My oh Maille!
We’re suckers for a well made condiment. French gourmet mustard company, Maille hosted a private luncheon at Chez Nous on the 3rd Friday in June. Our first time at the cozy restaurant off Spring Street, we made our way up the narrow staircase to be seated with a window view of Payne Street. The polite waitress filled our glasses with chilled Chablis as we met the guests of honor: Charleston’s #FlavorHeroes Maille conducted a nationwide challenge encouraging individuals to share their creative dishes that include a product of Maille. The luncheon at Chez Nous was an effort to show appreciation for their creativity.
Chez Nous prepares a fixed menu everyday giving you 2 options for per course. I love it when restaurants get it simple. Tomato tart appetizer had a buttery crust full of sun ripened heirloom tomatoes.
Followed by a meaty perfectly pan seared snapper and seasoned potatoes. We finished the meal with a decadent chocolate cake with a fudge like center.
I slowly sipped traditional French coffee; just heavenly after the cream soaked confection. The good folk at Maille who accompanied us during the meal, sent us home with two of their signature products: classic mustard and dijon mustard.
We were inspired to craft a Dad friendly cocktail in the spirit of Father’s Day.
Daddy’s Day Off
1 Barspoon of Maille Dijon Mustard 1.5 oz of Highland Scotch 1 oz of Montenegro Amaro 1 Barspoon of In the Raw Agave .5 oz of Lime juice Garnish: Beef sausage, lime slice, Dijon Maille on a Spice Daneson toothpick Add ingredients to mixing tin. Shake passionately. Pour contents into rocks glass. Garnished with cooked beef sausage, lime slice topped with a dollop of Maille dijon mustard. Enjoy your cocktail Dad, you deserve it!
www.daneson.com
www.mailleus.com
www.highlandparkwhisky.com
www.amaromontenegro.com
www.cheznouschs.com
www.intheraw.com
Diner en Blanc Charleston – 2017
Just a picnic with a few hundred of your favorite friends. You bring all the fixings and the organizers of this secret dining event bring all the fun…
The concept is simple:
1. Assemble your dining party.
2. Assign tasks. (someone needs to bring the table, the chairs, flatware and of course, food.)
3. Wear white.
4. Meet at Unknown location.
Attendees are challenged to curate a meal and table-scape that lends itself to the ‘All White’ theme. Guest are required to wear all white, even their shoes. Outfits range from elaborate ball gowns to casual seersucker suits, very Charleston.
Some fashionable ladies used unique white headpieces to stand out in the crowd. We saw flower crowns, white beads, and even full masks. The creativity was impressive.
We danced until the last song; drinking One Hope wine and celebrating with new and old friends.
Top 3 Faves
- Amazing Black Diamond Band
- Couple coordinated outfits, so cute!
- Unexpected location in the heart of Charleston
www.dinerenblanc.com
http://charleston.dinerenblanc.com/
www.onehopewine.com
www.moet.com
Vita Images
Rules to Wearing Jellies
Oh jelly shoes. The thought brings back elementary school memories of badly strapped shoes made of cloudy opaque jelly that left imprints in your heels.
Fast forward to 2017, when manufacturers have revamped their approach to plastic shoes. Now fashion jellies can take you from the beach to the boardroom.
Below are tips to help you rock your new favorite pair of all purpose shoes.
- Buy the proper size.
This should be a no-brainer but consumers often purchase shoes expecting them to stretch. These shoes, my dear, will never expand. Do your toes a favor and get that size 9.
- Don’t lotion your feet.
I know, I know. The key to ultra soft feel is moisturizer but to avoid your feet slipping and sliding around in the shoe, insert a dry foot into your jellies.
- Recycle, Reuse, Reduce.
Our fashion jellies from Oka B slick rubbery surface allows us to easily wash away any stains and scuff for extended wear. Once we are ready to replace our Oka B’s with a new style, we can just toss the old pair in the recycling bin to be re-purposed into something else.
www.okab.com
Holiday Mix
The Holiday Season is upon us. Let’s celebrate with an evening of amazing food, great music, delicious drinking and lots of dancing! Come enjoy Southern food prepared by Charleston area chefs. and Beverages will be provided by local and regional craft breweries and distilleries while enjoying the company of new and old friends.
Live music and dj. Showcase of local artisans.
Ticket includes access to food and beverage tasting tables.
Food from Carolima’s, Chef Washington on Lavender Lounge, Chef JA Moore of Summers Corner, TR Creations, Hannibals and others.
Tastings from Hooch, Snafu Brewing, Bell’s Brewing and more.
A portion of the proceeds will be donated to a non-profit organization.
holidaymix.brownpapertickets.com
#EatDrinkMix
BevCon 2016
The Cocktail Bandits, were so excited to attend the first ever BevCon!! It took place at the Hyatt Place on August 21st through August 23 in Charleston, South Carolina. BevCon is a 3 day conference for beverage professionals by beverage professionals focusing on ALL THINGS DRINKABLE: coffee, soda, juice, beer, wine and spirits. It’s more intimate than most food and wine festivals, and is only for people in the beverage industry. This meant that classes were more in depth and business focused. Each day we learned about something or someone new in the industry, which is what this conference was all about.
Day 1.
The first day of BevCon, we took a morning Rum excursion around Charleston Harbor. It was incredible. Paul Yellin, from Cane’s Rhum bar curated some tasty bites to pair with our cocktails as Rum author, Robert Moss, gave us rum knowledge. It was a perfect way to start off the conference.
The opening event happened at High Wire Distllery, is where Angel Postell, the founder of BevCon spoke about the mission of this event. After the greetings and salutations, we were able to sample different foods and drinks, all while listening to live music. It was a hot day, but everyone managed to have a good time.
Day 2
Day two was the beginning of the seminars.
The very first seminar was about the definition of “craft”. This was an interesting panel that was comprised of 5 different business owners, all talking about what craft meant to them. A few of them wanted to get rid of the word, but the others appreciated the term because they felt their product is indeed craft. It was an interesting discussion.
The next seminar was called “Getting Inked”, which was a panel of influential media people such as Kat Kinsmen, F&B writer for Extra Crispy and Hanna Raskin, the F&B writer for Post and Courier. They were educating us bar professionals about different ways to get published. Some of their tips were; ‘to NOT overload Media inboxes with random press releases and to make sure whatever you want published has some relevance to the author or editor writing topic.’ What we found most interesting about this panel, was that there were NO social media influencers involved. It will be interesting to hear from the SOCIAL MEDIA perspective next year. Since that such a huge outlet for the Food and Beverage industry now.
The final seminar we attended on day 2, was a class called, “How Far You Can Twist a Classic?” This class discussed how a classic cocktail, the French 75, can be modernized, but still remain a French 75. Kat Kinsmen led this session, she has been on the hunt for French 75’s for the last 5 years! She has tried numerous renditions of this classic beverage and wanted show us two very different ways that 1 cocktail can be created.
She invited two Atlanta bartenders, Tiffanie Barriere, and Jenique Keyatta Holder-Mincey to create their versions of the French 75. Tiffanie created her CLASSIC cocktail with Cognac, lemon juice, and simple syrup, then topped with champagne. Jenique’ created her French 75 with a twist. She used gin, lemon juice, guava, and then topped it with champagne. Both were delicious and it proved that it is more than one way to create the same drink.
BAR TAKEOVERS
After the classes ended on Day 2 and 3, there were about 10 bar takeovers each night. We couldn’t make it to all of them, for obvious reasons, but we did go to Canes Rhum Bar, McCrady’s Tavern, Bar Mash, The Ordinary, The Grocery and Proof. Our favorite bar takeover was at The Rarebit with Tiffanie and Jenique. We had a great time with them, their cocktails were amazing, they played awesome music and the bar was packed! We danced there until they closed the spot!
Day 3
Day three was packed with seminars just like the other two days. What we enjoyed about the last day was the tasting room at the end of the day. This was not a conventional tasting session. There were over 30 different beverages to sample; and most of the special sips came from small companies. We were honored to sample some of the most exclusive brands.
FINALE
The final Bev Con event took place at the Windjammer on IOP. There was good food, cocktails and music ALL NIGHT! Angel Postell and her crew did an amazing job putting on the FIRST BevCon event in Charleston. We appreciated being around some of the best and brightest in the industry.
If you missed out on this fantastic event it will be back August 20-22, 2017. We will be back. We hope to see you there!
The Teal Drop Cocktail on LCL
The Bandits had a great time on Lowcountry Live this morning. We had the honor of partnering with the Center for Women and creating a Teal cocktail in honor of #wearteal day for GYN health and awareness. Encourage women in your life to learn more about her body.
For our craft cocktail, we came up with a simple, pretty cocktail called the “Teal Drop.”
THE TEAL DROP
1.5 oz vodka
.5 oz pineapple juice
.5 oz Blue Curaçao
Shaken and poured into glass
Topped with O and O Hooch
Garnished with lime
Use the link below to watch the full clip!
http://abcnews4.com/lowcountry-live/c4w-cocktail-bandits
Miss Naturally Crowned Charleston
Miss Naturally Crowned
On June 24th, History was made in Charleston, South Carolina. “Miss Naturally Crowned” was the First Natural Hair beauty pageant to come to the American Theater. Nine beautiful, black, natural women walked across the stage that night. We were so thankful to be in attendance, and happy to be a part of it.
Jessica and Maureen, have been putting on this event in Columbia for the last three years. They decided to create a pageant to fund a natural hair beauty supply store that they want to open in Columbia. They started the “Miss Naturally Crowned” franchise in December of 2013 and received an overwhelming response. It’s become one of the most creative, unique events to happen in the natural hair community. These besties/co-owners created a platform where women of color could be celebrated for naturally being themselves; that’s pretty rare and amazing to us. They also empowered women of color to be proud of who they are. We love that and were so thankful that they decided to bring this concept of Charleston, and allowed us to be proud judges of this special pageant.
This pageant, was about more than just being beautiful. Being a natural woman was very difficult for a lot of us in the beginning. It’s so empowering to see young women embracing who they are and the curls that grow out of their head; is simply beautiful. All the contestants were professional, educated and highly motivated. All nine have serious goals, hopes and dreams but don’t want to be judged by their hair. One great thing about this pageant is that the winner was able to take the prize money and apply it to their business. Quite the incentive considering most of the women who participated are entrepreneurs.
This year’s winner is Miss Paige Green. Paige is a social worker at her day job and the owner and operator of Paige’s Sweet Treats as well. She received $1000 to invest in her personal business. We were so inspired by this event and can’t wait to attend Miss Naturally Crowned Charleston, 2017.
www.naturallycrownedcharleston.com
Bubbly enthusiast and food blogger @basilandbubbly photographed our experience filming #MoveableFeast for national PBS. Read her blog to learn more about our curator Charleston feast!
http://basilandbubbly.com/2016/05/moveable-feast-cocktail-bandits/
CHSFW10 – Gwynn’s VIP tent
Every night of #CHSFW10 included a stop by the Gwynn’s VIP tent. Our good friends at Momentum PR worked the room all week. Those ladies made sure all the Charleston fashion lovers were comfortable and enjoying the festivities.
The only tent with food featured crabcakes and shrimp salsa from Lowcountry Bistro, 82 Queen and Swig & Swine. Dj Big Hair played lots of reggae music as fashion lovers enjoyed the open bar’s selection of Vodka, Bourbon and Champagne.
At the rear of the room hung a large screen where the runway show would be displayed. Great option for someone who wants to enjoy the party but isn’t that big into the fashions.
Lasered by Caruso
Hey ladies! Summertime is around the corner, and it’s time to get ready for those summer bodies. Caruso Aesthetics is the place for you. Gina the main aesthetician specializes and lasering all of that annoying hair away! She is very good with all women, but she specializes in women of color. Laser hair removal may also be the solution to some women who have annoying ingrown hairs and or hair bumps. It is even been proven to lighten up dark areas on extra melaninated skin. There is a fear that laser hair removal is painful, that’s not true. It’s mildly uncomfortable, but if you could handle a wax then you can handle the laser hair removal as well.
