Behind the Bittersweet Curtain
Snapshots of this Week's Amaro Classes at Accademia Dante
Behind the Bittersweet Curtain
As part of the year-long celebration of the 110th anniversary of Caffé Dante, I was invited to host an amaro class at Accademia Dante, the new event space next door. When I announced the class here on LAST CALL it quickly sold out and a second date was added for the following day, which also sold out. My two-night home stand on MacDougal Street wrapped up last night and I wanted to share some snapshots and behind-the-scenes story of all the bittersweet action.
Grazie mille to Dante owners Linden Pride and Nathalie Hudson for hosting me along with Rodrigo Octávio Leme, Eloy Pacheco, and the entire team at Dante for their longstanding hospitality and support of my work. While not yet officially confirmed, I have a feeling I may be back at Accademia Dante in the near future for another round of talks and tastings.
Each “Demystifying Amaro” event was capped at 14 guests, ten around the bar in courtside seats (sitting in brand-new padded bar seats that arrived just before the first event) and four at small tables (“box seats”).
My self-appointed call time was 3:30 p.m. On the not-so-glamorous BTS side of things, even via ride-share it was a proper schlep into the Big City from Brooklyn Heights as I was weighed down with my usual messenger bag along with two very heavy boxes of books, a Campari-branded tote packed with a half-dozen “suitcase bottles” from my collection, and a shopping bag filled with some merchandise kindly sent from Cynar destined for the goodie bags.