For one thing, it was the occasion of my discovery of the Pimm's Royale, a Ritz specialty consisting of Pimm's No. 1 topped off with champagne and garnished with lots of sliced fruit and seriously potent brandied cherries.

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But amid the pitchers of Pimm's and the crazy costumes, there are some touching examples of cross-cultural sporting camaraderie.

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Fort Defiance, a few blocks north, serves up fresh pasta, small plates like chicken liver pate with bacon-onion jam, and historically-inspired cocktails like the Colonial Cooler, a twist on the Pimm's Cup that was first mixed in British North Borneo in the 1920s.

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