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Family Meal - Friday, July 28, 2023

Hello Friday,

And hello again from Hong Kong, where we’re over two months away from the Mid-Autumn Festival, but my inbox is already full of mooncake PR. Love it.

A brief and bar focused Family Meal today.

Let’s get to it…

For the Bar: The Tales – Hello also to everyone in NOLA this week for TOTC 2023! If you couldn’t (or didn’t want to) make it, the Spirited Awards ceremony was last night, and the full list of winners is here.

Sample US notables:

Bartender of the Year: Christine Wiseman of Marygold’s Brasserie / Broken Shaker (Miami); Best Bar Team: Happy Accidents (Albuquerque); Best Cocktail Bar: Century Grand (Phoenix); and World’s Best Cocktail Menu: Double Chicken Please (NYC).

If you’re looking to butter up a drinks writer, the media awards are somewhere in there too, and on the industry books side: Best New Cocktail or Bartending Book went to The Bartender’s Manifesto by Toby Maloney and the bartenders of The Violet Hour with Emma Janzen.

Congrats, all!

For the Bar Too: Kiddie Cocktails – Per CNN’s Nathaniel Meyersohn, “Since 2021, at least nine states have introduced bills to lower the minimum age for serving alcohol, according to a report released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank. Seven states — Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, New Mexico and Alabama — have enacted them. More states are pushing to follow. In Wisconsin, legislators are seeking to lower the alcohol service age from 18 to 14, and Idaho lawmakers want to lower it from 19 to 17.”

I foresee no issues whatsoever, think you should definitely trust your booze and your customers with barely teen bartenders, and send my warmest kudos to the National Restaurant Association for their apparent support of these bills. Presumably their thinking is best summed up the way Dave Infante’s excellent Fingers Substack put it in this week’s subject line:

“Fuck it: 14 year-old bartenders.”

Like this but it’s Mr. Boston’s.

Some Sad News – Tafari Campbell, “a personal chef to the Obama family died over the weekend after he was seen struggling in the water while paddleboarding near the former first family’s home on Martha’s Vineyard, the Massachusetts State Police said on Monday.” The NYT’s Remy Tumin had that news on Monday, and WaPo’s Tim Carman and Emily Heil followed up with a full obituary the next day, including memories from Rock Harper, Sam Kass, Bill Yosses, and others. Campbell was 45.

And last but not least: The Media – ATTN TN PR: “Eater Names Jackie Gutierrez-Jones as Editor of Eater Nashville.” Full photo for the host stand included in article. Personal website with social links and past writings here.

And that’s it for today!

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