Cocktail punch with Solerno blood orange liqueur

Last night’s boozy Boxing Day Social charity affair at the Hollywood Roosevelt’s Spare Room raised about $2,000 in addition to collecting blankets and clothes for downtown’s Hospitality Kitchen. For the $10 donation at the door, guests were treated to turkey-on-rye sandwiches, Wild Geese Irish whiskey tastings and a Jenga tournament as well as three free-flowing cocktail punches created by hostess and SR beverage director Naomi Schimek. (Hit the jump for the Boxing Day Punch recipe — and for more pictures.)

Naomi also came up with the idea of auctioning off L.A. bartenders and their respective bar tabs. Since it’s usually against policy for bartenders to drink at the bar where they work, the bar tabs were thrown in a hat and then each bartender had to draw one out. Luckily no one pulled out their own tab.

The mixmasters who drew the highest bids were Spare Room’s Lauran September who raised $200 for a date with her at Harvard & Stone and Naomi who was snapped up by both Aidan Demarest (Neat) and the event’s emcee Dan “The Imbiber” Dunn for $200. The trio will be enjoying beers and shots at La Cita. Someone should make a reality show about THAT date!

The significant others of some of the bartenders took the auction as an opportunity to score a budget-friendly date night. Hilary Straus, wife of Alex Straus of Hemingway’s Lounge, won her husband and a $175 bar tab at Baby Blues BBQ for a cool $100. While La Descarga’s Kenny Danger and the Hemingway’s bar tab was won by Kenny’s girlfriend.

The cocktail community turned out in full force to support the charity. It was fun hanging out with fellow cocktail enthusiasts like LA/OC Foodventures and Faux LA Hipster as well as mingling with Georgia of Alie & Georgia and The Savory Hunter. My fave moments of the night had to be tippling that intense cocktail punch made with Salerno blood orange liqueur and getting Dan Dunn, Aidan Demarest and Spare Room co-owner Marc Rose to jump in the photo booth for me. That photo strip is going up on my refrigerator.

If you missed out last night, not to fret. Naomi said that this will be a yearly event so start saving up your cash now. Who knows who will be up for bid next year?

Boxing Day Punch

by Naomi Schimek

Believe me, Aidan Demarest knows how to throw a party.

Still don’t have plans for Halloween weekend, you procrastinator you? Yeah, I’m the same way. Well how about partying down en costume with L.A.’s hottest bar stars at Aidan Demarest’s new Glendale bar, Neat, this Sunday, All Hallow’s Eve eve? For this Degenerates Ball we’re talking OPEN premium bar (hosted by Cointreau!), nosh by Currywurst, a DJ, live French band and a costume contest! Best part is that you meet up at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery first and board a bus to the bar. Hold me!

The bad news for Joe Average is that this shindig isn’t open to the public and only those on the guest list can board the bus.

So why am I even telling you about it? Because I have TWO pairs of passes to give away! You win it and this awesome spirited spooky night is yours for the drinking.

***CONTEST CLOSED***

To win you must do the following:

1. Have a Facebook account.
2. Post on my CoC FB page what your Halloween costume is (you must have one to attend or else the attendees will dress you on the bus) and tag Neat and my page. (That’s how I know you liked our pages.) If you still don’t know what you’re going to dress as you can tell me about what was your best costume ever.
3. Sit back and wait to get a message from me on Friday morning around 10am telling you that you won. I’ll drop all the entries into Random.org and pick a winner. Check your Facebook email, my pretties! If I don’t hear back from you by 11am I’ll have to draw another winner and then you’ll be sad.

But if you don’t win this giveaway, not to fret! Aidan’s throwing a Halloween party on Saturday. It’s $10 at the door and you get a cocktail or beer, dj and dance floor and entry into the costume contest.

EVENT: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30 at 7pm

Neat
1114 N Pacific Avenue
Glendale, California 91202 (map)

The last thing I remembered.

Leave it to Mr. Aidan Demarest to go out with a bang. Last night was his grand finale as director of beverages for Hollywood Roosevelt’s Spare Room. And it also happened to be Tiki Night featuring the cocktail stylings of the very talented Marcos Tello (The Varnish) and John Lermayer (The Florida Room, South Beach). Coincidence? I think not.

Naturally, cocktail geeks like Thirsty in LA, EstarLA , LaurenTheClark and Social Domain LA as well as liquor industry folks like bartender Zahra Bates and Plymouth Gin brand ambassador Silamith Weir turned out in full force for the event to wish Aidan good luck in his new venture, Neat bar in Glendale, as well as to marinate in the tiki concoctions of the evening.

Many, many bowls of Marcos’ flaming Kraken-Toa Bowls made the rounds in the room causing innocent by-standers to duck the cocktail’s long spear-like straws. A favorite of the evening was John’s One of the Hammock, a very light, frothy cocktail which was a welcome respite from the heavier, sugary tiki drinks. To me it came across as a mint frappe…even though it didn’t have mint in it but coconut rum, Domain de Canton, absinthe, pineapple leaves and sage leaves.

In any case, last night was a blast. Here’s to many more parties at the Spare Room under the new leadership of new Director of Beverages Naomi Schimek!

Blogger Prom crowd by heatherkincaid.com/blog

Word on the Tweet says that last week’s 2010 Blogger Prom: Hollywood Confidential at Yamashiro was a smashing success. And while the glamorously dressed blogger attendees that night enjoyed the beautiful venue, the yummy nosh, tasty drinks and each other’s company and thanked us for putting on such an event, they might not really know just how much work went into it. So, I figured I’d just share the components of what made it such a “success.” Sure, this may be only the second blogger prom we’ve thrown, but I’d like to think that as bloggers we have developed a sense of what our peeps like and what makes an event a hit.

BPC group hug by heatherkincaid.com/blog

1) Have a committee comprised of people who can each bring something to the table and who work well together. Our Blogger Prom Committee is made up of these fine people, and although most of us share the same contacts, each of us also offers unique expertise in certain areas. Really rounds out the event. And if anything the fact that we’re all good friends really helped us get through the truly stressful times during the party planning process. When I felt overwhelmed, I knew I could lean on them as well as vent my frustrations without any judgment.

2) Pick an intriguing theme. After the fun ’80s theme last year, we worried how to top it. We took suggestions on Twitter and Facebook, asked our friends, asked each other and still didn’t know. Finally after weeding out zombie, disco and Enchantment Under the Sea options, we agreed on going for glamor this year, old Hollywood glamor to be specific. We wanted our guests to dress up. Hell, WE wanted to dress up.

3) Choose a kickass venue that can accommodate your crowd and either has a view, a fun activity or is buzz-worthy. Having our theme set made it easier to filter out the venues that didn’t fit. But finding a venue that was not only fabulous, spacious and would do it only for the publicity proved to be difficult.

Partaking of Chef Brock's famous tacos by heatherkincaid.com/blog

However, it was during a night cap with bloggers Mattatouille and Teenage Glutster when the subject of prom came up and Mattatouille suggested giving Yamashiro a try. With Yamashiro’s newish Thursday farmer’s market, I knew they were trying to change up their image.

For years, they were known as the beautiful Japanese restaurant where you either got married or took out-of-towners for expensive but mediocre sushi. This Mountain Palace, seemingly out of reach for the average Angeleno looking for a casual bite, is accessible via a winding road and offers only valet parking.

So when fellow BPC member Lindsay of LAist had arranged a tasting preview of Yamashiro’s brand-new bar menu, it seemed like the perfect time to bring it up. Fortunately, General Manager David Comfort and Chef Brock loved the idea. Hosting a bloggers-only party, what better way to get us up there?

Suffice it to say, the crew at Yamashiro was an absolute dream to work with. Restaurant event coordinator Alana Ulloa helped us to lay out a party that would take over the gorgeous koi pond room as well as Skyview room. We couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting.

And after the party, everyone kept saying how they saw Yamashiro in a whole new light. Mission accomplished!

Live Tweets by heatherkincaid.com/blog

4) Don’t make it all about you. Unlike last year, this time we decided to do it for charity. Sure that would mean charging our guests but all proceeds would go to a good cause as well as help assuage any concerns potential sponsors might have about doing anything “for free.”

So, on BPC member EstarLA‘s suggestion, we went with Operation Frontline. Since BPC is mostly made up of food bloggers, supporting a charity that teaches families how to prepare healthy, tasty meals on a limited budget, was a perfect fit. Suffice it to say, at the end of the event, we were able to raise $2,400 for them.*

5) Wire the venue. Since it is Blogger Prom we had to make sure our social media-addicted guests could Tweet, Foursquare and live blog to their hearts’ content so once again BPC’s TaraMetBlog hooked us up with Verizon Wireless, who ended up having to send over eight engineers to wire the restaurant, which already has very spotty coverage. It was a lengthy process but it was worth it. The huge screen in the koi pond room displaying live #bloggerprom tweets was a big hit. We used Twitter to not only announce when someone won a giveaway prize but to call out our Blogger Prom King and Blogger Prom Queen aka Leading Man and Leading Lady. By the way, congrats to Food Marathon and JozJozJoz. May your reign be a blast.

Coolhaus fans by heatherkincaid.com/blog

6) Present lots of food options. Yamashiro was open to our inviting other food venues as long as we focused on their own bar bites and Chef Brock’s uber popular farmer’s market tacos. So we let them handle the savory while we handled the sweets. Because of the limited space, however, we didn’t want it to get too crazy in that Skyview room where we’d also have a dancefloor and DJ Steve. So we stuck to the basics of cheese, ice cream, chocolates and of course cupcakes.

The Cheese Impresario, a big hit at last year’s prom, returned but with a bigger spread. Ice cream truck, Coolhaus, seemed the perfect fit with their ice cream sandwiches in edible wrappers; that way our cocktailing guests wouldn’t have to contend with messy spoons. ChocolateBox Café brought a fun, beautiful selection of chocolates. And Crumbs, although bailing from the event last-minute pfft!, still had their cupcakes out.

7) Bring on the free booze. And of course, the sure way to get bloggers to go anywhere is to promise and deliver lots of free booze. Cocktail hookup and international BPC member, Natalie of The Liquid Muse, not only designed a cocktail especially for the event — Pinky Confidential — but lined up a Dalmore Scotch tasting as well as sponsors Zaya Rum, Cabana Cachaca and Casa Noble Tequila. We were even able to score a hosted bar at the after prom party at Test Kitchen.

Pinky Confidential cocktail by heatherkincaid.com/blog

For the discerning beer drinkers, I invited eminent beerologists/authors, The Beer Chicks, to do a tasting. They were able to line up brews from local Eagle Rock Brewery.

Oh, and if you’re going to have booze at the event, always make sure to present your guests a safe way to get home. For this party, Y Drive LA set up a stand in valet and gave our attendees a 10% discount off the services.

8) Give prizes and gift bags! These are not necessary components for a good party but they are mandatory for an awesome party. What can I say, bloggers like their swag. And if they can win a valuable prize, too, well that’s just the icing on the cake.

This year, even though we cut our list of giveaway prizes from 36 to 19, all were still highly covetable. Heck, even though it was against our BPC rules, I still wanted in on the giveaway. La Descarga gift basket, Fred Segal Eyes designer sunglasses or The Edison’s Downtown Romance package? Yes, please! But no, I kept my name out of the bowl. In any case, since our event is for charity and bloggers, generous giveaway and gift bag sponsors weren’t too difficult to come by.

With the gift bags, we amassed a vast collection of goodies, which totaled $300 in value! And every bit of paper in that gift bag was worth something, be it a voucher for a free Sprinkles cupcake, a Manila Machine ube cupcake or admission to an American Cinematheque theater.

9) Get your guests’ feet moving. It ain’t a party if they can’t dance. Originally we were going to have a live jazz band play in the koi pond room to welcome our guests but the band canceled just a week before the event. What can I say? They got an actual paid gig. Fortunately DJ Steve, from last year’s prom, offered up his services again. And even though the jazz standards he spun weren’t exactly what our young bloggers knew how to dance to, the music brought our theme and venue to life.

10) Never be afraid to ask for help. This time we made sure to recruit volunteers. (Thanks to BPC’s ShopEatSleep for organizing them.) At last year’s prom, all of the BPC members were too busy making sure the party was running smoothly to even enjoy our own event. So we learned our lesson and asked friends, Tweeps and PR girls if they wanted to lend a hand. For one hour of work, they’d get a gift bag and two hours of fun. Seemed like an even trade.

In any case, we wouldn’t have been able to actually enjoy this year’s prom without them. Huge thanks to Dre, Christina, Chris, Sam, Sean, Stefani, Caleb, Bridgette, Tu and David! And shoutout to Goldstar and BPC member Happy Go Marni for handling the event’s donation page and ticket sales and to BPC’s HC for handling the Blogger Prom Twitter, Facebook page and event blog!

So that’s it. Thanks to all our guests for looking so gorgeous and taking part in what was a big night for us, the BPC. It made us feel good to see the fruits of our months’ labors come to life and be enjoyed in such a way.

Post Blogger Prom coverage
Blogger Prom Flickr Group
Official Blogger Prom photos by Heather Kincaid

* If you’d like to donate to Operation Frontline via Blogger Prom, you still can via this Goldstar page, through the end of October. Thanks!

Last night’s Neve Ice party at Osteria La Buca was like a blogger Tweetup. Build free, delicious cocktails and they will come. Heh. I arrived with ShopEatSleep and SocialDomainLA and ran into Food GPS, Teenage Glutster, marpop, SauceLA, Thirsty in LA, Squashblossom, inomthings and Eating LA. Craziness. We were all there to enjoy the cocktails created by Michel Dozois of Neve Ice and Steve Livigni of La Descarga.

There were four creations, but my favorites were the Eloper (Dimmi Italian Liqueur, vodka, lemon juice, melon juice, prosecco) and the Silenzio Dolce (Zaya Rum, Averna Amaro, blood orange juice, Nocello Walnut Liqueur, super fine sugar), which was named by the winner of my contest, @marissamed. Yay, Marissa! The Silenzio had a rim of sugar but surprisingly wasn’t as sweet as I thought it was going to be. At least I didn’t think so; others seemed to disagree and prefer Michel’s cocktail with the scotch and cynar. This I found a bit intense but the hard-core among us seemed to appreciate its bite.

Speaking of bites, there were some apps passed around like a squash blossom pizza and gnocchi, but I was really glad I had eaten before, else I would have just grabbed that dish of nommy gnocchi for myself.

The space where the party was held gave it a speakeasy vibe as it was located behind the Osteria La Buca restaurant where we had to enter through an alley. Apparently this space is going to be opened up in the future when it will become the new entrance for the restaurant and set up as a prosciutto and wine room, complete with hanging meats. Diners can order the meats to be sliced up tableside a la handmade prosciutto carts. There will also be a glass-encased pasta-making room for foodie voyeurism. Best part is that construction will take place during the hours the restaurant is closed so you can still dine here uninterrupted.

Osteria La Buca
5210 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90038 (map)
(323) 462-1900