Tag Archives: manhattans

MIMM: Holiday Cheer!

The winner of my giveaway for a Blue Nile Sterling Silver Branch Necklace is actually the first person who submitted any entries – Shawna! I will be contacting you to get your shipping address. Congrats to all who entered and thank you for the enthusiastic participation!

I had plans this past weekend for not one but two holiday parties. Unfortunately Saturday’s snow resulted in one of them getting cancelled but I still managed to make my weekend full of plenty of marvelous holiday (and overall) cheer.

Be sure to link-up with Katie if you’re participating in Marvelous In My Monday today!

Marvelous is…visiting Kaitlin on Friday! She was kind enough to host me for the evening and showed me a wonderful time. We started with a gift exchange…she got me a set of champagne flutes and a bottle of Prosecco, not to be opened until I move out of my parents’ house and get my own place 😉 my kind of motivation! The booze theme proceeded to carry on throughout the evening.

We went to Total Wine in Norwalk (which only made me more pumped for FL this month because there’s one by our condo) and they were having not one but two wine tastings AND a vodka tasting. Thank you Friday night! I’m worse in liquor stores than most girls are in Target so I walked out with two bottles of late harvest dessert wines, a nip of coffee liqueur, and a really nice Cabernet to share with Kaitlin at the holiday party we planned to attend later. I also ran into a fantastic guy named Latif who overheard me asking an employee if Total Wine carried Cesca Vicent, my favorite red to order at Barcelona. We immediately bonded over our love for Cesca and Barcelona! It was classic.

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Tasting Tuesday: Whiskey With Dad!

Barcelona Wine Bar in West Hartford, my favorite restaurant for events lately, set my excitement at a whole new level when they added a whiskey tasting class to their calendar for Monday, April 8. I was subsequently devastated when the class was cancelled due to a staffing shortage (I understand the need to staff the bar for all customers above the class) but said devastation lasted but a few seconds because when Exec Chef Alex Feldman informed me of the cancellation, he followed up with an invitation to come in on the same night, sit at the bar, and engage in a private whiskey and tapas tasting with one of the restaurant’s best bartenders, Emily!!! That way she could still work the bar AND I’d still get to do a tasting. Alex is a genius, both culinary and logistical!

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The Manhattan which served as the grand finale…but I’ll get there.

My dad had never been to Barcelona (my mom still hasn’t been) believe it or not, and I adore showing my parents new restaurants that I already know I love, so I asked him to join me. I got my love of whiskey (my favorite spirit) from him after all, so he seemed an appropriate dining companion!

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