During New Orleans’ tenth annual Tales of the Cocktail—a celebration that began July 25 and will last until July 29—over 20,000 bartenders, booze makers, spirits journalists, and libation enthusiasts have gathered in the Big Easy for five days of seminars, tasting sessions, competitions, lunches, and dinners. But although this may sound like a typical cocktail festival, the party involves more than just eating and drinking. This past Tuesday, a group of 70 Tales attendees volunteered to spend the day scrubbing, painting, organizing, and cleaning the KIPP Renaissance High School in East New Orleans. For the third year in a row, the Bon Vivants, a San Francisco-based events and bartending team, has put together this charity event as a means of giving back to New Orleans, a city they have come to love over the past ten years through Tales of the Cocktail. In addition to putting in the manual labor, the Bon Vivants are also giving back by doing what they do best: throwing a party

For the second year in a row, we asked photographer Michael Harlan Turkell to document the tipples, toppers, and mint-flavored merriment of Derby Day at Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. Click here to see the photos.

For Sarah Simmons (Food & Wine magazine’s Home Cook Superstar and Southern-born expat) and her business partner Jeremie Kittredge, opening a culinary salon was about bringing a southern love of dinner parties and supper clubs into a crowded, often gritty big city. (
You may remember this dinner we wrote about last year.