Tales of TotC, Day 1

Posted on July 17, 2008
Filed Under Marleigh Riggins | Leave a Comment

Marleigh Riggins is a print production artist and cocktail enthusiast in Los Angeles. She publishes the blog SLOSHED!

So here we are in beautiful New Orleans. Wednesday was a whirlwind of meeting new people, running into old friends and, naturally, drinking. We rolled into New Orleans at 11am and headed straight for the Monteleone, where we were greeted by a teeming crowd of Tales attendees starting their first day. After checking in, taking a brief walking tour around the French Quarter and a quick nap, we hurried down for our first event, the Bolg Reception (also known as the blog reception, but with this much booze floating around who expects perfect spelling?) hosted by our media sponsor, Cabana Cachaça.

It was a trip to finally put faces to all the names in the cocktail blogosphere—Paul of Cocktail Chronicles (our fearless leader and public speaker), Jeff Morgenthaler, Darcy of Art of Drink, Rick of Kaiser Penguin, Dr. Bamboo, Gabriel of Cocktailnerd, Jay of Oh Gosh!, Seamus of Bunny Hugs, Blair of Trader Tiki…so many people I can’t even keep track of everyone. Of course, Natalie the Liquid Muse is vlogging the whole event, so we’re all on camera being convivial.

Afterward we made off with the ever-awesome Chuck of Gumbo Pages (and Wes, even though he would prefer to remain anonymous) and headed to the beautiful Absinthe Museum for a tasting.

After a few glasses, we headed back past the Monteleone for the Palace Cafe and the Beefeater Welcome Reception. Everyone (at points it felt like everyone in the French Quarter) shared some lovely gin cocktails and mingled, until we decided that dinner was in order and wandered over to Lüke for some late-night refueling.

Now it’s off to do some tastings before Juniperlooza gets started…