My first business trip was to Tales of a Cocktail, simply put I woke up way too early to hop on a plane, landed at the Ritz Carlton Hotel at noon (ritzy I know), and was ordered to party till dawn for the next four five.

I guess I can't complain, since this is work.... serving Unimaginable Pleasures to revelers at the tasting room.

The theme is Unimaginable Pleasure. I dare ask, what is yours?

**So at the end of every month we have to do a PR update for all of our clients and since each of us manages a couple of clients, it gets to be annoying. I feel like I can spend the time being more efficient (ie: making more calls, establishing more contacts and building my roledex). Anywho, that is where the title of this post came from...

I have been really bad at chronicling my food excursions in the recent months. I guess being busy isn't the best excuse to use but the truth is I am pleading BUSY. =P

I guess I should start from my most recent adventures and work my way back to where I've left off (come to think of it, I left off two seasons ago.. Fall 08)

---

I was ridden with conference calls, quite literally, every hour on the hour. Although I wasn't required to be on a few of them, the others dragged on for so long I felt like I was in on another round of calls. Finally, at 4:30 I hung up and along with 2 colleagues JM and Kay and trusty intern Magster (my nickname for her), half dragged/half hauled a box and 7 bottles of alcohol to [Studio] where we were doing our event walk through. The event venue was still under construction and we spent much of our energy dodging wooden planks, beams, wet paint, electrical wires and a big hole in the ground that would become the main staircase in the next three days.

The highlight of this hour would be when the walk through was finally completed and we stopped by Le Pain Quotidien @ Soho for some GINGER SNAP COOKIES with lots of sugar sprinkled atop the cookies! Yum!

After the walk through, JM and Kay went uptown to meet a potential client and I returned to the office to round up Gray and Gi for drinks at Employees Only, which I famously declared in the office as an exclusive hole in the wall establishment, with Jule from [Magazine]. Jule was super cute and I immediately developed a girl crush on her. Very eccentric colors (think yellow tee, navy blazer, dark shorts and bright flats. Cute freckles and red/orange lipstick) , very cute and very east village-y. (I'm making up words again)

We were seated shortly after we exchanged hugs and air kisses. The one thing about girls and especially people in our industry is that we are able to launch into conversation with practically anyone, even if it requires feigning interest sometimes, but most of the time we're genuine. (Otherwise, you can tell)

Our waitress went on a wild goose chase for us as a member of our party requested a specific drink: Xante with Sprite and a splash of lime. Apparently, the brand of alcohol was very popular and they only had enough left for 2 of such cocktails, so Gray and Jule were given the honors of savoring this high demand, rarity cocktail. Gi had a Pimm's cup (pimm’s no1 served tall with a blend of cointreau, lime juice and ginger soda, garnished with cucumbers & fresh mint), which I happily called PIMP CUP all night. I was torn between a Provencale (Lavender Infused Plymouth Gin stirred with Herbs de Provence-Infused Vermouth & Cointreau) and the rest of the menu but a quick chat with the waitress later, I ordered a West Side (charbay meyer lemon vodka, fresh lemon juice, & simple syrup shaken with fresh mint, served straight up). It was very crisp and refreshing without any residual sweetness that a fruity alternative might have.

In between stories of "My best and worst celebrity experience" we settled on a few dishes to share: Cheese Platter, Seared Calamari and Cavatelli.

By the time our food arrived, we had morphed into full blown boyfriend talk, not-so-much ex bashing but the topic of ex boyfriends did come up (along with breaks, fidelity and the such). Personally, I don't have much faith in marriage or perhaps I should say that I don't have much faith in happily ever after. As Bones would say, "monogamy isn't statistically probable." Although I would be the first to admit that I was, like many who grew up reading fairytales, a firm believer of the phenomenon. But that has since changed.

The Cheese Platter came first. There were 3 types of cheeses, (I didn't take any pictures because it was somewhat business related and I was starving!), and I can only remember the source of these three types of cheeses: namely goat, sheep and cow. They were accompanied by spiced walnuts, pistachios in honey, olive oil and squared pitas. The goat's milk cheese was the most pungent, soft and easily spreadable but I found it too overpowering for me. The sheep's milk cheese was hard and light and was my favorite of the 3. The cow's milk had a consistency of some thing between the other two cheeses but it didn't stand out enough for me to recall any distinct characteristics of it.

The Calamari was stuffed with Tarragon Shrimp Mousse and then seared on both sides. It was ok, definitely not one of their signature dishes.

The Cavatelli on the other hand was just what we needed. I usually do not like red/meat sauce but I was happily slurping away in this case.

Our tete a tete commenced at the arrival of our checks and Gray and Gi flipped through their wallets to see which one of our clients would pay for our lovely meal that evening.

As we walked out, Gi pointed to a man sitting at the bar with a hat. "He's the one who decides who gets admitted and whether someone gets a table or not." By that time I was already half way out the door, I turned back slightly in a non-stalkerish means to get a better look at the "Key Holder". 

As Jule and I lived in the same area, East Village, we ended up sharing a cab (insert more boy talk here), courtesy of [magazine]. Jule was delivered to her home and I to the destination of date-number-two!