Wiley Publishing had a book launch party for Sandi Henderson, Melissa Averinos and Anna Maria Horner during Quilt Market. It was held at this very cool restaurant called Cosmos in the Graves 601 Hotel (no connection to architect, Michael Graves).
Anyway, here is my pictorial essay of the event.
Here is the friendly staff setting up the drink luge. This one is a little more fancy than a traditional drink luge- they expect us to use glasses. (I had never heard of one before, but they run the alcohol through the ice block to chill it. In the extreme party version, you just drink off the ice block as it runs off. I wouldn't waste my time- a good old-fashioned shaker chills the drinks much better.) Note the candles to highlight the luge and in the lower right of the picture as table accents.
The restaurant created "signature" drinks honoring each author. I tried the Anna Maria, which was very good. I was tempted to try all of them, but since they were 99% alcohol, I decided I better tone it down a bit and continued with drinks that were only 50% alcohol. Note the glow of the candles reflecting in the menu.
Raise your hand if you knew where this was headed. Yes, a guest's scarf caught on fire as they filled up their glass at the drink luge. Caught on fire. Like flames. Her friend had to pull it off of her neck and stomp it out on the floor. Fortunately, the only thing injured was the scarf.
Though I've always said, "It's not a party until someone catches on fire", do watch your candle placement around your drink luge.
The victim's post-pyrotechnic giggle fit was priceless, too!
Posted by: Carla | June 14, 2010 at 03:03 PM
Hi Caroline...so glad I found your blog as you have the only photo of my poor scarf! What a night!!!! Being typical Aussies...all we could do was laugh about it. I am thankful that I wasn't hurt. Thank you for coming over and introducing yourself...it was lovely to meet you.
Posted by: Di | June 14, 2010 at 10:33 PM
Oh no! This is both a little funny and sad all at the same time. And, of course, you would be the one there to document it. ;-)
Posted by: Kelly | June 19, 2010 at 11:43 AM