By Mark La Monica
This is no . . . champagne . . . in the champagne room. Well, there is but it's locked away and beautiful guarder of the bubbly, Carolina, doesn't have the key.
Alas, after three days of recon, I finally put my olive oil voice and guinea charm to work and talked my way past the velvet rope into the party area of the Moet & Chandon booth inside the tents. Actually, it really wasn't that hard, but I want to appear more important than I really am.
Tonight's invite-only party will feature Moet's Brut Rose, which Carolina says is her favorite. Mine, too! Truthfully, with those eyes and that smile, she could tell me mixing tequila with strawberry milk and Gatorade tastes great and I'd be at the store four minutes later buying tequila, strawberry milk and Gatorade.
Inside the champagne room, which at the moment has no music playing, there is soft lighting with pink neon bulbs at the bar. It has the aura of a classy lounge where people such as myself would have to save up for eight months just to front for one night.
Roughly 96 champagne flutes line the bar and two side tables. Then there are 108 of Moet's signature tulip glass, which is only for private parties. It's a champagne flute, but the base is designed to look a like tulip and the drinker holds it from the stem. These, too, are pink. Along the wall, there are even more of these tulip glasses, creating a cool garden effect.
There's only one major problem: NO CHAMPAGNE!