The buzz about the inaugural San Antonio Cocktail Conference started weeks before the actual event. While seated at the bar at Peché on a recent weekend night, the gentlemen to our left were talking about the conference and mentioning the media buzz.

“But why in San Antonio?” asked one. Our informed bartender chimed in, “Why not? San Antonio is up and coming and is making a mark for itself on the map.”

This is especially true of the cocktail scenem given the presence of both The Esquire Tavern and Ocho Lounge at Hotel Havana. The Esquire has been causing a stir since 1933 and prides itself as being the oldest bar on the Riverwalk. The Havana Hotel, which houses Ocho, was reinvented by Austin hotelier Liz Lambert.

The San Antonio Cocktail Conference (note this is a conference not a festival, stresses Bohanan’s bar manager, Carlos Faz) was the creation of Chef Mark Bohanan of Bohanan’s Restaurant and Bar. Modeled after the Manhattan Cocktail Classic and New Orleans’ Tales of the Cocktail, it is a four-day function that kicked off with an Opening Night Soiree and concluded with a Bloody Mary Brunch.

The purpose of the conference was to educate, inform and provide instruction on the craft of making and enjoying cocktails.

The home base for the weekend was the Mokora Hotel and Spa (previously the well-known Watermark Hotel), situated on the appealing end of the Riverwalk, i.e. away from the tourist-infused stretch. Run by the Omni, this is the first brand of luxury hotels the company will be rolling out by the same name. It’s restaurant, Ostra (Spanish for oyster) is run by Chef John Brand, who flies the fish in daily from around the world and is committed to sustainability. He works with local farms to source his ingredients used in the weekly tasting menu he creates.

My ears perked up when I heard about his Tequila Madness Menu, featuring over 50 varieties of high-end tequila. Conference attendees sampled the El Jimador Paloma, a perfect blend of Reposada, Patron Orange Liqueur, lemon juice and a splash of balancing grapefruit juice and soda served in authentic glassware hand-made in Mexico.

The entire event was presented by Bohanan’s, Soho Wine & Martini Bar, Ocho Lounge, The Esquire Tavern and Rio San Antonio Cruises and the conference benefitted HeartGift, providing life-saving heart surgery to children from countries where the care they need is not accessible. The line-up was filled with educational seminars, classes, tastings and fun events like nightly parties. We started our conference journey on the second evening, at the Friday Night Soiree.

The evening began at the El Tropicano Hotel and proceeded to the Soho Wine & Martini Bar, where the resident mixologists created drinks that featured Cinco Vodka, Treaty Oak Rum, Dulce Vida Organic Tequila and Waterloo Gin. A standout was the At Dusk, made with rum, Campari, orange juice and bitters.

The river cruise, equipped with bartenders serving Tiki-style drinks, transported attendees back and forth between the participating venues like Ocho, who hosted a Classic Cuba cocktail party where we sampled traditionally-made, Caribbean libations by Bacardi. The open-air lounge, sultry music and company made for an enchanting evening.

The next day we steamed out the night’s fun in the Mokara Spa, whose amenities are made available to hotel guests. The morning then took us to an 11 a.m. panel discussion led by local Austinites and cocktail creator extraordinaires: David Alan of Tipsy Tech (and President of USBG Austin), and Bill Norris, Beverage Director of Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas. The two moderated a discussion on the past, present and future of the Texas spirits industry.

Seated on the panel were Dan Garrison of Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Paula Angerstein of Paula’s Texas Spirits, Tito Beveridge of Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Daniel Barnes of Treaty Oak Rum and Waterloo Gin. The panel agreed that Beveridge pioneered the Texas distillery movement that started less than a decade ago. Now, there are over 31 distillery permits issued. In his first year, Beveridge produced 1,000 cases of vodka; now, he produces hundreds of thousands.

“It was a slow build,” he said. Grinning, he said he endured years of painful horribleness, but his passion and love for the trade kept him pushing through. He pretty much paved the way for the next wave of distillery producers. Angerstein was the first woman to enter the industry. Laughing, she said, “Ignorance wasn’t the only reason I got into the business.”

She saw a need for her orange liquor, as the only ones on the market were expensive national brands and low-quality triple sec products. Not knowing, she thought she could sell her product at the local farmer’s market, which was not the case, as it is unlawful.

As with Angerstein, Garrison and Barnes saw a need for whiskey, rum and gin; Texas naturally produces ingredients conducive to making these spirits, such as the natural botanicals like lavender (used to make gin) and sugar from places like Sugarland and Santa Rosa in South Texas (used to make rum).

The current state of the industry is to promote the local spirits to the national market. The panel agreed that they need to stick together, join forces and power their way through. They recognize that as an industry they have a unique opportunity to come together and support craft spirits made in the US — and Texas in particular.

“We make really nice stuff here in Texas,” says Beveridge.

Norris chimed in that this is an exciting time and he notices a mutual respect of local spirit makers across the board. Garrison also recognizes that even though Texas is caring out a place for itself on the map: “You gotta think long term.”

This is especially true when making whiskey that needs to be barrel-aged. He has product aging that won’t be ready until 2018, but he’s in it for the long haul, despite the lack of positive cash flow.

Moving forward, what the panel agreed upon is the Texas spirit industry's need to focus on tourism. Currently, there is no craft distillery tourism like there is in the winery business, and there are battles to be had with the TABC.

While you can visit some distilleries, such as Garrison Brothers, you are not permitted to buy the product onsite.

Garrison does welcome about 250 visitors a week and offers education tours and tastings for $10 a person. “You will learn something,” he promises.

We concluded our portion of the conference with a taste of Bohanan’s whose bar offers a weekend happy hour of $5 craft cocktails and select bar snacks. We sampled The Left Hand Cocktail made with bourbon, Campari, sweet vermouth and chocolate bitters gentle stirred and garnished with house-made maraschino cherries — the real kind, plum-hued, soft and juicy.

Internationally-known Bohanan’s is going into its tenth year. Their chef is also an educator and innovative promoter of Downtown San Antonio, hence why the inaugural Texas conference was held in the fine and upcoming city of San Antonio. Everything is not just bigger in Texas, this cocktail conference may have just proved that everything is better in the great state of Texas, too.

While San Antonio proved to be a great host city, I think Austin would be a good fit for the 2013 conference — not that I’m biased.