All throughout Cocktail Week, bartenders and spirits professionals will be sharing their weirdest bar stories. Up first: Nicolas Palazzi, an importer at PM Spirits:
Nicolas Palazzi: I walk into my hotel, late at night, having landed at about 10 p.m. or so. I need to relax. I don't stay at fancy hotels when I am traveling on business. But I don't sleep in my rental car either.
I am travel with liquor all the time but felt like it would be more relaxing to immerse myself in a place with some kind of a vibe even if it meant paying $20 for Maker's Mark instead of drinking my own stuff in my room. Elevator downstairs. Hit the hotel bar. A few tables are taken. Bar is wide open. I look at the list and get a brew (Great Divide). I try to make the most out of the well beaten path Bourbon selection on the shelf...Knob Creek. A Boiler-maker is a thing of beauty when a sip of beer chases the whiskey. I start looking at the TV, lost in my thoughts, letting the alcohol do its appeasing work.
At some point I can feel that the vibe has changed.
The bar feels all of a sudden busier. Somebody is sitting next to me. And something is once in a while pushing my right elbow. I switch my brain on, turn to my right and open up my eyes: Captain America, Batman, Spider-Man and Superman are sitting at the bar next to me. In this order. The Captain is wearing his plastic shield like a back pack which pushes my arm whenever he turns to his buddies.
We all left at the same moment. I share a ride with the Avengers to the 5th floor.
I didn't know anything about Comic Con until that night.
— Nicolas Palazzi
· All Coverage of Cocktail Week [~ENY~]
[Photo: Daniel Krieger]
