Meet your 2012 Tales Ambassadors!

Since Kirk Estopinal and Neal Bodenheimer opened Cure and became the Pioneers of Freret Street, the once desolate stretch between Central City and Tulane (my alma mater), is now home to quite a few restaurants and businesses. 

Kirk Estopinal and Neal Bodenheimer
are the 2012 Ambassadors of Cocktails.
Tales of the Cocktail starts July 25!

In an renovated fire house, they have essentially brought the craft cocktail center stage in the New Orleans arena. With nearly 1,000 bottles of highend booze lining the shelves behind the bar and upon entering, it's a who's who of brands you know, many you don't and some that have long been out of production, like Ojen. 

Sitting at the bar at Cure is like going to the coolest school around. These are the professionals. And luckily, they are hold up in New Orleans for the duration, keeping the natives sated and the visitors impressed. 

Tales of the Cocktail is their busiest week of the year, and has become literally the Super Bowl of the international cocktail community. In recent months, Neal and Kirk opened Bellocq in the Hotel Modern in Lee Circle. Between the two locations, their desire to attend seminars, parties and spirited dinners with their industry peers, they will be operating on little or no sleep. 

In the real world, I'm the VP of Communications for the Louisiana Restaurant Association. For the Summer issue of the LRA magazine, I interviewed Neal and Kirk for the Beverage Beat article, Ambassadors of Cocktails, yes, there's such a thing. And anyone who knows me can guess what the next line is...As an ambassador of Tales of the Cocktail myself, they certainly make me proud given what the two have accomplished. They have raised the profession of bartending considerably. It's not just slinging drinks to these gentlemen, they are true craftsmen.