Mmm...breakfast!
Next week, I will again pack my stunt liver for my annual visit to New Orleans for
Tales of the Cocktail, the yearly convocation that celebrates mixologists and the cocktail culture. I attend as media, since it's one place where I can count on meeting most of the major liquor distributors and many of the small craft distillers whose products will hopefully eventually show up in the Nashville market.
Plenty of other Nashvillians attend the event; in fact there is an entire Facebook group dedicated to local bartenders and liquor biz professionals to help plan the week's events. You can usually find at least a few Music City residents holed up in some of the French Quarter's best hole-in-the-wall dive bars late at night, taking a break from the frantic festivities of Tales. My calendar is always full of seminars on cocktail history and trends and visits to many, many various tasting rooms.
But you can have a helluva good time just hanging around the Hotel Montelone, the headquarters of the event. There is almost always free food and drinks available somewhere in the vicinity all day and night during Tales, and purchasing any of the various ticket packages grants you even more access to fun events, receptions, dinners and drinking throw-downs surrounding the event.
Southwest flights are usually cheap and available, even at this late date, but I generally drive so I can carry back all the swag I acquire during the week. I'm known as the liquor mule of the group and frequently carry bags of bottles back for my industry friends who don't want to chance checking their booty in their luggage.
So if you decide to attend this year or in the future, here's my advice for surviving Tales:
