Friday Funday with Cocktails...

Sorry it's late Sunday before this post went up! We had SO much fun on Friday with the Friday Cocktail Testers Brigade... and now I have the beginning of a movement. In addition to what you're about to see, I have a list of friends who have more to offer! I even have a friend who has several vintage cocktail books and he wants to plan a get together so we can mix some long lost cocktails and post them with actual recipes on a future blog... STAY TUNED for that!!! But now for Friday's results... Hope you feel the fun these pics and their stories conjure. BTW - remember we walked and honestly didn't over-indulge... well maybe a tad, but I never had to dive out of the way of the proverbial bus...

Jake and Me

Yes, we had fun... hoping you did too... seriously, life can be tough, times can be challenging, and we only get this life to live once, so here goes... Friday Night Cocktail Testers Brigade take one...

Acai Basil Gimlet

This amazing cocktail is a special creation of Randy, bar tender extraordinaire at Jake's Ready to Eat restaurant in Palm Springs - a quick 5 minutes from the Loft; yes, we did have to cross the street, but this was our first drink, so speeding buses weren't a problem...

Randy- bartender - Jake's Ready to Eat

Had a great time at Jake's - plus met some new friends at the bar... one lady (Mary Jo) I had passed several hours earlier on the street while walking home from the gym, and VIOLA, there she was at Jake's... I tweeted her pic to my twitter because she was a BLAST! (hope you'll consider following me at http://twitter.com/#!/PBwineconnect).

As if Randy wasn't fun enough, our next stop was just across the street at another FANTASTIC Palm Springs restaurant... Trio. We tend to bob between these two "Loft" walkable restaurant/bars. Yes, we did have to cross the street to get to this one, but we used restraint at Jake's knowing we had more work to do!

Amie - bartender - Trio

Amie is the bar manager at Trio and has several fun drinks she's designed; the one she's holding is called Black Widow - we know it has Chambord and Vodka, but after that... hmmm?

Amie pointing to El Pepino (cucumber, tequila, refreshingly delicious) thingy...

Then while sipping our dangerously delish Black Widows, Amie arrived baring gifts - her latest cocktail lab creation... something using Tequila and cucumbers... THAT GIRL knows how to mix em!!!

Meanwhile, while we were doing our work, friends were playing too.

Voodoo Juice

Our friend Robert was in Denver... and he got into the spirit of Friday Night Cocktail Testing with this crazy looking concoction... I REALLY hope he wasn't driving after this rum-soaked beast...

It seems Colorado was a happening place on Friday, another of our good friends Eric sent us this pic.

Eric and his brew

Eric is one of Jake's best friends (and happily mine too) and lives in Jake's home state of Colorado. Ok, so it's not a cocktail, but he was saving his power alcohol consumption for his Saturday night one year anniversary with his partner - oh and THEY always cab it!

Meanwhile, more was going on in the first ever Friday Cocktail Testers Brigade...  Brice and Jasmine in Temecula are always up to a cocktail challenge... oh and to qualify the next picture... Brice rides a Harley, and Jasmine's hair isn't naturally blond...

Sailor and Coke in 44 oz Plastic Purple Tumbler

Not really sure what this is, but it's in a plastic purple cup that matches the color of Brice's Harley, so you draw your own conclusions... 

Meanwhile, our Loft neighbors Jeannie and David invited us for cocktails on Saturday (not technically Friday, but aren't rules meant to be broken?) Jeannie is a FABULOUSLY charming tee-totaling bartender wanna be (you should see that girl gulping her ginger ales as she plies with her concoctions!) She's working through a book of cocktails she recently bought, one cocktail at a time... her favorite shopping excursion is BevMo. Thankfully, the only walking we have to do for this neighborhood watering hole is down our stairs, then outside and up their stairs... no bus worries here!!!

Jeannie-Tini with edible Hibiscus Flower in the glass!

OMG - Thankfully we had this on Saturday... had we had this after Randy's and Amie's offerings we NEVER would have appreciated it the way it deserved, and if this wasn't enough, there was more....

Trout and Sour

Jake had to cut me off after one (or was that three?) WOW, and don't you love the fun glass... that Jeannie knows how to do her cocktails!!! Sadly, we couldn't stay and drink through her entire cocktail book in one night, so after Jeannie-Tinis and Trout and Sours and yummy salmon dip and (my personal junk food crack) Lay's Potato Chips, we headed back down stairs and up again to the Loft.

Once home, I realized I had a bowl of Corona Limes provided by a good friend (and blog follower) Ruth. She was hoping I'd do something fun with them, so I presented Jake with his own cocktail concoction challenge, and BOY did he rise to the challenge with panache!!! He whipped out my beloved book The Flavor Bible and did his research...

Jake's Lime Ginger Fizz Martini

And this ended our fun "wine-free" weekend... Next Friday can't get here soon enough... hope you all plan to start playing... just make sure to stash some cab money for that ride home!!!