Northern Lights in the Southern Hemisphere

And now a break from our regularly scheduled programming.

I have been working on a new cocktail and thought I would share. I am calling it the Northern Lights in the Southern Hemisphere. I started with the name and worked it out from there. It started as a genever  and rum drink until my friend Mr. Mustache pointed out that rum really wasn't from the southern hemisphere, Nerts!, to use his expression. So I started to consider my options and moved to pisco, from Peru. This brought me to thinking about the time The Mrs. and I went to the Columbia Room (my cocktail nerd friends just clenched their fists in a jealous rage) but Derek Brown made us a Veiux Carre using genever in place of the rye. It was fabulous.

So as a play on that I have my first real try at it. Please forgive the half empty glass in the photo, I had to decide if it was good enough to share. If anyone has any suggestions, feel free. I believe next time I will try Carpano Antica in place of the Maurin quina, although I like the cherry notes.

Northern Lights in the Southern Hemisphere

1oz Bols Genever (Smoke Glass)
1oz Pisco (I used Demonio de Los Andes)
1oz Maurin
1/2 tsp Allspice Dram
2 light dashes Aromatic Bitters
2 light dashes Peychad's Bitters
2 heavy dashed Regan's Orange Bitters

Shake with Ice

Garnish with cherry (Homemade Maraschino)

Journey to the land of Bourbon Pt.II

One of the draws of the trip was getting to explore Louisville, a city none of us really had any ideas about what it was like. We arrived Friday evening in time to take in the Gallery Crawl they have down town, so we walked down the main drag toward one of the places we had found online and were very excited about. The 21st Century Museum Hotel is a large old office building in the middle of downtown that now houses, not only a hotel but a bar and restaurant called Proof and a large gallery space that holds the owners lard modern art collection as well as hosting traveling exhibits and local art works. As we got close we could see a 20ft tall gold painted replica of Michelangelo's "David", and we knew we had found our spot. We made our way in and to a table in the bar side of the restaurant  ordered a round of drinks and appetizers  and tried to take in all of the art that was right there in the bar. Or favorite being a representation of the Satyr Pan in life size bronze as if he were a bartender serving drinks. All of the food and drinks were very well executed and the fact that they would make a sidecar with my preferred proportions, without really raising an eyebrow, was quite comforting. From there we moved into the gallery space where they were having an opening for a new set of works; some being rotated in from the collection, others by local artists who were on premises for the event. I am not always the biggest fan of modern art but there were some really great pieces from around the world and while not all of them were the most competently accomplished technically were still quite thought provoking. From there we wandered down the street and took in more of the awesome public art before stopping for a bite that isn't really worth spending time on and then, finding our way back to the hotel, crashed out for the night.

The next day we found ourselves beating a path to breakfast that took a rather circuitous route, due to my crappy memory, was it N. 6th street or S. 6th street? But we eventually found our destination, Toast, for an awesome breakfast cocktail and superb comfort breakfast. The star of this meal was the lemon chiffon pancakes ordered by The Mrs. after breakfast we walked back across the street to a shit shop that we had spotted but had been closed on our way to breakfast. This place was crazy, four or five floors of what looked to have been an old school building filled with every bit of crap you could imagine. Tons of furniture, toy collectibles, collectible liquor bottles, architectural stuff; we even found etched photo plates, it was amazing. We spent way too much time there and ended up having to forgo the trip to the Speed Art Museum and skipped to the Louisville Slugger Museum. Yes, where they make baseball bats.

I'm not much of a baseball fan these days, but I am a cabinet maker so I was interested in that aspect of it. We got there just in time for the architectural tour of the facility, which was pretty cool, and then went in for the main factory tour. That is quite a place, they still do some of the old school production but mostly it's done on CNC machines. You wouldn't believe how many suckers will pay 7 bucks to watch people make bats. They had us crammed in there like we were gonna catch a bolt in the forehead at the end. All in all an enjoyable day.

After the tour we walked back to the hotel for a little rest, knowing there would be some more serious eating and drinking in a couple of hours.

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