Not the same old bottle....

Tom is always bringing home little surprises here and there and most of the time it is a unique bottle of something. The bottles have been everything from voss water, cool vodka, a one of a kind beer or today's little surprise, tonic water. I am not sure where this little hobby of his came from, but it is just one of the millions of things I fell in love with.

I am all about jazzing up your bar for parties. Your bar should be treated like a decoration. Besides, it is usually the most popular spot at parties...why not play it up a little. For starters, choose a variety of glassware, offer up different mixers and garnishes (mint, raspberries, etc..) and try and choose bottles that are good looking and appealing to your guests!

Look how much better the tonic water on the left looks compared to the bottle on the right. I opted for a vodka tonic tonight after this cute little bottle surfaced from the grocery sack!

This vodka is in the same price range as my dear friend, Mr. Grey Goose, but it is a "small batch" vodka made in the United States and recently won best vodka at the San Fransisco World Spirits Competition. Now, I do not expect your guests to know this, but I bet they will be intrigued with the new look of your bar.

One of Tom and my (okay..not really mine) favorite stops in Atlanta is Green's liquor store. They have every kind of liquor and beer you could ever dream of. Seeing the thousands of different kinds of beer made me think about having a "beer bar" at my next party. You may remember one of my first posts about my obsession with dessert bars...well I guess you can say I am still stuck on the "bar" idea. I am not really a huge beer fan, but I love the thought of changing the beer scene up a bit.


See how lame the Budweiser and Bud Light look next to the Dos Perros and Session bottles. The guys would love getting to choose different beers throughout the night. I am envisioning 5 or 6 different kinds of beer iced down in different buckets on a table. You could even do some cool signage telling everyone about the beer and where it came from....kind of like a beer tasting. Alabama recently passed a law which allows stores to sell beer with a higher alcohol content. This means we now have a much larger selection of beers from unique and boutique breweries to choose from. While a trip to Green's will forever been in our future, we can now pick up some pretty cool bottles right here in our own city.

One other bottle idea I have for tonight...Why not wrap up this super cute surprise Tom brought home tonight with a bottle of lemon vodka, a lemon and some yellow cocktail napkins. Who would not love a "fresh" vodka tonic package. This would be a very cute hostess gift for a summer cook-out or stock the bar party. It would also be fun to take to someone who has invited you down to the their lake for the weekend.

I wish I had some cute napkins, cellophane, a whole lemon and ribbon to show you how cute the package could be...but this was the best I could do with what I had tonight.

Happy Planning!

-NB