There was more shine than swine at last night's Original Moonshine Shine & Swine party at the W Hotel. Not that we needed much more food after stuffing ourselves at the Burger Bash, but anyone expecting much food likely left disappointed. There was plenty to drink, however, as the W's pool cabanas were transformed into bars serving moonshine libations.
A peach julep got us started, the bootleggers punch made us happy but our favorite of the night was the shine blossom, a concoction of lavender syrup, lemon juice, chocolate bitters, lemon-thyme foam, angostura bitters and Moonshine.
We spotted chefs and TV personalities Jamie Oliver, Rachael Ray, Art Smith and Rick Moonen, hanging out in VIP cabanas. We eventually spotted some food, too. Servers with trays of a tasty medianoche sandwich created by master BBQ chef, Adam Perry Lang, tried to serve the sandwich to the crowd but they didn't get very far out into the pool before their trays were emptied. A better bet was to head to the station of Solea chef, Michael Gilligan, who served a pretty good confited cochinillo.
A little rain had the crowd seeking cover but as we knew, the harmless drizzle didn't last more than a minute.
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