There were two more people I wanted to make sure I hit before the end, so I’m doing them now, on my way to Tales, sitting in a cheesy NASCAR bar in Atlanta’s airport.? First off we have Mr. Craig Hermann, whom I’ve been told needs a drink involving coffee, and second we have Mr. Clyde Davis, whose drink obviously needs Castries.

Well, that makes it easy, if uninventive.? Sorry no pics today; no camera on me and I doubt they have the ingredients here in “Victory Lane”.

C&C Drink Factory
One large cup of coffee
2 ounces Castries
1 ounce Lemon Hart 151
Combine the three either hot or over ice.? Top with grated nutmeg.? Alternately, pour a float of LH 151 on top, set it on fire, then grate the nutmeg into the flames.

Suddenly I’m thirsty!

Okay guys, that’s been enough of this series.? I can’t believe it went this long.? Some amazingly drunken/tired nights whacked me on the last few nights, but I’m still glad to see it.? Hopefully if my battery holds out I’ll post a round-up of ‘em on the Tales blog.

If you’re in New Orleans, SEE YOU SOON!

Case in point: Last week was perhaps the last E3 ever. I was there to cover a good, solid hunk of the show for GamersInfo and that I did – I’m still in the process of writing up the nearly 30 games that I’ve been assigned to cover, not to mention all the other games that I only saw briefly and not enough to write anything worth reading about. (Some would argue that some of the games I did write up fall in that category, but whatever.)

But that meant I missed a few things and had to endure some others.

The big thing I missed, obviously, was Tales of the Cocktail. I read a good bit of the Tales blog today and I was really impressed with what went on there and very sad that I did not make it.

Something I missed just thanks to the fact that I wasn’t able to keep up with my normal newsfeeds (and my Wonkette addiction, specifically) was Wonkette’s “Create the Wonkettini” contest. The winning entry was basically the French Martini:

The Wonkettini aka the French Martini
1 1/2 ounces vodka
1/4 ounce Chambord
1/4 ounce fresh pineapple juice
Garnish with a twist of lemon peel

Shake and serve in a martini glass. Being Wonkette, feel free to add a dash of bitters (I might suggest orange bitters of some sort, or one of Fee’s fruit bitters), and garnish with two cherries tied together (to represent the ever-popular-on-that-site “Truck Nutz”) and/or an American flag.

For better or for worse, most of my drinking while in LA consisted of Miller Lite, and even more often, consisted of racing along with my buddy Dan to drink our Miller Lite tall boys before they all got warm. Yep, we were living it up. We did have three nights where we had something substantially different (at least, earlier in the evening).

The first and last night that we were in LA we went to Tom Bergin’s, an Irish place that has claimed (along with Buena Vista Cafe in San Francisco which is its rival in this claim, to have brought the Irish Coffee to the United States. There we mostly drank Smithwicks, though the last night we each got an Irish Coffee.

The Irish Coffee was smaller and different than what I expected. It was nothing more than Irish whiskey and coffee, and strong at that, with some whipped cream on top. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but I’m used to have Irish creme in my Irish coffees. At least, that’s how we usually roll.

That was the good side. The bad side was at the actual E3 when I went to the SOE Reception.

Upon arriving, my editor told us to put away our pen and notebooks, grab a drink, and just relax. Having dropped our bags, I thought that they’d be doing specialty cocktails based off their games like other places have done in the past. Unfortunately, that did not appear to be the case.

Disappointed, I went with a Manhattan. They did have sweet vermouth but didn’t appear to have bitters – and thus, my Manhattan continued my disappointment. Also, it was Maker’s Mark, which isn’t really an overly assertive bourbon to begin with, mixed with Martini & Rossi sweet vermouth which I do not prefer in general. Sigh. But, hey, it was free, so I drank it while watching a preview of “The Agency” and switched to beer afterwards.

I’m glad I went especially if that was the last year for E3. But next year – I am DEFINITELY going to Tales of the Cocktail!