Journey to the land of Bourbon pt.1

Last week was The Mrs. birthday and she originally wanted to go to Chicago to drink herself silly and eat at Alinea. This, for a number of reasons, did not happen. We, instead, decided to trek on up to Kentucky to check out the most American of spirits, well, two of the most American of spirits; we have a real soft spot for rye, and there are some great ones up there. We put out a call to see if anyone wanted to join us and, much to our surprise, the intrepid traveler heretofore known as Ms.Furman quickly spoke up. This was quite exciting for us, since we always ask if anyone wanted to come with us and , up 'till now, no one had and Ms.Furman is someone we hang out with quite a bit but have never really gotten to know that well and after almost twenty years there are no new stories to tell between The Mrs. and I, only stories to be written. Getting to know her better on the car ride was definitely a highlight.

Our first day out we left Charlotte in the mid-afternoon, with the goal of making it to Knoxville, TN by 7pm. I had made arrangements to go to a Tiki Bar hidden in a private home there and we did not want to be late. This was a serendipitous find on the interwebs that had occurred just as we were deciding to go to Kentucky which worked perfectly into our plan. The place was amazing, the "proprietors", had been collecting artifacts for years and really did it right. The space was a 250 sq.ft mudroom that had been converted into a tiki paradise. We chatted about cocktail culture and The Mia-Kai (see previous post), where he started an east coast tiki convention some years ago, while we sipped on fruity rum-based deliciousness. After a little while a couple of the neighbors cane by to join us and, I'm guessing, to make sure we weren't ax murderers, hacking their liquor hook up into tiny pieces. The night was perfect, even if it started by knocking on a strangers door and hoping for the best.

Day two had us up and moving early, making a beeline for our first distillery of the day, a four hour drive from Knoxville. When we arrived at Makers Mark we were there for one thing, a bottle. Being one of the biggest names in bourbon we felt we knew enough about the company to skip their dog and pony show in lieu of some of the more intimate tours. So, on The Mrs. Birthday, she got to dip her own bottle in the famous red wax and then sign and date it; and then we left. From Makers we made our way to the rather generically named Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, LTD. makers of the, anything but generic, Willett line of Bourbons and Ryes, as well as a number of other mid and top shelf lines of the same. This, I'm not going to lie, is why we were in Kentucky. We love their products. Also, since they are a smaller distillery that is not on the "official" Bourbon trail our tour consisted of four people and to top it off, since they were in the summer shut down, our tour guide was the master distiller, grandson of the distilleries founder. We got a great tour and tasting, their rule is, if they have it you can taste it. So, we tasted the 23yr rye, why wouldn't you, and then proceeded to buy a bottle. It was delicious. I can imagine I'll be getting a visit from Mr. Whiskey any moment now. Sadly, we did have to move on from there and get to our final tour of the day Heaven Hill. This is a massive operation with a fairly extensive if somewhat disappointing tour, but they have a very informative visitors center for whiskey novices, it was just a little to corporate for my taste.

Makers Mark welcome sign

Dipping bottles at Maker Mark

Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, distillery building

Pot Still at KBD

This is how they weigh the barrels at KBD, to this day it gets certified every year.

Rickhouse at Heaven Hill

I'll end here for now and continue the adventure in a day or two.

City Smoke

The Mrs. and I decided to venture into uptown yesterday. We had seen something about City Smoke, located in Founders Hall and part of the Sonoma Group, so we decided to check it out. We rarely venture uptown, but a quick look at the menu online with its long list of Bourbons and what appeared to be a decent cocktail list, we threw caution and better judgement to the wind.

Well.... the music was good, a nice mix of classic rock, mostly southern tinged.

The rest, not so much.

The list of bourbons and whiskey's is impressive and, as stated, the cocktail list looked compelling. So I dipped my toe in the water and ordered their "signature" Old-Fashioned. Now, my friends, there are only 5 ingredients in an Old-Fashioned and one of those is ice. You muddle orange zest with bitters and sugar, then pour over bourbon or rye add ice and voila. I ask you, how is it possible to screw this up? I'm not sure, but somehow they managed it. It tasted like nothing. It felt like the flavor already in my mouth was sucked out and into the glass.

I want so badly for there to be some kind of cocktail culture in this city and so many people tell me I'm to hard on the bars here, but if someone can't competently assemble a mindless classic that should need no more than the ability to breathe to assemble, how am I the one in the wrong? If you won't hire someone capable of doing anything other than sling beer, Please, Please don't do anything other than serve beer.

The food was fine, but by the time I'd had my soul crushed by my drink, I wasn't pre-disposed to like anything else. For the good, their take on pigs in a blanket was good, a sausage wrapped in a potato chip. Everything else was bland. The Mrs. had a pork sandwich that was supposed to be pulled but came more chunked with baked beans that were serviceable. I got the brisket plate with fried okra which was bland; I would have been happier if it were over salted, at least that is more traditional, and grits which were creamy and pretty tasty. The meat was ok but it comes pre-sauced, this is fine, but they have three house-made barbecue sauces and tell you all about them and then you stare at the meat on your plate that is already sauced. what the hell is that about?

Normally, I would give a place a second chance because there is some glimmer of hope that it might have been an off night, I don't see that here.

City Smoke - 100 N. Tryon St. (Uptown) - http://www.citysmokeclt.com/ 

Old school Tiki goodness.

On our last trip to Florida in March, The Mrs. and I headed down to Ft. Lauderdale for a day of fun that included a trip to MoAFL. They had a traveling exhibit from the Uffizi. This is not really relevant, but I wanted to remember that it happened. On our way back to the In-Laws, we decided to take the long way and drive up Federal Hwy. Mostly, looking for second hand stores that we might find old Florida kitsch to buy and check out some of the last remaining mid century architecture left in S. Florida. As we were driving I asked my lovely wife to be on the look out for a bar, "Preferably, something Tiki." and I kid you not a mere half block later she points and says "Like That?" My reply is not fit for public consumption, but needless to say I was excited. What we had stumbled upon was The Mai Kai Restaurant. A huge throwback Polynesian temple to the Tiki of yesteryear. This my friends is not, some new fangled, ironic dump recently thrown together by a guy with too much money trying to cash in on the cocktail revival. This is the real deal.


photo courtesy of http://critiki.com/

Sadly, we were there too early, and they did not open for another couple of hours. Right then we vowed to return. And so, with the occasion of my sister-in-laws return to the states for a visit from Russia, we made the trek to Florida, but only with the promise that we could go to the Mai-Kai.

We went down early, for our 6:30 reservation, figuring we could get some drinks at the bar. Then we learned that it was half price appetizers and drinks. So we thought maybe we would just have dinner there. So we ordered a Poo-Poo platter and some spareribs. To drink I ordered a Barrel of Rum, The Mrs. a Special Planters Punch, also ordered were a Shark Bite, Zomie and a Pina Colada. They all got passed around the table as we marveled at the deliciousness. Which is no surprise, considering the pedigree of the place. Opened in 1956 during the heyday of non-ironic Tiki, the original bartender for the Mai-Kai came from the legendary Don The Beachcombers, where he worked for 13 years. With him came some of the secret recipes and the techniques made famous by his former employer. These high standards are still in place today. At a time when most places would have cheaped out long ago, the Mai Kai still does it right, with fresh ingredients and, while probably not top shelf liquor, it's not aristocrat either.


photo courtesy of http://www.atomicgrog.com/

As we sipped on our second round, mine a Shrunken Skull, we nibbled on some more appetizers and decided that, if we were there, we should get the full experience. So, we moved over into the dining room for dinner and a show.

The food is mainly Chinese inspired "Polynesian", I ordered sweet and sour pork, The Mrs. had the roast duck Mai-Kai. And I am at a loss to remember what else was ordered. I do remember my last drink was a tiki classic, the Mai-Tai. The food was good, but nothing to special and as we finished up and I sank into my final cocktail. The lovely ladies of the Mai-Kai came out on stage to dance quickly followed by the "warriors".

The show was fun. Each vignette was based on a different island of Polynesia, with a native dance and music, there was a live band which made it much more enjoyable and of coarse at the end there was fire.


photo courtesy of http://www.atomicgrog.com/

Before leaving we walked through the beautiful gardens populated by an array of tiki gods set among the plants and a waterfall and on our way out the door we stopped in the gift shop for some glassware. I picked up a Barrel for the Barrel of rum and a shrunken skull mug. Next trip we'll just hang out at the bar and take in the atmosphere,... and half priced drinks.

Mai Kai - Ft. Lauderdale, FL - http://maikai.com/  -I didn't want to waste the space here but check out the mystery drink

Home, again

So, here it is four months after my last post, Yikes.

We're back home in Florida to spend time with The. Mrs. family. Her sister is in town from Moscow, so we made the sojourn down to see her. As always there is an ulterior motive to these trips, namely alcohol and food. This means that in the two full days that we've been here we have already visited the local brewery for a couple of pints and hit the liquor store pretty hard, picking up a bottle of Willet Rye, Deaths Door Gin and a bunch of beer we can't get in NC. This is probably the first trip of two to a liquor store while we're here. Tonight we will further our booze fueled adventures with a trip to Ft.Lauderdale's Mai Kai, the last of the original 50's TiKi bars in S.Florida. It really looks promising. Full details tomorrow.

Our other vice being food, and having in our midst's a vegetarian, last night we made our way down to Sublime. Sublime is a full vegan restaurant in Ft. Lauderdale that uses some of it's proceeds to support animal rights groups. Now, as anyone knows, this is not really high on my list of things of importance, but I do like a good meal. SO, if the food is good and it supports a god cause, win-win. I am happy to report, this is indeed a true win. The food was excellent, the service was spot on and the setting was just right.

I was a little concerned when we pulled up, since the restaurant is the size of a strip mall, in which a restaurant like this would normally be housed in a small corner on the dark end of the parking lot. Inside it is a cavernous space that immediately reminded me of an all you can eat Chinese restaurant circa 1991; all earth tones and pastel lighting.

The bar menu was short, but took advantage of the tropical location, and included fresh juices and fruit. Unfortunately, almost every drink name ended in -tini or -jito, but, whatever. The Mrs. had a Tangjito, which I'm sure you can guess, is Tangerine with white rum and vegetation. I had a glass of red wine. There were also a couple glasses of beer and, by all accounts, a very tasty traditional Mojito.

To start, we ordered a plate of Broccimole, which was basically a white bean dip with broccoli and avocado incorporated into it. It sounded better than it actually ended up being but was still quite tasty. We also ordered Frito Misto, which was a plate of, what can only be described as, sweet and sour cauliflower. Fried hunks of cauliflower in sweet and sour sauce. It was absolutely amazing. We also had an amuse bouche of pesto polenta cake brought to the table, very tasty.

For the main coarse, I had a dish called Singapore street noodle, which was cellophane noodles with veggies in the sweet and sour sauce. The Mrs. and her mother each got the mushroom ravioli, Mrs.'s father got a veggie cutlet picatta and Mrs. Moscow got a "Rueben". We all cleaned our plates, and each others plates, as food flew around the booth like like planes in a busy airport. The winner, hands down though, was the Reuben. I'm not sure how anything that doesn't include animal products is that rich or succulent but, damn if it wasn't. When the waitress came back with a dessert menu, I stayed above the fray, content in my ability to enjoy whatever ended up on the table. A slice of key lime "cheese"cake was decided on and when it arrived, we all marveled, again, that it was dairy free. They are either lying or using black magic in that kitchen.

While it was not an inexpensive meal, it was not unreasonable, and completely satisfying. I hope the Mai Kai can hold it's own.

Sublime - (Ft. Lauderdale) website -http://sublimerestaurant.com/

Oh dear, where has the time gone

SO, it has been almost a year since my last confession, er, I mean post. Honestly not much happened last year. Work, work and other stuff.

But, I find myself at the beginning of another adventure and a renewed conviction to my writing, seeing as I have something to bore you with again. The Mrs. and I are in the beginning stages of planning a trip that I have been excited about since the mere mention of it's possibility and babbling on about to anyone who would listen. A trip to Russia.

Now, I have no real love or devotion to the country but when my sister-in-law and her awesome husband found themselves contemplating a move there; I, selfishly, first thought of how great it would be to be able to visit. How often do you get that opportunity? And now, it's go time.

We are planning a winter visit to be in St.Petersburg around Christmas and Moscow for New Years. I'm sure it will be a great adventure just navigating the Visa process. I have already picked up some guides and found some great resources. It may seem early to be planning trip 10 months away but I'm to excited to wait. If you would like to learn more about living in Russia you can follow my sister-in-law here.

In other news I am in the midst of my annual detox that coincides with Lent but has no religious meaning. I just need to give my liver a break. For this reason we call it Lint in our house. The prohibition will be lifted on Easter Sunday with an orgy of alcohol, food and friendship where everyone keeps their pants on.

A Sia Saide

Gin and Tonic Brunch

As I may have mentioned before, The Mrs' drink of choice is Gin, so, naturally, we own quite a few bottles. 12 true gins to be exact and this does not include the Old Toms and Genevers or Dogfish head, which we served, but is pretty bad. Most of our friends don't really give this fine spirit any thought as they are whiskey drinkers. To change this, we decided to invite some friends over for an Easter brunch that ran on Gin.

We set out the Gins (There will be a list at the bottom of this post) with two homemeade tonics, one a traditional bitter tonic and the other a lighter citrusy recipe, along with five storeboughts (Canada Dry, Seagrams, Q, Hansens, and Polar). We also had on hand a large quantity of citrus and some bitters for those who felt like experimenting. We put out small 4oz juice glasses and everyone made half drinks for themselves. This was perfect, everyone got to try a bunch of combinations without getting throughly wasted. It made a great way to try different combinations side by side to see how different tonics brought out different notes in a particular gin and vice versa. Being that our theme was gin and it was Easter I started the day with a Corpse Reviver #2 . To add to the alcohol Mr. and Mrs. Guitar brought mimosas.

The food had no particular theme. We served Fruit skewers that had every color of the rainbow, Cinnamon rolls with and without bacon inside, individual Farm fresh asparagus quiches cooked in ham cups, and Sweet potato and "Soyrizo" Latkes. In addition Mr. Chelsea and family brought Orange-Cranberry Muffins and Mr. and Mrs. Bee brought Salmon Bites. We had also planned for a Cheese plate that never got served and Absurdly Addictive Asparagus which we ended up having for dinner the next night.

All together there were 14 adults and one baby. We didn't manage to knock off a single bottle, but made a healthy dent in almost all of them. I can't wait to see everyone again.

The Gins-

Beefeater

Beefeater 24

Beefeater Summer

Bluecoat

Boodles

Citadel

Cardinal Gin

Dogfish head

G-Vine

Junipero

Old Raj

Plymouth

Whitley Neill

A Sia Saide

Where does the time go

Recently my laptop was stolen so I have that excuse for not posting as well as my work schedule being quite busy. Below is a quick round up of some of the new places we have checked out recently.

First was a trip with some friends of The Mrs. to Vida, a Mexican place in the Epicenter. We stopped in before going to see Spring Awakening at the Belk Theater. Which meant the location was good. Pretty much everything else was not. There were six of us in a relatively empty restaurant, whose claim to fame is over one hundred tequilas and sadly I am not drinking at the moment. The menu was exactly what you would expect from an upscale mexican-american place, also slightly overpriced due to location. With an execution on par with a Fridays, it wasn't great but it also wasn't going to offend anyone. There was a mix up on one order, which was taken off the bill, nice, but the missing item was brought out as we were ready for dessert, less nice. Then toward the end, our server tried chatting us up to make up and save her tip. She should have just kept her mouth shut. All in all, I would not recommend unless you are going for tequila. However, I enjoyed Spring Awakening more the second time.

Next we met the Whiskeys' for dinner at The Diamond, in Plaza-Midwood. The Diamond was an old time meat and three diner that was purchased by the former proprietors of The Penguin, who basically moved the Penguin lock stock and barrel down the block, with a new name and larger menu. It's hard to gauge right now since it is a zoo and getting a table in nearly impossible. The food was fine. I had a sloppy joe and the Mrs. a burger. It's all a little "hipper than thou" for me but, whatever.

Third on our tour of food is another place run by a former Penguin business associate, Pinky's. Opened in a former auto repair shop, on the westside, it's less pretentious than The Diamond. But, we were there early so who knows. They do have some parking issues, so be prepared. We started with an order of waffle fries smothered in melty pimento cheese, heaven. I got a fried bologna sandwich with red potato salad, both very tasty, while The Mrs. opted for burger and some sweet 'tater fries. I am so happy the world has figured out that these need to be battered to get crispy. We couldn't even finish after the basket of waffle fries. So we rolled ourselves to the car and headed home.

Finally last night, again with The Whiskeys', we finally had a reason to go to Villa Francesca. We were going to see The Princess Bride as a stage production performed at The Breakfast Club, an eighties themed night club a block down the street. When doing anything in downtown Charlotte you should always check the arena schedule, we did not, so parking was a bit of a thing. Oh well. It could have been worse. Anyway, Villa Francesca is an Italian-American place run by Yankee fans, I will forgive them. The menu hits all the highlights and adds a couple of twists. We got there before the pre-game crowd but it was full by the time we left. My veal parmigiana was excellent as was the Mrs. pasta. Both of the Whiskeys got eggplant dishes that looked great. Thin sliced eggplant, not that thick stuff you usually get that is either not cooked all the way or the outside is almost burnt. The prices were reasonable. And the staff was friendly and attentive even as it got busier. The play afterward was a lot of fun, just plain silly, I needed silly, we could all use more silly in our lives.

A Sia Saide

Kevin