Xpress contributor Jonathan Ammons recently spent several days in New Orleans reporting on the annual five-day Tales of the Cocktail international cocktail festival. (Yes, it’s a tough job.) As the event wrapped up on Sunday, July 20, Ammons shared a backward glance at this year’s gathering of the worldwide spirits community.
On a rainy Friday afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, Asheville’s own Nicole Anhalt came in from the downpour to stake her claim in this year’s Sidecar by Merlet Cocktail Competition. Hosted annually at the country’s largest cocktail conference, Tales of the Cocktail, seven bartenders from across the country competed for a trip to the Merlet […]
It is estimated that this year 22,000 of the world’s finest craft cocktail nerds — including a healthy contingent from Asheville’s bar scene — have either flown, driven or just drunkenly appeared in town to learn from the nation’s most knowledgeable mixology minds. Along with seminars, tasting rooms and classes, there are also competitions and awards ceremonies.
North Carolina has always had a peculiar relationship with alcohol. Attorney Derek Allen, who represents many Asheville breweries, says, “We’re operating with these rules that were written post-Prohibition to make buying and consuming alcohol as difficult as possible. It’s just crazy to me!”
Asheville is losing an icon. The sweet, fiery, exceedingly talented Cynthia Turner, our very own queen of the cocktail, is returning home to New Orleans, leaving behind a legacy built on quality, conviction and compassion.
When you watch bar manager Courteney Foster easily engaging her patrons and her colleagues while working her mixology magic behind the bar at The Junction, it’s not hard to believe that she spent her life in the restaurant industry.
Asheville takes on the beer cocktail On any given night in Asheville, people are mixing up their beer and booze, usually in the form of shots and chasers. But there’s a more refined way to enjoy the hoppy yumminess of a brew and the bite of liquor than by dropping a shot of Irish whiskey […]
Spirit Savvy hosts Bar Wars: The daisy doesn’t sound like much of a threat. But its namesake cocktail is soon to become the centerpiece of a local mixed-drink war.
Anyone who has sipped on the delightfully potent “green faerie” knows that she is a magical little vixen indeed. Thanks to Mary Rich Hill and her company Spirit Savvy, you can discover for yourself the charms of absinthe at the Dance With the Green Faerie benefit for the Asheville Art Museum this Sunday. 
Are you trying to decide what to do for New Year’s Eve? If you want to buffer your midnight toast with a good meal, several local bars and restaurants are serving up interesting eats along with liquid cheer. There is even an Asheville-style take on the Times Square ball drop for those who are in the mood for something completely out of the ordinary.
What’s better than sipping on delightful cocktails during the holidays? Sipping on those cocktails and knowing that your intoxication and the sacrifice of your liver is supporting a good cause. On Saturday, Dec. 21, Imperial Life, the bar and lounge upstairs from Table, will host a benefit for Toys for Tots sponsored by the liquor company Remy-Cointreau.
Just in time for the chill of fall, The Bull and Beggar has opened its doors for the revival of Charlie Hodge’s Recession Proof Mixology, or RPM. Hodge began the project at Chestnut before bringing the program of affordable cocktails and bar food to the River Arts District for the first time last Monday night.
