Recapping the Midnight Sun Shindig
Oh man oh wow oh man what a party!
Tons of people rolled into Brewer's Art last night for the Midnight Sun Shindig and the inaugural Best of the Best of the Best awards. We had Midnight Sun commenters. We had bar owners. We had bartenders. We even had some other bloggers there.
In short, it was wicked wicked, awesome awesome. At one point, both of the upstairs rooms at Brewer's Art were packed with people. WTMD gave away more than 40 gift bags in the first hour alone. And the Best of the Best of the Best awards were hits. The party raged from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m.
We had name tags made so people could know who was who. My worst fear was that everybody would sit by themselves and keep to themselves, but that didn't happen at all.
Here is a recap, complete with photos ...
Here, BA and eCommerceConsultant discuss the important issues of our day.
BA, who won the award for Best Elvis Impersonation, performed for us. It was glorious.
And I hear that eCommerceConsultant scraped himself off his couch this morning, still in last night's clothes. Classy!
I met the young woman in the middle but for the life of me can't remember who she is.
Anybody know?
To the right of this photo, Jason Zink (aka "Slinky Zink") receives his Best of the Best of the Best award, for "Best 'Who's on First' Franchise."
Zink slinked out after a couple hours, much to the chagrin of eCommerceConsultant.
I'm not really that tall -- I stood on a chair in a corner and conducted the awards ceremony. I'm sure the people eating dinner in the next room over loooooved me.
Midnight Sun Mixologist Evan (on
the right) brought some delicious green tea vodka and some of his trademark cringe-inducing bacon vodka.
Here, Evan and Crazy Joe (left) have just had a Jesus Pig. Remember the Jesus Pig? We did them at the last Midnight Sun get-together.
The Jesus Pig is a shot of bacon vodka dropped into a pint of Resurrection Ale and chugged.
As you can tell from the looks on their faces, Evan and CJ just loved it. Mmm.
For the record, this year's bacon vodka went down much easier than last year's. Good job, Evan.
Ron Furman, the owner of Max's Taphouse, got a kick out of his award.
Max's Tobacco Company won for Best Way to Skirt the Smoking Ban.
"I don't know if I should hang this up or not," he said.
Hee hee.
Thanks for coming, Ron. It was great to see you there.
Ron also told his awesome story about booking Hunter S. Thompson for a speaking gig back in the day.
This was a total surprise: Midnight Sun won Most Magnificent Blog of Them All!
I thanked God and Amie and my mom and everyone who has helped me earn this amazing award.
Gee golly gosh, what an honor!
Brendan from the Idle Hour and his girlfriend were tickled pink at the awards. Idle Hour won for Best In-House DJs and Picklebacks.
I'm going to post a list of all of the categories and all of the winners later today.
And now, dear friends, we have reached the end of our little photo gallery.
Thank you all so much for coming. I never dreamed that something as silly as Midnight Sun could become such a fun meeting place for bar-goers and bar-owners in Baltimore and beyond.
And thank you to the wonderful folks at the Brewer's Art for putting up with our shenanigans.
All of you have made Midnight Sun into what it is today, and I can't thank you enough for that.
Here's looking forward to next year! We might have to find a bigger bar.
(Photos by Courtney and Alexander D. Mitchell IV. Thank you both so much for shooting the party.)
Erik Maza is a features reporter at the Baltimore Sun. He writes for several sections of the Sun paper and contributes weekly columns on music and nightlife. He also writes and edits the Midnight Sun blog. He often covers entertainment, business, and the business of entertainment. Occasionally, he writes about Four Loko, The Block, the liquor board, and those who practice "
Comments
I'm really dissapointed I couldn't make it last night, but I had to fill in for a collegue in Washington, DC early this morning.
Sam, I really think you should try and keep these events going on a consistent basis; I don't feel they would die out, or get old.
Posted by: Mark Twain | March 6, 2009 1:14 PM
I accidentally left—escaped?—without re-tasting my piggy child. Apologies to Evan, who made one and took one for the team!
I can't believe I missed green tea vodka...
Posted by: Patchen | March 6, 2009 1:21 PM
Wish I could have come - maybe next time...Sam, do I see Jaques Kelly on the far left of that first pic?
Posted by: Dave the wave | March 6, 2009 1:43 PM
Dave, that was indeed Jacques Kelly.
I'll try and name all the people in the top photo:
Tom C, Jacques Kelly, Amy W., Idle Hour Brendan, Tyler, Al Shipley, WTMD Steve, Chris Furst, Allan, Fred Rasmussen, Jason Zink, Roommate Patchen and jmGiordano
I'm probably missing somebody, but that's most of 'em.
Posted by: Sam Sessa | March 6, 2009 1:51 PM
Thanks to mr. sessa for planning the best of the best of the best....best of the best of the best award party. see what i did there?
good meeting everyone. you can prob find me at brewer's quite often. my only question is: who is drinking that amstel light in that picture? Huh? Huh? come on...fess up.
*chuckle*
Posted by: ryan97ou | March 6, 2009 1:57 PM
Sam,
It was a great time and I forgot how nice Brewer's Art is!
We should do it again in another 6 months.
Next time at Lagers. It's full of sexiness overthere.
Posted by: Jason | March 6, 2009 2:06 PM
Definitely a good time. You should probably have these more often!
I'm in the top pic, too. Between Jacques and Al. Watching your shenanigans and wondering when you'd get down from that chair so I could get back to that table and eat more fries.
Thanks to everyone who took a DMFS CD and didn't punch me in the face for blatantly pimping my band!
Posted by: Ryan Graham | March 6, 2009 2:29 PM
The most important question is: How Sam is feeling this morn...afternoon?
Posted by: Sturmy | March 6, 2009 2:30 PM
Good eye Sam! I didn't even notice I was in that top picture til I saw my name on that list.
Wicked Awesome party indeed!
And if you missed out on the WTMD Swag Bag, let me know and we can arrange to get you one!
Next party, we'll plan ahead so you can make your own additions to the gift bags by sending me stuff a few weeks beforehand.
Posted by: Amy | March 6, 2009 2:30 PM
How do you stay so smart and yet so smart casual all the time.
Posted by: Shankman | March 6, 2009 2:35 PM
Great time! The Resurrections and Ozzies made my morning interesting to say the least... Looking forward to the next one!
Posted by: Chris | March 6, 2009 2:47 PM
Excellent party, Sam.
Great meeting everyone. I am glad no one was overty disappointed/shocked at my actual appearance. Now I won't have to go Phantom of the Opera.
Amy- I totally could not find you on my way out and as such have no swag bag. I demand swag!
Posted by: bryanintimonium | March 6, 2009 2:55 PM
Yeah last night was pretty frickin' awesome. I had some great conversations and met some great people and had an overall great time. I'm super enthused about my award too!
Equally enthused that everyone enjoyed the tea / cucumber vodka - now if only I can come up with a way to sell it legally................. dot dot
But I am never, never doing another jesus pig for the rest of my life. I was lucky enough to have the cash to take a cab home but dayamn, I am not feeling like the crown prince of awesome dudes today.
Keep on keepin' on you rad dudes and dudettes
Posted by: Evan | March 6, 2009 3:02 PM
Sausage fest
Posted by: JD | March 6, 2009 3:04 PM
i had enough trouble trying to keep the bacon vodka down, let along even thinking about doing a Jesus Pig. i had a great time though, and feel bad for missing the first one, if it was as much fun as this one.
Posted by: Allan | March 6, 2009 3:59 PM
Queen Colleen posted some photos too, on Facebook. Dig 'em
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/photo.php?pid=222048&id=1521310580&ref=nf
Posted by: Sam Sessa | March 6, 2009 5:12 PM
I had a great time. Thanks for putting the party together.
Sam - You have much energy.
Queen Collen - My GF said to me afterwards, "Why can't all women be as cool as her." high praise methinks.
Ecommerce - You remembered the drive?
Jason - Thanks for showing us around.
Evan - You should be supervised when when trying new things to infuse.
Formerly Anon, now eeyore, thanks to Jason. yea, I made friends.
Posted by: eeyore | March 6, 2009 5:15 PM
Good job Sam.
It was a good time. I second the notion to have these more often.
Posted by: Nikc Miller | March 6, 2009 7:58 PM
eeyore your comment/girlfriends statement made me very happy! :) I had so much fun meeting everyone! Good times! and Thank you!
Posted by: queen_colleen | March 7, 2009 3:32 AM