Atlanta, St. Patrick's Day - anyone around?

Hey folks, I’m headed to Atlanta for the annual Bordeaux tasting at Mark Taylor’s (the highlight of my wine-year!) and I arrive Friday night - St. Patrick’s Day. Anything to do that night? Any chance for a mini-offline?

UPDATE: 3/17/17 @7:30 pm at Terra Terroir

I daresay we can probably come up with something!

What is your planned arrival time?

waiting

Hey! Cut an old man some slack. The morning caffeine has worn off, the post lunch nap urge has kicked in, and I’ve had about 2 minutes to think about it. [pwn.gif]

What is your anticipated schedule? And what general area will you be in? Any general preferences to work from?

Worst case we gather at the wine storage location in Buckhead, bring in noshes, and take over the tasting room. Been known to be a pretty good evening, that.

I will see about tapping some of the other locals for interest in joining in.

I arrive at 5:53pm, staying at AC Hotel in Buckhead, so Buckhead would be wunderbar for me.

Working on options and have reached out to at least one other person.

I take it that that is a flight arrival time. Working from there, best case you will not be able to be anywhere before 8. Let’s use that as a beginning time and go from there.

Watch this space.

Wow, two hours to get from ATL to Buckhead???

Well, Malcom does like to hitchhike to save on MARTA fares [wink.gif], but you’ll probably do a bit better. Expect 20 minutes from arrival to the curb. Uber/Lyft are now above board at Heartsfield. But it is heart of Friday rush traffic, so your appetizer course will be a gruel.

We’ll put heads together.

I understand it’s Friday rush hour, but wouldn’t think two hours on that, wow. Are there carpool lanes, so I could take an Uber/Lyft carpool to save on time? I’ve taken MARTA before, it’s pretty slick - that would likely be much faster at that time?

If you have a checked bag, allow at least 20-30 minutes to fetch it from the time the plane gets to the gate. Even without retrieving a bag, it can take anywhere from 10-30 minutes to get from the concourse to the main terminal depending on where you finally arrive.
If you are getting a rental car, allow at least half an hour to get it - even with the premier club memberships.
Drive time from the airport to Buckhead is about 20-30 minutes assuming no traffic backups (not a wise assumption on a Fri evening, St Pat’s Day will not help that much. Google maps shows it at 28 minutes).
Figure 30 minutes to check in at that hotel, drop a bag, and get anywhere nearby (the stretch of road in front of the hotel is usually a bit congested)

Even if I am overestimating, it will still not be a quick jaunt from the airport. Traffic on “the downtown connector” where interstates 75 and 85 merge and run through the center of town is notoriously backed up during rush hours. Those can extend beyond 7PM in bad cases.

There are good reasons the Atlanta interstates are called “The World’s Largest Parking Lot”.

Be honest. I have waded in fountains to steal coins to pay a fare when I could not finagle a free ride. neener

No rental car, and I’d only have to check a bag if I have to bring wine - depends on what our plans are as to whether or not I check. I wasn’t planning to, but then again, I wasn’t planning on putting this out there. Glad I did, as it appears to be a potential get-together!

MARTA is actually an excellent idea into Buckhead on a Friday evening.
35 minutes could get you to Brookhaven station right across the street from Terra Terroir, and a three minute ride afterwards to your hotel.
I had a couple of other thoughts, but Malcom mentioned TT, which I can get us free corkage at for sure. Somm/part-Owner there is great.
They sometimes do special occasion events -they did a Valentines Day one - but don’t show anything about St. Patty’s on their site.

Any place doing an Irish Whiskey tasting? :wink:

Well, I could arrange an excellent Scotch tasting.

:slight_smile:

Course, maybe that’s for breakfast…

You really need rigorous training for Mark’s event.
[training.gif]

The dress code will be informal (sorry, none of you rates my putting on a tie) with WB Pin. Kind of a moral imperative at this point to sport the pin.

We have a dress code but not an event/time/location?

We’re working on it!

(All the patience of a boiling tea kettle [beg.gif]