A taste <strike>of</strike> at home

While delicious, restaurant tasting events aren't always comfortable, as you're surrounded by people you don't know, and most restaurants just taste like stucco anyway. Now enjoy tastings in your own home, with Host a Toast.

From two ladies with a combined 20yrs of experience in the food 'n booze biz (from local catering, to working for Moet), Toast creates at-home tasting seminars in which gourmet eats are paired with multiple varieties of a particular booze, resulting in a night your guests “will always remember”, assuming the night's booze is O'Doul's. Notable packages include:

Scotch with Small Bites and Cigars: Learn how John Walker began his empire in Scotland while tasting five of the labels that bear his name. Blue's paired w/ a fine cigar, while a gingered sea bass accompanies a pearled lemon/Red cocktail called the "Zinger", which when you're finished, is exactly what you'll consider even the corniest joke is.

Tequila and Ceviche: "Open your eyes to a high-quality tequila" (but not literally, as that burns and can actually cause lasting damage) with this Don Julio-fueled bundle in which they'll craft you one specialty cocktail for each of the three tequila styles (blanco, reposado, anejo), and pair each with its own ceviche.

Chandon and Local Fare: Get walked through the five members of the Chandon family (from Brut Classic to Blanc de Noirs), accompanied by bites of "floribbean" spiced salmon medallions and lemongrass chicken satay, all of which is sourced locally for a "DC flare", aka what Georgetown girls think they need to carry when going out on U Street.