Are you are as exhausted as I am by the current events? Intellectually and emotionally spent on politics, economic crises, and the fear of theocracy ruling our great nation? Who could fault us for wanting a damn good stiff drink?
I have never forgotten the day in 1977 when I saw my first bar drink dispensed with a push of a button allocating the actual booze in my VO and ginger to a tiny aliquot. "What was that?" I asked. "A new inventory control system", I was told. And the world of getting a good drink at a bar has gone downhill ever since.
FF to 2002 and one of my first dates with my now Spousal-equivalent. He's a bit younger than me, but not young enough to be my son (and his mother is not old enough to be my mother unless she was a teenaged mom which she was not).
Sitting at Chili's at the bar sipping good beer, he pointed at the liquor shelves and said "I'll bet you've tried most of them in your lifetime". I was highly insulted and immediately set him straight!
"In MY day, we had vodka, and scotch, and gin and a few whiskeys and sambucca, and amaretto, and kahlua and maybe some other stuff but I have NEVER had a flavored vodka or some man-made concoction of alchohol like you see on those shelves!"
I am an alcohol purist, and the rest of the shite has passed me by.
For many years, I have suffered the indignity of bad basic drinks made with measured shots , while watching the light-weights scoff down "martinis" which were once simple bar drinks of booze and juice re-invented to appeal to the more "affluent, younger" crowds - all the while using measured for-shit shots.
So imagine my delight (and out-of-practice) surprise when we tried a brand-spanking new restaurant the other night and I got a REAL GOOD DRINK. I almost choked on it because it had REAL ALCOHOL poured directly and in full measure into my non-fancy VO and ginger! Nobody measured THAT shot and I almost had to send it back!
We went back a few nights later and tried it again and got the SAME RESULT!
I realized then that it has been many years since I have received a GOOD DRINK at a restaurant or bar. And these days, one needs a GOOD DRINK more than ever - if one can even afford to go out to a restaurant or bar.
I got my good drink at The Village Tavern in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Please share your good drink stories with us here ;-)
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Con Chapman
Mary Wollstonecraft
ronnierayjenkins
Redstocking Grandma
Rutilus Extraho
Nom de Plume
Salon.com
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I have a certificate in bartending from Harvard.
During the final we had to mix drinks for each other and there was this comely thing I had been trying to chat up... well, it was my turn to request a beverage and pointed to my bit of eye candy and asked for a martini. I got 16oz of the worst, wettest thing you could imagine doing to gin.
The rest of the night is unfortunately a blur.
That was in the '70s, when the world was young.
That said, I also know what liquor costs per shot and think a heavy poor leads to a satisfied customer and repeat business.
Regarding the profanity... I noticed some OSers campaigning to stamp out naughty words as "not nice" in other comment threads today. So I resolved that from now on if a post included invective it got an auto-rate from the land of Bohica just on principle. Someone must act to save salty language.
Years ago, I had a drink that the bartender called a White Spider -- 50/50 peppermint schnaps and 100 proof vodka. One helluva bite!
I enjoyed your post and it was a nice break from all the other insanity producing news.
Simple, and simply satisfying.
(Course I say JW Black just because I can't afford the Blue.) And I am a member of the Striding Man Society.
My favorite drink in literature is The Boot Camp, created for her fictional murderer, Mix Cellini, by the incomparable Ruth Rendell.
"He had invented it himself and called it Boot Camp because it had such a savage kick. It mystified him that no one that he had offered it to seemed to share his taste for a double measure of vodka, a glass of Sauvignon and a tablespoon of Cointreau poured over crushed ice."
It sounds amazing! Sigh. Another thing I'll never try!
I've done a lot of bartending in my day, too, and realized that as soon as all the venues decided to switch to a measured pour, my tips would go into the toilet. I always had a pretty heavy hand, and my take-home pretty much reflected the fact that customers were willing to pay extra for a really good drink.
Ah, those were the days...
San Antonio has three places to catch shows, but none of them are close to Traxx or what you can see in NYC.
Oh... and sorry about not getting your humor on massages. I dream of the Wat Po.