Yesterday evening we went on a river cruise hosted by Paula of Paula's Texas Spirits and Janelle of the Femmetastics. Since we don't know Andy Roddick (a real tragedy), Lance Armstrong, or Sandra Whats-her-name, these groovy ladies will have to serve as Austin celebrities for us.

David and Joe on the boat with the REAL PAULA of Paula's Texas Orange

Paula has been producing Paula's Texas Orange (think Cointreau but fresher, brighter, and less expensive) for several years now and last year came out with her Texas Lemon (think Limoncello Lite, with a bright lemony flavor but not the syrupy viscosity--better for mixing). Since we are inspired more by stars of the bottle than of the court, Tour, or screen, Paula is our choice for local hero and friend.

After arriving at the wrong boat dock and delaying the departure of the party cruise, we finally boarded, imbibed, and began shmoozing. The first drink that we ordered from Paul, the other half of Paul and Paula, was called Hot Summer Night. It consisted of vodka, Paula's Texas Lemon, lemon juice and honey muddled with thyme, topped with Sprite. On this particular hot summer night, the drink hit the spot. Created by Mirjana “Mindy” Kucan of Austin, the drink won first prize at a recent cocktail competition in New Orleans (the week before we were there for Tales of the Cocktail), sponsored by Hilton-Doubletree and judged by Tony Abou-Ganim. As the party cruise was ending last night, we had the pleasure of meeting Mindy. My less-than-graceful and perhaps slightly sycophantic introduction sounded something like, "Um, hi, can I meet you?" It turns out we had already met her other half and we all had a great conversation about the not-so-great state of the cocktail in Austin, and what we can do to fix it. Thanks to Paula and Janelle for a great time, and a big shout-out to Mindy and Paula for working to put Austin on the mixology map.

Joe with Mixmaster Mindy at the boat dock