Although it feels a bit like picking a favorite child, this year’s Good Spirits ranks high in the nine years we’ve been hosting this annual all you can eat and drink event.
In addition to our lineup of close to 40 of our favorite food and drink vendors, our March 8 event featured a one-night-only Maison Premiere-Gramercy Tavern-Forthave Spirits collaboration, a cocktail-making competition and, in honor of the coinciding International Women’s Day, an all-women panel discussing gender in the drinks industry. Forgive us for tooting our own horns (and using low-hanging puns) but this Good Spirits set the bar high.
Gramercy Tavern (GT) bar manager Ben Howell and Maison Premiere bar director William Elliot (in the featured photo above) united their teams to take over Pier A’s Commissioner’s Bar to serve five unlimited and Good Spirits-only drinks including:
- Bijou: Angostura Orange Bitters, Green Chartreuse, Cocchi Torino, Monkey 47
- Diamondback: Angostura Orange Bitters, Green Chartreuse, Laird’s 7.5yr, Ragtime Rye
- Lis Tigré: Bitter Truth Celery Bitters, Lemon Juice, Lemon-Thai Basil Cordial, Forthave Marseille, Monkey 47 Gin
- Jubilee Stomp: Angostura Bitters, Ginger Syrup, Rapa Giovanni Liquore di Noci, Lime, Ragtime Rye
- Rookoobay Royale: Lemon Cordial, Forthave Aperitivo, Mumm
GT also passed around small plates, including shrimp-spiced sunchoke chips, green olive and fennel dip with herbed crackers, and Chartreuse-cured Arctic char with raw and pickled radishes.
Meanwhile on the top floor of Pier A, nationwide cocktail competition Speed Rack popped up to pit their bartenders—some of the best women in the drinks game—against Good Spirits attendees. Created and produced by Lynnette Marrero and Ivy Mix, Speed Rack celebrates trailblazing women in the cocktail industry while giving back to those impacted by breast cancer.
One of the most important events of the evening was an all-women panel conversation entitled “Spirited Women and Their Role in the Food and Beverage Industry.” Ivy Mix (Speed Rack), Lynnnette Marrero (ditto), Julia Ritz Toffoli (Women Who Whiskey), Lacy Hawkins (Monkey 47), Bridget Firtle (Owney’s Rum), Liz Neumark (Great Performances) and moderator Louise Newsome (Olde York Farm Distillery, Trade and Prosper and New York Distillers Guild) took to the noisy top floor to discuss their experiences as women in the drinks world. While there seemed to be generational differences, the panel generally agreed that although some progress has been made in recent decades, there’s still a lot of work to do for gender equality within the industry.
And in classic Good Spirits style, the near 400 attendees enjoyed until-supplies-lasted food and drink from a curated selection of some of our favorite vendors:
Alice’s Arbor • Almond • Beecher’s Handmade Cheese • Benares Restaurant and Caterers• Black Dirt Distillery • Bulleit Frontier Whiskey • Chartreuse • Cherry Point Restaurant • Claro • Doc Herson’s Natural Spirits • Forthave Spirits • Four Roses Bourbon Distillery • G.H. Mumm Champagne • Gramercy Tavern • Health-Ade Kombucha • Hiro Sake • Jack Daniel’s Single Barrel Collection • Johnnie Walker • JoMart Chocolates / Liddabit Sweets• Karasu • Maison Pickle • Maison Premiere • mŏkbar • Monkey 47 • Old Forester • Olde York Farm Distillery and Cooperage • Owney’s Rum • Prohibition Bakery • Rekorderlig Hard Cider • Sigmund’s Pretzels • Sombra Mezcal • Speed Rack • St. Francis Wine • The Fat Radish • Tommyrotter Distillery • Trois Petits Cochons • Woodford Reserve
It’ll be another year before the next Good Spirits rolls around, but subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to be one of the first to know when we announce early bird tickets for our next tasting event. Also stayed tuned to our calendar for events like an Industry City pop-up dinner with a James Beard nominated chef, our Food Truck Derby in the Hamptons and this fall’s Food Loves Tech.
