Wine News You Can't Refuse
- The monthly First Tuesday deal returns next week in Adams Morgan, featuring good food and drink deals (2 can drink and dine for $25!)
- Tonic in Mt. Pleasant is moving their wine night special (free bottle of wine with the purchase of two entrees and an appetizer) from Tuesday to Wednesday. Tonic at Foggy Bottom's keeping their Monday wine special in addition to featuring a "20 Days of Christmas" wine special! Through Jan. 10 get a free select bottle of red or white wine with the purchase of two entrees, regardless of the day (though not valid on NYE).
- As always, this Friday check out First Friday in Dupont where you can see free art and occasionally partake in free (if terrible tasting, but didn't I just say 'free'?) wine. Begin the night drinking free in Dupont, cab it over to Gibson, stumble to Bar Pilar, pass out on the red couch at the Cat's Red Room. There. I've just planned your night.
- I cannot shake a horrible cold and am therefore rehashing what's already been posted on BYT's morning feed and Prince of Petworth: warm drinks that make me feel human again, like the snowman in the Campbell's soup commercial (though god help me, my inner child better not be a bug-eyed redheaded imp). I would be drinking nothing but Hot Toddy's at Bourbon if I wasn't afraid of combining alcohol and Nyquil and never waking up à la Sunny von Bülow (may she rest in peace).
Observations that will make the average DC metro area resident roll their eyes and mutter "no shit" in exasperation:
1.) wine bars are everywhere, and
2.) the cocktail is coming back with a vengeance in a manner heretofore unseen since Prohibition.
PX and Gibson, brainchildren of the now most popular and recession-resistant mixologists about town Todd Thrasher and Derek Brown respectively, are packed almost every night. While they are enchanting and awesome, they're not places one can go every night as a regular hang out due to the prices and the popularity. What is one to do in DC when they want a good cocktail (or want to learn more about good cocktails) and aren't raking in the dough?
Starting Jan. 1 I'm going to introduce you to a new cocktail every day on BYT. And it's not just me slapping up some recipe I Googled (well, it might be if it's really good but really bizarre, like made with bull's blood or something), but I'll actually provide insight and tasting notes on these delectable (and not so delectable) drinks. The American bar scene has languished under the weight of PBR and mass produced TGI Friday's drink mixes. We've come a long way from shooters, baby.
For inspiration I'm using a gem of a book I found at Second Story Books in Adams Morgan (shame and blessings both on whomever gave this up for adoption); American Bar: The Artistry of Mixing Drinks, by Charles Schumann.
This book is heavy, with gilt edges and a gorgeous Bordeaux cover. You have no reason not to get this book, as it's $1.62 (used) on Amazon and is chock full of not just wonderful bar knowledge, but wine and spirits insight as well. Some people worship Herr Schumann as a god, some people think he's an enigmatic old man who can't make a proper Sidecar (whether or not you use Cointreau or Triple Sec and rimming it with sugar is apparently as contentious as it gets).
In preparation for a cocktail infused New Year, and frankly because it's New Year's Eve and I've already done a piece on sparkling wine, I'm starting with a couple of sparkling wine cocktails. A nice hair-of-the-dog, what-do-I-do-with-leftover-sparkling-wine 2009 treat.
The Happy New Year
- 1/4 oz Brandy
- 3/4 oz Ruby Port
- 3/4 oz orange juice
- Champagne or any sparkling wine
Shake first three ingredients well over ice cubes in a shaker, strain into a Champagne flute, and fill to the top with Champagne/sparkling wine. I think the brandy and ruby port mixed together is a little...erm....well, to be frank, it's gross. The sparkling wine cuts it nicely but I think I'd rather have a Mimosa. I'm throwing this out there because 1.) everyone has different tastes and 2.) I have a cold and really all I can taste at this point is salt. So disregard my rambling on this one and try it out. Ruby port can be cheap (I'm talking $4 for a jug cheap) but splurge a little and go for something in the $10 range perhaps. Treat yourself. Port can last a long time if stored properly.
And a special one, for those who want to try out some fire on the first day of 2009:
The Volcano
- 3/4 oz raspberry liqueur
- 3/4 oz blue curacao
- Champagne/sparkling wine
- Orange peel
Pour liqueurs into a Champagne flute, then light on fire. (BE CAREFUL) Extinguish in a flurry of brilliance with ice-cold Champagne and twist orange peel over the drink. I didn't try this because I refuse to drink blue curacao ever again after a particularly eventful 4th of July. In the future I won't just post shit up here that hasn't been tried because I refuse to drink it; I've already cajoled my friends and associates to come over for a drink and they're going to be the guinea pigs (mwahaha).
Enjoy these cocktails, don't set anything on fire, and Happy New Year!
God loves a cheerful giver.
Just wait until you get to the Monkey Gland, Bees Knees, and White Lady.
It's hard to find a good bottle of absinthe around here. Fortunately I have one in my freezer from Czech, so I can make a monkey gland. Drinking is serious business.
it's not that hard anymore since absinthe became legal. Central liquor in Gallery Place has a good selection. There's also a domestically made absinthe from Leopold Bros. distillery in Ann Arbor, Michigan no less, available in Dupont at Best Cellars. Schneider's might also be carrying it now too, I know they have some of their whiskeys.
Absinthe with thujone is still illegal in the U.S. so if you want the traditional absinthe you still have to import it (illegally). There is debate on how much thujone was actually present during the heyday of the absinthe fad and many distillers believe it was below the 10 ppm that the FDA requires of the imported varieties and maintain their absithe is exactly the same as you could get in Paris in the 20s. Other traditionalists say that the thujone levels were higher than 10ppm and that the imported absinthe isn't "true" absinthe because the FDA won't allow absinthe with Thujone to be imported.
Regardless it wasn't the thujone that really got you, it's the 72 and above % alcohol content that fucks you up.
i know very little about absinthe, but i heard that it was also the type of wormwood that is used in the process that makes a difference as well. something about certain types having semi-hallucinogenic properties. then again, i have no idea what i am talking about, but would like to know. yeah? no? miguel?
eddie - no, it does not cause hallucinations. That is an urban myth. The hallucinations were blamed on the Thujone, derived from wormwood and, yes, thujone can be deadly in very high doses. However you'd be dead of alcohol poisoning LONG before the thujone in absinthe would even begin to affect you. There is also zero evidence that thujone would cause hallucinations, even in doses high enough to kill you.
The problem with absinthe is its high alcohol content (we're talking 144 proof). You can also sit and drink the stuff all day long since it doesn't give the whiskey shudders that taking a shot does (mainly because you're mixing it 1:5 with water). So combine sitting in a cafe or bar and drinking glass after glass of 144 proof alcohol and your ass is going to get fucked the fuck up.
The real problem with absinthe and the ban is that when popular people were distilling it everwhere and selling it - kind of like bathtub gin in the US during prohibition, or, in modern terms: crack cocaine. Take you some pure Colombian blow right out of the rain forest. That's some good shit, right? Well that's your pure absinthe - it will fuck you up, but there's no rat poison in it. Now let some unscrupulous characters get ahold of it and want to make some money - they start cutting that shit up and adding filler (whatever works). Now you got crack. Crack's nasty. Same with absinthe - people were adding turpentine, kerosene, whatever they had lying around to make "more" absinthe to sell - start drinking that shit and you end up like DC in the late 1980s: Motherfuckers high and fucked up more on strychnine than actual cocaine.