Umami Mart

This past July, the culinary and spirits festival Tales of the Cocktail (a.k.a. Tales) celebrated its 10th Anniversary. The world’s best craft bartenders, taste makers, brand ambassadors, cocktail bloggers, liquor sponsors, and cocktail aficionados plus a legion of media and public relations people descended on the Crescent City for a week of booze filled seminars, […]

PREFACE: Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 1 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 2 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 3 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 4 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 5 Alas my friends, as all good things eventually come to an end, so did this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, […]

  PREFACE: Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 1 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 2 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 3 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 4 Of all the seminars I attended down at Tales of the Cocktail, the most memorable had to be a seminar called Bax vs. Clift: Progressive […]

PREFACE: Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 1 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 2 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 3 I had never been to New Orleans prior to going down for this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, so when it came to deciding where to eat and drink (which are always my […]

PREFACE: Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 1 Tales of the Cocktail Recap Part 2 New Orleans is perhaps most famous for its great food and rich musical tradition. They’re what folks often point to as the most tangible markers of a New Orleans culture that’s sometimes too intangible to define. So despite a schedule packed […]

PREFACE Tales Recap Part 1 Anticipating that I’d have a hangover the size of a punch bowl, and knowing that I’d be competing as a finalist in the Catdaddy Bar Chef Challenge in the afternoon of my second day at Tales of the Cocktail, I intentionally lightened my schedule to allow some breathing room.  In the […]

Last week I gave the foolhardy impression that I could give a daily recap of the events at Tales of the Cocktail, while still down at Tales. Instead, I left you high and dry as I ate and drank and partied and competed and sat in seminars with a hangover, then ate and drank and […]

Ok so here goes the beginning of an effort may prove fruitless and waning. Today’s the first official day of Tales of the Cocktail, the biggest mixology fete/conference in the world, and my earnest plan is to provide daily updates for folks who couldn’t be here to witness it in person. There’s no substitute for […]

Umamimart’s very own Paystyle and his wife Vanessa are off to New Orleans today for Tales of the Cocktail! This is absolutely THE most anticipated week of the year for bar chef/ booze-heads, jam-packed with galas, parties, cocktail-offs, and seminars (“Umami in Cocktails” on Thursday afternoon, anyone?). Lest we forget that Paystyle’s Chinese Bootlegger’s Punch […]

Paystyle is out today. Moonshine has him and Vanessa busybusybusy, and they’ve relegated to the sleep cycle of a newborn (sleep early… or just whenever they possibly can). Man, if that isn’t a major life change for the out-and-about couple, I don’t know what is. But isn’t she just ADORABLE??? I’ve adopted her as Umamimart’s […]