A quick update
As the end approaches of yet another month with no Oh Gosh! posts, I thought I had better provide a little update about some of the things going on over the past month or so, and a few upcoming items. I will refrain from making promises about forthcoming content this time around, but rest assured Oh Gosh! is far from dead and there is plenty of exciting stuff in the pipeline. Eventually.
First of all I should mention that I have been nominated for “best drinks writing” at the CLASS Awards 2010 – incredible when I look at the fellow nominees like Dave Broom and Jared Brown & Anistatia Miller. Clearly I don’t stand a chance against such esteemed writers, but just to be nominated is a huge honour and I think reflects well on the growing acceptance of cocktail blogs as more than just a few geeks making drinks at home. Thanks to everyone who helped me get nominated by reading and supporting Oh Gosh! over the past 3+ years.
Earlier this month I had the chance to attend Poland’s first real bar show in the style of BCB or Cocktails & Spirits, Bar Symposium Warszawa. Put together by friend of Oh Gosh! and writer of Polish cocktail blog Alkoteka.pl Tomek Roehr, the two-day event was incredibly well organised, with Tomek displaying a worryingly relaxed approach to organising his first bar show and a cast of international guests including Jörg Meyer, Stanislav Vadrna and Stephan Berg.
Poland’s bar scene is far less mature than that of countries like Germany and the UK, but bars like Paparazzi are helping lead the way and based on attendance of the talks at Bar Symposium Warszawa there are many Polish bartenders eager to learn and improve. A well put together bar show like BSW can only help accelerate the growth of the Polish cocktail scene and I look forward to seeing how the show, and Warsaw’s bar scene, develops after this impressive start. Na zdrowie Tomek and his team!
Looking to the future, tomorrow I am off to Germany, first for a few days exploring the bars of Cologne and then on to Berlin for my third Bar Convent Berlin. BCB is always an excellent show, from the traditional Traveling Mixologists unofficial welcome party on Sunday evening (this year at the very cool Bar Tausend) to the Mixology Awards ceremony on Tuesday that rounds off the show. Not to mention the many great bars that litter the streets of Berlin! I look forward to hopefully seeing some of you there soon…
Note: In the interests of full disclosure, parts of my trips to Poland and Germany were paid for by the show organisers.
Posted in Berlin, Out and about
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October 13th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Congratulations Jay on your nomination for the CLASS awards, you deserve it. Hopefully you will win it despite the tough, tough competition!