Oh, What a Party! Mickey Style

There’s just something so speakeasy-cool about a party where you have to slip a secret password for entry. Welcome to Mickey’s Wine + Food Fest after party at Charleston Grill.

Guess the password got out because it’s packed. Platters of filled champagne glasses and speciality cocktails (ginger bourbon and fresh strawberry Gin Rickeys) are welcoming you everywhere you turn.

The energy feels physically thick, pulsating, and there’s the cause: Quentin Baxter and Friends. Quentin is absolutely on fire. Standing, dancing, swaying, grinning, hitting those drums again and again but never in an expected way. BOOM..swish..swisshh..tikka..tikka…BOOM. He’s positively electrifying and it makes everyone in the room giddy.

A glass breaks. Probably the only time in the history of Charleston Grill.

Chef Michelle Weaver gushes that the Grill’s dine-around was one of the “top 2″ experiences in her cooking career. Must’ve been one hell of a meal.

There’s Tyler Florence, deep in convo. There’s Daniel Boulud laughing with Terri Henning and group. There’s… Zorro? Seriously, why is that guy in a mask and cape? Someone asks to “show me your sword.”

The food is fantastic. Carving stations: pork belly and…well, who cares when there’s pork belly? A full blown oyster roast. A small dessert table with little buttery discs of deliciousness that are what benne wafers should taste like. Apparently some really good pretzels, since a grown man slips into a mini-depression and stares in disbelief – for an awkwardly long time – at the empty bowl.

Top Chef’s Ron Duprat (the big guy from Haiti who broke hearts around the world when he got the boot over his paella) tells us he’s Sean Brock’s “#1 fan.” Huge toothy grin. Then he talks about the devastation in Haiti where he’s just come in from, and says he’ll do whatever he can to come back and join the CHARLIE/Charleston Grill team to WALK FOR WATER on 3/20. Hearts break again.

Mickey Bakst looks like Fred Astaire the way he glides around that room, despite the fact he’s sicker than sin and just slept for 25 hours straight.

Flash bulbs start going off at a more frantic pace. An innocent non-chef-lebrity bystander shouts, “I’m not famous!” as he’s blinded by lights.

The dancing begins.

Wine + Food Fest: Day 2 comes to a close.

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Story by: Caroline Nuttall
Photos by: Karson Photography