What’s your favorite cocktail? Do you ever consider ordering anything else?
I know, perish the thought. Your standby drink has earned its status. But how often do you consider how you pair your cocktail with your food?
Next week’s Tales of the Cocktail can help you out. Tales of the Cocktail is a five-day celebration of the history and artistry of making drinks, bringing together award-winning mixologists, authors, bartenders, chefs and designers from around the world.
Highlighting their events (at least for anyone that loves drinks and food) are the Spirited Dinners andSpirited Luncheons, two series of dinners and luncheons at restaurants around New Orleans showcasing the art of food and cocktail pairing. Running from Thursday the 22nd to Sunday the 25th, each Dinner and Luncheon offers a unique opportunity to learn about mixing and pairing food and cocktails from the award-winning mixologists, menu designers and bar-chefs on hand.
The Spirited Dinners will be held at 25 different local restaurants, each with its own distinctive menu and dining experience created by teams of mixologists and chefs from New Orleans’ best restaurants and bars. And if you’re the curious type who wants to understand more about what you’re drinking and why the pairings work, the teams will be there, ready to answer your questions (and help you celebrate another drink!).
The five Spirited Luncheons each have their own distinct theme, matching drinks, food, culture and music in their own unique way. Learn about growing sustainable drinks or creating an eco-sensible celebration, pair cognacs from around the world with New Orleans blues and funk, or dive deeper into the food, drink and culture of Paris or Texas; each luncheon is its own deep, rich, educational celebration of different drinks and the cultures behind them.
Tickets for the Spirited Dinners range from $85 to $100, and advance reservations are required. Click here to find more information on the Dinners and participating restaurants, and make reservations directly with the restaurant. Tickets for the Spirited Luncheons are $45 in advance and $50 at the door, and available online.
Sloane Berrent is a cause-based marketing and social branding consultant, nonprofiteer and budding social entrepreneur. She uses social media, product evangelizing, fundraising and community development services to help for-profit and nonprofit companies with a focus on social action campaigns. Originally from Pittsburgh, PA, she has lived in Burlington VT, Boston MA, Rome Italy, and Los Angeles, CA. She spent 2009 as a digital nomad, traveling the world experiencing life and volunteering including stints in South America, New Orleans and three months in the Philippines as a Kiva Fellow.
She co-created “Cause It’s My Birthday” a campaign to raise money (over $19k to date) and awareness for malaria prevention in Ghana. Sloane moved to New Orleans as her new home at the end of 2009 and co-launched NOLAlicious, a weekly newsletter of events in New Orleans. She was recently named the citizen journalist to attend the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland for the MySpace and The Wall Street Journal communities. Her consulting practice, Answer With Action, focuses on strategic integrated marketing consulting. She speaks frequently on building community and blogs at The Causemopolitan.
