Spirited Dinner at Feast, Drinks by Jackson Cannon

You know what the worst thing about Tales of the Cocktail is?
Well, other than oppressive heat in New Orleans in July (solution — stay inside and drink!), forgetting to avail yourself of the spit bucket while tasting spirits all day long (ooh, learned that one the hard way) or having two fantastic seminars taking place [...]

Spirited Dinner: The Magic of Sidney Frank at Iris

Cocktails from the Sidney Frank portfolio with dinner by chef Ian Schnoebelen

My last trip to New Orleans was in 2009, and that week passed in a blurry whirl of amazing meals and awesome drinks. Hard to believe that you could spend an entire week eating pretty much nonstop, but that’s what I did. One of [...]

Preemptive Strike: Bad Boys

Rolling along with the pre-Tales “Cavalcade of Booze Knowledge” ™ I got the chance to grill Christine Sismondo on her presentation “The Bad Boys of Saloons.”
If you don’t know Christine, she’s the author of America Walks into a Bar: A Spirited History of Taverns and Saloons, Speakeasies and Grog Shops, as well [...]

How The Global Drinks Business Works: Seminar Preview

I’ve been writing full-time about liquor since around 2005 and sometimes I’m still confused about who is the brand owner versus importer versus who has the distribution rights in which country and where stuff is sold. The global drinks business is some wild, wacky stuff. Based on the description below, I asked session moderator Philip [...]

Seminar Preview: Occupational Hazards

This is a preview of a seminar that will be given at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, which takes place July 20-24, 2011.
Occupational Hazards
This seminar, part of the pro-series, is targeted to bar professionals. Given the teaser below, I emailed seminar leader Charlotte Voisey a few questions.
Details:
Time: 3 PM to 4:30 PM
Date: Wednesday the [...]

Below the Equator: Seminar Preview

This write-up is about the seminar called Below the Equator, lead by Jacob Briars.
I interviewed Jacob about his seminar. The questions and answers are below.
Time: 12:30 PM to 2 PM
Date: Friday the 22nd of July, 2011
Venue: The Queen Anne Ballroom, Hotel Monteleone
Moderators: Jacob Briars
Panelists: Sebastian Reaburn
Come below the equator to discover the ‘other’ Hemisphere, birthplace of [...]

Sneak Preview: David Embury and the Fine Art of Mixing Drinks

Undoubtedly there are many of you in the cocktail world — bartenders and non-professional enthusiasts alike — who know the name David Embury (1886-1960). His book, The Fine Art of Mixing Drinks, first published in 1948, is a highly respected tome on the essentials and basics of making a proper cocktail, with strong emphasis on [...]

Seminar Preview: The Chainsaw Shift

The Chainsaw Shift
There are two seminars this year at Tales about setting up an ice program. I’m pretty sure this one will be the only one with chainsaws though. The other, How to Build a Cutting Edge Ice Program, is part of the professionals series, though both seem geared toward professionals.
I was treated to a preview [...]

Seminar Preview: What the V.O.C. did for the Modern Bar

This is a preview of a seminar that will be given at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans, which takes place July 20-24, 2011.
The V.O.C., better known as the Dutch East India Company, influenced world history as well as the world of cocktails. It was a corporation big enough that it waged wars, coined [...]

A History of Cocktail Glassware

A Pre-Tales Q&A with presenter Angus Winchester

Angus Winchester is something of a Tales institution. A founding member of one of the first global bar consulting agencies, Angus is a bartender and Global Ambassador for Tanqueray. His comments on the spirits industry have been in The New York Times, The London Independent, and Toronto Star, and [...]

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