Tales from Tales II: Dispatches from the Center of the Mixed Drinks Universe
Chapter 2: In which we meet Movies, run into some Seattleites, and embrace St Germain all over again.
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 22, 2010 at 11:00AM
2 Comments
So there have been many misadventures since last I checked in from New Orleans.
On my first day at Tales I met a crew of lovely local ladies in flowered dresses who called me honey and heaped piles of restaurant suggestions upon me, I saw Rocky Yeh wearing a lab coat with the words Hibiki 12 on the back—he was participating in a blend-your-own-whiskey class sponsored by the Japanese whiskey company Suntory (everything at Tales is very “sponsored by”), and taught by chief blender Seiichi Koshimizu.
Paul Clark was there too, he had just created his whiskey, which I sampled. Pretty good.
Sprawling over several suites of the massive and marbley Hotel Monteleone, the Tales of the Cocktail conference is giddy with the joy of booze and stimulating to the max, but I have to admit the streets of the French Quarter call me outward. I took full advantage of NO’s famous hospitality yesterday evening, hanging out around the Quarter collecting suggestions for jazz bars and gumbo joints. I spent a good chunk of time at a local dive where I talked films with an older gentleman who nursed a pretty fierce Hitchcock obsession. He I came to nickname Movies. Movies crushed on the bartender, a sweet curly-haired brunette. Unfortunately, the bartender’s love interest was also present, a fact that Movies found quite distasteful.
Truth be told, this bartender had some boy drama. At one point a lady in a belly shirt, her exposed torso splattered with tattoos, came by to beat her up! Apparently they had an ex boyfriend in common. After some negotiation this tattooed person left and we returned to our revelry.
But before all that, as I walked out of the Hotel Monteleone, I ran into Seattle’s own Jamie Boudreau. Boudreau is a rep for St Germain and he was in the lobby making drinks. I grabbed one on my way out and as I sipped it slowly through the streets, I was reminded how good an icy St Germain drink is on a hot day. Simple, French, lovely. I’ve included the recipe below, invite your friends over and serve them some of these and they’ll ask you when you got so dang classy.
2 shots of champagne
1.5 shots of St-Germain liqueur
2 shots soda or sparkling water
You mix the first two ingredients in a tall, ice-filled glass, top with soda or sparkling water and garnish with a twist of lemon.
An easy, delicious summer cooler.
Tags: Seattle Bartenders, Tales of the Cocktail, Tales from Tales
Great to see you there! That blending session was great! I’ll have to let you try my blend sometime.
You too Rocky! I would love to try the blend. And what a week! Only 349 days until it happens all over again.