator, Jim Walker, is author of the terrific book with the same name as the seminar.  Published by Reklaw Publishing in Denton, Texas.

The other seminar Paige and Nancylee went to on Friday was…

Social Media:  Creating Cocktail Legends
Fri, 23 July 2010
0 The Riverview Room, Hotel Monteleone

“Bars, bartenders, spirit makers, and cocktail enthusiasts are using the unique opportunities social media provides to leverage their business.”

Sponsored by:
DiSaronno

Moderators:
Nick Nemeth

Panelists:
Camper English, Jennifer English, Brian Rea

Very interesting in terms of how our cocktail community is expanding and keeping up with the current, exploding trends in social media and marketing.

Wednesday was the official opening day of Tales — we started with The New Orleans Original Cocktail Tour.  Popular historian and tour-guide Joe Gendusa took us on a walk through history “with a twist.”

Each tour explores famous bars and restaurants of the French Quarter and the stories and spirits that made them famous.  It was sponsored by St-Germain, and they followed us on the walking tour with cocktail cart (and water) in case we needed something refreshing between stops.  And it was a great reminder that in New Orleans you can actually take your drinks “to go.”  On our tour we went to Antoine’s and Court of Two Sisters.  Both great old New Orleans restaurants with signature cocktails and amazing histories.  Joe has written a book called “History With a Twist — Lemon or Lime” which gives all the great stories about these restaurants and cocktail recipes which accompany them.

If you’d like the book you can contact Joe directly at jagcollege@cox.net.

Thursday morning we started with eye-openers at the Swizzle Stick Bar.  This Meet-Up/Tweet-Up was inspired by Wendy Miller @LUPEC_Seattle.

Wendy was looking for a bar/restaurant created and run by women.  Wendy and her Lupec Ladies (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) from Seattle, Philly, Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, and other female cocktail enthusiasts from around the country gathered to meet each other in person and enjoy Lu Brow’s Brandy Milk Punches, Bloody Mary’s, Ramos Gin Fizzes and Mimosas.  @CocktailChicks Lally Brennan and Chef Chris Lusk from Café Adelaide mingled with the Ladies and answered questions about food and cocktails across New Orleans.  It was a great way to start the day.

We were so inspired by the LUPEC gals and their love of cocktails and the cities that they hail from that we launched our own New Orleans chapter that morning.  Our first meeting and membership cocktail gathering will be at the Swizzle on August 26th.  For more information and to follow our events and escapades follow us on Facebook and Twitter @LUPEC_NOLA.

Here’s a link to some great coverage of the event from Liquid Muse.

It’s worth investigating LUPEC chapters in your own city.

More recaps to come!!!!!

- Paige Bernhardt and Nancylee Myatt

The party was to celebrate “In the Land of Cocktails,” a great opportunity to get together with friends at the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen 2010.  Jimmy Yeager is an Aspen legend as is his restaurant and bar – Jimmy’s.  TV personality Sissy Biggers and Aspen-local Donna Slade were co-hosts.  Sissy was in Aspen to do a Ready Set Cookoff for the Food & Wine Classic.  Chris Donatello donated amazing Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for the event -  C. Donatello is his label.

Last night in Umbria on the upper terrace of Le Torri di Bagnara, I enjoyed the most beautiful view of the mountain side as well as a wonderful cocktail. 

Every night of my stay the lovely Lucia, the manager of this wonderful resort, made me classic cocktails.  So on the last night she made one of her own up.  So here’s the Lucia.

Fill a champagne flute with
½ oz. Peach Juice
½ oz. Cherry Juice
Add Prosecco to fill flute
Top with a few pieces of chopped fresh peaches

- Stacey Salamone