Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans

July 8, 2:58 AMLA Cocktails ExaminerAaron Vanek

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Tales of the Cocktail is like the San Diego Comic Con of drinking: an exhilarating and inebriating five days of cocktail panels, workshops, seminars, competitions, product demonstrations, parties, and of course, tastings. Starting today and running through Sunday, this annual event, the seventh one, is raising glasses in the Big Easy, New Orleans. 

But I am in Los Angeles, watching elephants mourn for Michael Jackson. 

This galls me. 

I could be rooting for Eric Alperin, the co-creator of one of downtown LA's great little secrets, Varnish, as he mixes in an On the Fly Competition presented by Grand Marnier and Navan, where the bartenders have to come up with the best cocktail using only the items found in Jeffrey Morgenthaler's swag bag.  

I could hear Cedd Moses, the godfather of downtown Los Angeles' cocktail culture and city spirit revitalization talk on a panel called The Bittersweet Truth About Starting a Bar. 

I could get stuck in the Agave Tasting Room or holster a recorder to my hips like a stubble-chinned gunslinger and capture Everything You Want to Know About Gin, or...

This longing is as depressing as spilling a perfect Gimlet. 

Instead of attending, I'll be toasting and tippling vicariously through the Tales Blog. Unless you're there yourself (and I don't want to hear about it if you are), I suggest you do the same. 

Maybe next year.