Quick someone ring the alarm! Whew…I have not partied like that in quite some time. Vodka Vodka the charity event benefiting Forgotten Harvest. It was a very good time. 

I do have to say first that Detroiters really know how to play. We work hard for our money and you bet that bottom dollar we show it when the time comes.

A great time was had by me personally because of a few friends so shout out to Lisa, Pati, Pat, Donna, Tracy and her friend Ed and new acquaintance Betty and her husband. There were also several dance partners last night and I can only recall one LJ the rest were after a few of the free vodkas so they kind of blurred together (Yippie!!!!!!).  And yes there will probably be photos of me holding drinks on the internet. It was a vodka party. Get over it.

The Metro times has a few events this year and I plan to attend at least another two or three myself. I could be persuaded to get to more. But one has to sleep. 

Let’s start with the food… No… The FREE food! The best offering was from Svedka vodka. The ONLY all natural vodka. and it was very good (both the food and the vodka). They had pulled pork mini burgers with a raspberry vodka bbq sauce. YUM! Thank You Svedka. I was given this mixed drink at Svedka which was very good, and I might add that cherry ties into Michigan, cherry chocolate martini. This was something to have at hand at home on cold Michigan nights when you just gotta have something chocolate to warm you up.

And offering a burger as filler for a room full of drinkers was not only good eating but helpful. Their food was the only really worth mentioning at length.

There was also an extremely wise choice of bruschetta served, but as my bag with all my cards in it was missing at the end of the night I don’t remember who was responsible for that. It was yummy and a great choice for a vodka party.

There was a Michigan bean salad that included a side of whole grain bread, but it was cold and beans on top of a quart of vodka leaves lots of cleanup for the crew in the morning. Nachos are a nice thought but I have to lean with the comment about beans and cleanup. Best food to serve, and bars know this, with liquor are things that soak up that alcohol, pretzels, chips, breads, and if you want to be super then sandwiches are top of the food chain with large quantities of drink. Tons of variety of bruschetta would also be a fine decision for next year. Can we say waitresses with trays of hors dourves walking around that would have been a more ideal way to serve food and employ a few extra people also.

Sugar also is wonderful under normal circumstances, but after the first dessert like tasting of the night, a pleasure I might add or chocolate raspberry vodka truffles and lemon vodka truffles, oh so good, but your taste buds kind of don’t care what it is after a while. By the time I tried the raspberry chocolate something or other cake with something or other vodka frosting it became just that something or other.

I am sure I live in metro Detroit and I darn well know we can cook up a storm here. But reminding me at an event where I may not be able to keep your card and after a while the event itself causes me to forget who made what fancy thing. The only thing I remember is shot, pulled pork, shot, pulled pork, shot, pulled pork. It’s the only way to keep the machine going. So buy Svedka for your next party to remember. Because if you drink this vodka you are a person who must have fun but responsibly.

A side note here. It was nice and thoughtful of The Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Company to be there right by the door with fresh brew for the party goers. A sobering reminder to sober up before you tried to leave. They are also fair trade.

I am a straight vodka drinker (albeit a seldom drinker) and as such there were two vodkas that stood out for me Valentines vodka. Straight up it was a full flavor with a burn when it hit your mouth and no burn on the way down. I got a delayed reaction from it so when you are drinking the very nice Valentines vodka please wait a few minutes for it to kick in. It fooled me because of the lack of burn on the way down. Excellent for shooters. And hand distilled in Michigan. For the small gathering of real vodka connoisseurs.

There was another vodka that drank like water, but it had that kick and super fast. So if you ever wanted to try straight vodka but never have or don’t like straight alcohol at all try this one. Drinking this straight will amaze your party friends. Look like a tough Russian kicking back a few shots of straight vodka. True North hand-crafted in small batches using local ingredients, and you can’t beat the lake water of Michigan. This choice would be mine for the newbie straight vodka drinker for the reason of no harsh alcohol burn. And for regular vodka drinkers, beware, serving this in mixed drinks at your next party will lead to dancing on the ceiling. So if you want your party written up as a great time had by all in the society section then serve True North.

Now for the criticism.

Now keep in mind I am available and seeking a wonderful group of people to work with. I live in Michigan after all. And Sherry was a lifesaver of understanding and the rest of the Metro Times crew rocked, it is hard to keep a happy room sometimes when there is lots of drinking going on and they did it. So kudos the the MT staff.

BUT… on the event itself.

1. If you are going to have a drinking event. Forget the kitschy Russian rubles pass out tickets. And you would be required to turn one in for each drink. Only Grey Goose marked my rubel once. I had 5 drinks last night. Other people commented on the same thing. You don’t need that much to drink in 4 hours. 10 tickets would have set the biggest man up for a drive me home time. There were people telling me they had lost count at 12 drinks and they got there late.

2. Coat check. First thing when we walked in the door we were like “we are going to drink free vodka and have to watch our coat?” not good for the mingle.

3. If you are going to give out swag bags at the end of the night DO NOT allow people to walk up to the table and take them earlier. One person did – another did and then they proceeded to tell people go ahead I did, just walk up to the table and get one. Not a problem ordinarily but when you mix bags and drinking, there were people just picking up bags off of tables. OK lesson in manners is needed here. If a bag is on a table it belongs to someone. If you are not sure if it is your bag DO NOT be too drunk to look in it and remember what your had before walking off with it. The t-shirts in your bag were purchased by someone. So if you got a t-shirt in your bag chances are you just grabbed someone’s $10 shirt and walked off with it. Also mine was one of them and my eye glasses were in that bag. Please return them contact me or the Metro Times offices. You can keep the shirt. It will be appreciated.

4. The DJ sucked! And when going to ask if he had anything else to play besides techno I was told that they hired him because he plays what he wants, not what the crowd likes to hear. FAIL ! So he turned the volume up so high playing his techno people could have gone deaf(er). What did he think we could not hear him and that was why people weren’t dancing? Really? IT WAS BECAUSE THIS WAS IN LARGE PART NOT A TECHNO CROWD!!! So after a while he decided that he would play Prince and upon the first spin of that record the people trickled up onto the dance floor. So then he played 2 more Prince songs followed by a Michael Jackson song, rinse and repeat. Are you kidding me.

Now for the critique on the marketing, because that is what I do. I take things and make people happy to experience them.

Svedka your website needs to lose the flash. And what is up with the Robot? Who convinced you to spend all this money on this strange campaign. The vodka itself is great and it’s the only vodka able to say on the bottle all natural. Honestly, I could not even bring myself to link to one of your billboards it was like what?

Valentines vodka. Great idea to grab a small spot and pass out shots. But I had to ask for a complete ounce. 10ccs of vodka just wasn’t going to do it. And that was a little, um, frugal of you. And for having the best high end straight vodka you should have had a free flowing fountain of it (not really but lots of it).

And now a word about a sponsor. Not a vodka company. Vitamin water was great, but Red Bull, I got home and gave my kid the Red Bull and he noticed that in 3 days they would be expiring. Now expiring things as freebies are usually ok but not at a top level event like this one was. That was kind of tacky and I just had to say that because my kid did. And if the kids are laughing at you then you know you made a slight gaffe.

OK. so all in all it was a 7 on a scale of 1-10 for mass party/charity event. Could have been organized a little better but all in all a really good job. It was, after all, the MTs first Vodka Vodka. When is the Whiskey Whiskey?

Image by molotalk via Flickr