the drinks business July means Tales of the Cocktail. This is my sixth year at Tales and to say things have changed over the years would be an understatement. Back in 2007 Tales was a relatively small gather of like minded cocktail geeks. The Monteleone hotel lobby was usually empty and you could usually find a seat at the Carousel bar. The last few years it has been a much different story, one that has been great for the spirit business as well as New Orleans. The Monteleone lobby is packed all day and late into the night, the Carousel bar is continuously in the weeds and there are nonstop events all week. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Though I enjoyed the smaller community feel in 2007 / 2008 you can’t argue with success. And by success I mean thousands of people talking endlessly about everything drink related over some of the finest cocktails ever crafted. The nice thing is that if you need someone to go to lunch with you just go to the Monteleone lobby and you’ll see someone you know, or dozens.
So, as I write this enroute at 36,000 feet I have no doubt this will be another wild drinking adventure. If you want to live vicariously through me you can follow along here as I will try to get a daily post written up. For more frequent updates check out my Twitter feed (@dsoneil) or on Facebook (http://Facebook.com/dsoneil) and you can follow the Tales of the Cocktail twitter hashtag #totc to drink from the information firehouse. Also, pictures will be posted to http://www.artofdrink.com/photography regularly.
