"I'm Over the Cocktail"

That's what a 20-something girl said to me in the elevator last night. She said it with a certain weariness, and added she was off to get some shots. I was surprised to hear her say it. At "Tales of the Cocktail," it seems, there is not one participant or attendee who ever gets tired of talking, thinking and drinking cocktails ever. Me? Well, it's Day Four and I think I reached the saturation point sometime today. Right now there's a Tiki Block Party over by the Harrah's, and, as much as I'd like to support Jeff Berry, the Tiki Titan who put it together, I need a break.

That said, the convention has been edifying and entertaining. The excitement and energy surrounding the event seems to have ramped up somewhat. Every seminar I've been to has better attended that last year's (more on the specific seminars later), and presentation has been polished up in some cases.

Enthusiasm—never in meager amount at this shindig—brims over at every corners. I'd like to think that this is, in part, due to a heavy contingent of cocktail bloggers in attendance. There are a couple dozen at least, including Chuck Taggart (Gumbo Pages), Gabriel Szaszko (Cocktailnerd), Craig Mrusek (Dr. Bamboo), Marleigh Riggins (Sloshed), Rick Stutz (Kaiser Penguin), Jeff Morgenthaler, Blair Reynolds (Trader Tiki), Seamus Harris (Bunnyhugs) and, of course, Paul Clarke of The Cocktail Chronicles, who in some ways has become the den leader of the cocktail bloggers. Extremely nice and open people, all, and fond of wearing hats as a group, I'm happy to say. Taking nothing away from the cocktail professionals, who, it goes without saying, are passionate about their field, bloggers are perhaps, it can be argued, more passionate, as they have little or no monetary incentive behind what they do. They'd probably write about cocktails if you told them they had to pay for the privilege.