Alcohol and Elephant Pillows at the Republican National Convention

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/us/politics/scene-republican-national-convention.html

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CLEVELAND — New York Times correspondents are chronicling the colorful, the unusual and the quirky at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

Donald J. Trump does not drink alcohol, and Gov. Mike Pence of Indiana refuses to imbibe if his wife, Karen, is not around.

Republican conventiongoers seem to lean otherwise. If in need of a nip — and really, who could blame them after the chaos that erupted on the floor on Day 1 — they don’t even need to leave the secure perimeter to get one.

The outdoor bar right outside the Quicken Loans Arena starts pouring the booze at 11 a.m., and the most popular drink by far, those who tend it say, is a vodka-infused Arnold Palmer, made with sweet-tea vodka. The bar crew is also serving plenty of Tito’s Vodka, made in Texas, and, of course, Ohio’s favorite: craft beer, which is brewed all over the state. The excited patrons lined up at lunch Monday, pairing the Arnold Palmers with barbecue sandwiches.

Texas delegates are easy to spot every time, with their flag-themed shirts, big old hats and footwear ranging from plain brown ropers to heavily decorated ostrich-skin numbers.

But other states do their best to make a fashion mark. The delegates from Montana are outfitted with custom jean vests, and by consensus, all pair the vest with a different color shirt each day. Monday was red.

Conventions are a prime opportunity for host cities to show their flair, and popcorn and chocolates notwithstanding, no vendor within the convention perimeter has anything on Wool and Willow Needlepoint.

The local retailer — 11 years in the area — pulled out all the stops for its pop-up shop near the arena, featuring painted canvases for needlepointing all manner of pillows, Christmas stockings, belts, key fobs and wall hangings.

Some were made for the convention, like the ones featuring elephants and a simple “G.O.P.” in fetching shades of red. The most popular over all, said Harold Forquer, whose wife, Anne, runs the store, is a bipartisan canvas that depicts some martini glasses and says, “My Party of Choice: Cocktail Party.”

We end where we began Monday, staring at raised glasses. Conventions are famous for their parties, and the Distilled Spirits Council, the powerful liquor lobby, was in on the action in a way that would have made Eliot Ness very unhappy.

Mr. Ness, a Prohibition-era leader of the “untouchables” team that went after Al Capone’s bootlegging operations, served as Cleveland’s safety director at a time when the city was quite dangerous. Although he spent much of his career in Chicago, he is so identified with Cleveland that his ashes are buried here.

But, anyway, back to the booze. There was a ton of it, from all ends of the spirit industry, and there were jumbo shrimp and dancers cutting it up with a swing band. And, as such, there were the requisite revelers: from members of Congress to lobbyists to reporters gathered in the elegant Beaux-Arts courthouse with its now-chic bronze statue of Alexander Hamilton out front.

Hello, Texas delegate, once again, in your ten-gallon hat. Hello, House member drinking ice water until you think we are not looking. “Ness would say this was awesome,” said Frank Coleman, a spokesman for the liquor council. “We have all these great distilled spirits, and it’s legal!”