In the Land of Cocktails

Tales of the Cocktail RECAP!

Posted by on August 14th, 2010

Cock­tail Chicks Cor­re­spon­dents Nan­cylee Myatt and Paige Bern­hardt enjoyed some of the fun events and of course, amaz­ing cock­tails, dur­ing Tales of the Cock­tails in New Orleans.  Here are a few pho­tos, high­lights and Tales of their own.

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