April 28th 2017, I had the privilege of attending the National Restaurant Association’s reception “Toast to the First Amendment” party that honors the White House Correspondent’s dinner, L Street in Washington D.C.
Top media officials, congressional staffers and other notables were in attendance at the event.
Guests partied on the eighth floor of the National Restaurant Association office where the bulk of the party took place. At the top of the stairs, party-goers imbibed specialty mixed drinks and tried an assortment of gourmet beer at the bar.
Guests were also treated to a specialty cocktail made by acclaimed mixologist Zebulon Jones. For foodies, there’re only the finest. Separate rooms had mini tacos, sliders, and chicken lollipops. In addition, the dessert room had sweet bites as well as after-dinner cocktails and coffee. My personal favorite are the Pinot Noir Chocolate bonbons but I know many other attendees strongly fell for the tiramisus in a cup.
The weather was so cool and crisp at night, that much of the party convened by the balcony to partake in a rare liquor tasting sponsored by the Distilled Spirits Council. Guests were privileged to try the rarest and most expensive liquors in the world, including Johnny Walker Blue!
In addition, the Beer Institute took over a large alcove to allow guests to sample rare beers, including Bells Mars and Madam Rose! My personal favorite was this bright ale from the New England area. Other attendees told me that there was this one beer with an extremely high alcohol concentration– it was the perfect dare for newer attendees to try. I didn’t want to try though because I didn’t think I could handle that.
DC’s top media professionals from Washington Post, CNN, The Hill, MSNBC, senior Hill staffers, and staffers from the Trump Administration were in attendance at the party.
Conversation topics ranged from why white wine beats beer any day to why Unicorn shots are immature college aged drinks (some Hill writers were former bartenders). Liquor was the one topic most attendees seemed to chat the most about. And I can see why given that the NRA made sure attendees only drank what’s rare and highly sought after. Johnny Walker Blue, anyone?
Lets say that I learned more than I should that night!
The National Restaurant Association
The National Restaurant Association (NRA) is the largest foodservice trade association in the world*—supporting over 500,000 restaurant businesses. In partnership with state restaurant associations, they work every day to empower all restaurant owners and operators to achieve more than they thought possible.
NRA represent and advocate for foodservice industry interests—taking on financial and regulatory obstacles before they hit our members’ bottom line. The association provide tools and systems that help members of all sizes get significantly better operating results. And NRA offer the kinds of networking, education and research resources that are only possible because of our vast, and active, membership base.
