- Tales of the Cocktail
High on my list of bars to visit in Edinburgh was the speakeasy Bryant & Mack. I had heard of it through Tales of the Cocktail (TOTC), the bartending industry’s biggest seminar. Last April, nine months after opening, Bryant & Mack was already one of the official venues of Tales on Tour, TOTC’s annual abroad edition. Quite a recognition for a brand new bar! Ross Bryant, one of the two bar owners, even hosted a Dynamic Duo with the brand ambassador for Sazerac Rye. The event drew so many guests that “people were queuing around the block to get in”,
Since 2002, visitors of New Orleans and locals can discover the city’s rich history and cocktail tradition by taking the New Orleans Original Cocktail Walking Tour, an initiative launched by Ann Rogers Tuennerman, the founder of Tales of the Cocktail, with Joe Gandusa, a retired history teacher originary from New Orleans. While walking you to some of the Big Easy’s historical bars and restaurants, Joe or one of the other guides deliver informative and fun facts about NOLA and the venues’ history and architecture as well as the city’s cocktail culture and history. Tour participants liked the stories Joe was
Back in 2002, a woman called Ann Rogers Tuennerman had the idea of launching a cocktail tour of New Orleans. She contacted the Gray Line Tour Company, a city tour specialist for guidance. She was then introduced to Joe Gendusa, a New Orleans native, retired history teacher. Together, in September 2002, they launched the New Orleans Original Cocktail Walking Tour of the city’s historical bars. To celebrate the tour’s first anniversary and as a form of “thank you” to the bartenders who’d hosted the tour, Ann decided to organize a small gathering of bartenders, industry experts and cocktail historians to
“On se retrouve pour l’apéro?” “Shall we meet for a drink before dinner?” A custom of the elders, a tradition in some countries even, the aperitif has evolved with time and is now enjoying a rising popularity around the world. International experts – Camille Vidal, brand ambassador for St~Germain originary from France, Carina Soto Velasquez of La Candelaria, Glass and Mary Celeste in Paris, Naren Young of Dante in New York, and François Monti, a Belgian cocktails and spirits writer living in Spain and author of “El gran libro del vermut” – gathered “The aperitif – A drink and a
Sink, swim or get out of the pool was a thought provoking seminar about failure and how to get the better over it. Four bar owners, including Julie Reiner, founder of the Clover Club, and Josh Fontaine, founder of Quixotic Projects in Paris (La Candelaria, Le Mary Celeste, Glass, Hero) shared their experience in failing businesses and the lessons they learnt along the way. The different interventions were refreshing in their honesty and extremely insightful. Josh Fontaine, founder of Quixotic Projects : Glass Following the huge success of La Candelaria (the founders stopped working behind the bar 6 months after
“I’ve made up my mind whether I like a bar within 5 seconds of opening the door.” The opening slide of the seminar “Sound advice: Better bar music” featured a quote from the late Sasha Petraske, the founder of Milk & Honey who passed away in August 2015. It summarizes the fact that people will decide if they like a place or not in a split second or, pun unintended, at the speed of sound. Jacob Briars, Bacardi Advocacy Director and self proclaimed failed music promoter, led the panel of discussion comprising Nick Van Tiel (DJ, producer and consultant), Vishal Vasan
After several months of waiting, an intense week in New Orleans and two other chillax weeks between Georgia, South Carolina and Quebec, here is the daily summary of my first Tales of the Cocktail. I’ll develop the topics I found most interesting in forthcoming articles. Tuesday 19 July I landed on Monday evening in New Orleans. Since the conference was starting on Wednesday and would keep me busy I decided to go through the registration process for Tales of the Cocktail on Tuesday and continue with a walk around town to visit the city. After a light breakfast at the