Vodka Tasting Evening

Yesterday was a wonderful July evening in Manhattan. One of the best restaurants in the city, "Russian Samovar" with the help of the public relations agency via3pr organized some Vodka-Tasting action for many well known citizens of New York as well as others, less known. To keep everyone entertained various competitions were organized centered around the most popular Russian drink- Vodka. In one game, the competitors had to taste four different flavors of vodka (cranberry, horseradish, peach, coriander) and guess the flavor of the vodka. Speed was a key factor in this contest and Oleg Sulkin, a well known journalist of the Russian newspaper Novoe Russkoe Slovo was clearly the winner. For his efforts he was awarded “Romance with a Samovar”, by Anatoly Nayman, a book written about the Russian Samovar. Other winners of the night included Dima Poyman, Arkady Milavsky, and Simon Kapilov who all received bottles of Vodka courtesy of the Kings Bay liquor store. Even though these were the winners, there were no losers, as prizes and gifts were awarded to all participants. After the contest, the contestants had to walk in a straight line and read letters off of a chart under the supervision of makeshift police officer Olga Shendrik who was wearing a very intriguing policewoman outfit. Later on, all were allowed to try the different flavored vodkas. For the invited guests a buffet table was organized and for this special night, vodka was available to all the guests.
The second half of the evening was equally entertaining as it involved the reading of poetry, some home-made, and others by well-known authors. The poetry was devoted to the Russian favorite drink vodka and other related activities. The well-acclaimed musician Sergey Pobedinsky sang and played guitar. Throughout the night guests were drinking Balinoff vodka as well as the flavored vodka and at the conclusion of the evening all guests were given mini bottles of Imperia vodka. In general the night went according to plan and was simply wonderful. All guests were overjoyed and promised to return to this great venue more often. The proud owner of "Russian Samovar", Roman Kaplan promised to arrange such parties again. At nearly midnight everyone went home with big smiles on their faces.