As I attempted to get enough sleep from the previous awesomeness, I prepared myself to transform into the 20's-40's era, to fit the theme of the gala. I slicked my hair down in Josephine Baker like waves. Put on my black flapper dress with fringes, and my stiletto heels. My eye makeup was smoky, and my lips were red. I was ready to go, but before the gala was the pre-toast at Laren Spirer's apartment downtown.
There was everyone from the media that we closely knew, one way or the other. Laren had a tub full of champagne for us, which no one really needed, because this was the weekend of huge huge events from the Gary Regan book release party, to all of the Food and Wine Festival events. It was embarrassing to say that we barely cracked open 3 bottles of champagne, and there was 15 of us, and you could get 4 glasses out of a champagne bottle, and we only opened 3-4 bottles with a tub full left, how embarrassing!
Laren was very nervous, because she didn't think she could accommodate us. She was worried, but I said "if you don't tell, I won't tell, that we couldn't finish the tub of champagne"! As the time drew nearer, we all hopped in our cabs, and made our way to the New York Public Library on 42nd street, which held this fantastic gathering. When we walked out of the cab, you could see all of these beautiful people. People we didn't know, because it was open to the public, and people from all walks of life were in attendance. Everyone dressed to the nines, and supported the theme. There was so much cheerfulness in the air, and people were ready to drink and dance.
When we walked in, my first impression was "crap this library is huge... over 73 miles of shelves with books"! There was Kettle One Vodka, Crop Organic Vodka, Hendricks Gin, Solerno, Makers Mark, Absolut Vodka, Don Q, Bombay Dry Gin, Bacardi Gold, Grand Marnier, Tanqueray/Tanqueray 10. As you walk up the endless steps to the balcony, there was Zacapa, Bulleit Bourbon, Aperol, and the great Don Julio. So as you can see in the Astor Hall, it was filled with great family, friends, people outside of the industry enjoying the creative libations from the top mixologists in the industry. Everyone was there from contemporary cocktails, along with Ben Scorah, the great Dale DeGroff, Charlotte Voisey, James Menite, John Herring, Lynnette Marrero, Charles Hardwick, Eryn Reece, Franky Marshall, Estaban Ordanez, Kenta Goto, and John Lermeyer to name a few.
One of my favorite cocktails of course, was the Manhattan with Michters rye, Martini and Rossi sweet vermouth, with a few dashes of Angostura bitters. Outside of whiskey and bourbon, my other great love, is gin. I want to give five stars to Charlotte Voisey for shaking up the awesome Del Monico cocktail using Hendricks Gin, Solerno Liqueur, Lillet Blanc, and Lillet Rouge. She also made a slammin Florodora with the Hendricks gin, raspberry, limejuice, and ginger beer. The Del Monico was ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING. At this point in my drinking career, that was the best dang gin cocktail I have ever had in my life, because, first of all, it's gin, second, she used both of the Lillets, and I absolutely love Lillet, and she added Solerno Liqueur, which gave it a perfect twist. Thanks Charlotte!!
Next was the Brooklyn Nite, where James Menite created the Don Q anejo rum with fresh lime juice, honey, and Angostura bitters. And then, the main event- I had a great opportunity to have the classic cosmopolitan by Mr. Dale DeGroff- THE COCKTAIL KING, and of course, we know this recipe, but he used Absolute, Cointreau, fresh lime and cranberry juice. It was perfectly balanced, had a beautiful color, and the presentation of the pour was exquisite, and I absolutely felt honored to be in his presence while he was wearing his Rainbow Room attire from the olden days, with him mixing up great cocktails.
Just to let you know how the environment was, the MCC had a live big jazz band, people were swinging around dancing, cocktails flowing, interviews around, everyone dressed to the nines, having pure fun. I'm so happy that contemporary cocktails has brought an event like this to NYC, because every year, us New Yorkers go to New Orleans (TOTC) for Tales of the Cocktail Festival to attend or to present seminars, go to tastings, parties, competitions, and then the great end of the spirit awards followed by the bartenders breakfast, which is a lovely convention to attend every year, but I have to say that 60-70% of the attendees of this is New Yorkers, and it's about time that we have something like this at our home base. Thank you Aisha and Willy. Well done.
Night cap:
I couldn't ask for anything better, I had so much fun, I met a lot of new people from outside the industry, or semi-related, while I was imbibing and enjoying the great buffet they had decked out from the Oyster Bar to the cheese and meat tray, and the sweets buffet. Amazing. So there, everything you wanted, and I can't wait to see how Contemporary Cocktails Classic do it again! The C.C. Classic has a 5 day event in May 2010 and I can't wait to see what they have up their sleeves!
Cheers!
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