From June 15th – 29th a selection of NYC's best cocktail bars are offering two cocktails and an appetizer for $20.11. Just ask for the NYC cocktail week menu! Full list and details can be found on Liquor.com. In addition, you'll be drinking for a good cause; NYC week benefits City Harvest and the Museum of the American Cocktail.
Did you miss Speed Rack on Sunday night? Never fear — here's my recap on CitYsip.
sa·vor /ˈsāvər/ verb.
1. Taste (good food or drink) and enjoy it completely
2. Enjoy or appreciate (something pleasant) completely, esp. by dwelling on it
3. Derive or receive pleasure from; get enjoyment from; take pleasure in
First of all, not a bad life philosophy. Second of all, guess who's going to Blue Hill at Stone Barns today?
You might want to take a quick look at what flashed on CBS Sunday Morning (at approx 1:19 in the video) on their Welcome to the Blogosphere piece. Thanks to @jmagNYC and @BlondieNY for letting me know!
Wanted to share my latest pieces with y'all. First, for the budget-conscious tippler, 10 Cocktails for $10 or less in Time Out NY. Many thanks to all who came along for tasting adventures, including Rocky, Hal, Jen, Karen, Josh, Jeramy, Colin, Jen, and Matt. Next, my recap of the MCC's Don Q 80's Bash on CitYSip. Many thanks to Kim for coming along for the ride. Totally rad. Enjoy!
I've been a bit behind on my NYC Triathlon training and have been kicking it up into high gear since last week. So if I'm looking a bit ragged these days, please be kind — it just means that I've been pushing myself on the training front. The swimming feels great and the biking is going well, but the running — oof. All I can do is continue to put one foot in front of the other, get sleep, eat well and do my best.
While I'm doing all that, there's something you can do, too — DONATE! I'm once again raising money for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, and you can donate here. Plus, I started a triathlon team at work (yes, we are badasses)! If you want to donate to the Debevoise team, you can do that too. You can also come cheer us on and/or celebrate with us on August 7th.
This weekend and today were family-filled and full of celebrations. First, I spent Saturday and Sunday celebrating the wedding of my cousin Jennifer to her lovely husband Dawson, then returned to attend my brother Bill's graduation(cum laude – smartypants!) from Brooklyn Law School today. It was great to spend time with my many cousins, aunts & uncles who I don't get to see all that often, and I'm so proud of my baby brother, who will be following in my footsteps and joining the public interest legal world (do-gooderism runs in the family). Congrats and Mazel Tov to all!
There's a great new cocktail book out by the folks behind drinkoftheweek.com. DIY Cocktails: A Simple Guide to Creating Your Own Signature Drinks not only spells out basic mixology techniques, but explores the ratios behind many classic cocktails. By using your own substitutions and sticking to the ratios, you can create your own bespoke cocktails at home. They've even included a handy flavor profile guide to let you know which spirits and ingredients play well together in the glass.
Mark your calendar for 6/12 and get ready for Speed-Rack. This national cocktail competition seeks to find the fastest female bartenders in the country and it starts here in NYC. The lovely ladies of LUPEC NYC (Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails) and Lush Life Productions are teaming up for the inaugural event, which will be at 4pm at Astor Center. As you watch the ladies put their skills to the test and race against the clock, you can enjoy punches galore, as well as beer and small bites by Cienfuegos and Mayahuel available for purchase. Tickets are $10 and available online. All proceeds will benefit a breast cancer charity. See you there!
I was having a conversation with a friend this weekend about how recently she witnessed a couple having what she described as a "vicious fight" on the street. Her reaction? "I thought to myself, sometimes it's really great being single." Similarly, I had a conversation with someone recently about how easy it is to be single sometimes — you can do what you want, you're not responsible to anyone else, you make plans when you want, you travel where you want, you make life decisions without having to take anyone else's opinion into consideration (unless you want to). I'm certainly enjoying that degree of freedom while I have it, because although I enjoy it and treasure it, I don't plan on being single forever. . .
Before I get to the highlights of the MCC (which I'll be summarizing here and elsewhere), I wanted to give a little rundown of my time in Vegas. I was there for the Equal Justice Conference, which brings together pro bono and public interest law types from across the country. Included in that group are Vivian and Carolyn, who both used to live in NYC and now live elsewhere, and given that the three of us were all going to be in Vegas, friends Emilia and Betsy (who are public interest lawyers as well but weren't attending the conference) timed their trips to coincide with the conference.
Per my usual travel mode, I spent a great deal of time researching food and drink options. Arriving on Wednesday night, we started off with a drink at Vesper, and then had a tasty Chino-Latino dinner at China Poblano. We wandered around the strip a bit afterwards, mostly Caesar's Palace, but we had trouble finding the exit and ended up in a random back alley/parking lot, still searching for the street and a cab to take us home.
Thursday after a full day of conference sessions, I had put together a large group dinner (for 28) at Firefly — tapas and paella — and then we were off to the Bellagio for some gambling. I'm not much of a gambler. Over the course of the weekend I played the slots a bit as well as some roulette, but once I lost my $50 I was pretty much done. That left me to one of my favorite pastimes in Vegas: people watching. One of the things I was constantly wondering is how the women managed to walk around in their crazy killer heels. I have very low tolerance for uncomfortable shoes, and they seemed to be everywhere in Vegas (along with lots of sequins and some of the trashiest looking micro-mini dresses I've seen). I kept surpressing the urge to stop one of the women and ask them how they did it and if they had any practical tips for me.
Friday was more conference sessions, and then a workout and a quick nap to gear up for the big event — dinner at E by Jose Andres. E is an 8 seat restaurant inside Jaleo in the Cosmopolitan that offers two "shows" per night, with the courses plated in front of us. Viv and I went to the early seating for a 15+ course meal with beverage pairings (don't worry — the courses were small). I'm not even going to begin to describe the meal except by saying that it was incredible, and I'll definitely be going back. Pictures from dinner, with descriptions of the courses are here. After a digestif at Vesper, we spent the evening at the Hard Rock, Em's favorite, and ended up spending quite a bit of time at the dueling piano bar there (and yes, they let me sing backup a bit).
We got off to a slow start Saturday morning, and had brunch at the Peppermill, an institution known more for the decor than the food, but definitely worth a visit. We then wandered through Encore and the Wynn, and relaxed for the afternoon. Dinner was at Raku, a small Japanese robata grill off the strip. I had heard about Raku from my friend Zach, a chef who now lives out there, and it was great — housemade tofu and soy sauce, and probably the best Agedashi tofu I've ever had. After dinner, we headed to B&B at the Venitian to say hi to him and have a drink and dessert.
Sunday we had to head out, but not without one more stop: my first visit to In-n-Out Burger, where we got drive-thru on the way to the airport (as a NYer, I tend to forget about the drive-thru option. Props to Viv for that one!). We had a mini picnic at the airport — a double double animal style and extra crispy fries for each of us.
Finally getting back into the swing of things; more writing to come!!
Sorry for the quiet around here, gang, but I've been recovering from some crash cocktail writing followed by MCC followed by VEGAS. Sloooowly getting back to the grind. Pics, recaps, and more coming soon. In the meantime, to tide you over, please enjoy this picture, taken from my window at the lovely Marriott Springhill Suites in Vegas:
