April 23, 2013
Hey, readers of this blog, you should know this: I’m a big fan of Charles Dickens. Heck, there are a couple Charles Dickens Cocktail Talk posts on here already (as well as a few other odds and sods related to him). He had the stuff, in my opinion. And, so I regularly re-read him, and recently did such with The Old Curiosity Shop. Not my top Dickens pick – not sure what is, really – but still awesomely awesome (I wonder what he would say if someone referred to him that way, way back when). And full of the lovely cast of Dickensian characters, good, bad, really bad, silly, stupid, wonderful, and tipsy. Of course, the latter are what we’re focusing on here. And the book is so filled with good drinkerly quotes that we’re gonna do a whole week of them! Or more. Who knows? Only me, Dickens, and the pony. This first quote’s from the early parts of the book, and makes some true points on soda water and human hair.
He began by remarking that soda-water, though a good thing in the abstract was apt to lie cold upon the stomach unless qualified with ginger, or a small infusion of brandy, which latter article he held to be preferable in all cases, saving for the one consideration of expense. Nobody venturing to dispute these positions, he proceeded to observe that the human hair was a great retainer of tobacco-smoke, and that the young gentlemen of Westminster and Eton, after eating vast quantities of apples to conceal any scent of cigars from their anxious friends, were usually detected in consequence of their heads possessing this remarkable property.
–Charles Dickens, The Old Curiosity Shop
April 19, 2013
I was in Italy recently (and yet still, thanks to the wonders of modern blogging, had posts up. Cause that’s how much I care. A whole lot), which isn’t too much of surprise for those who know me. I used to live there (detailed in detail on the Six Months in Italy blog), and have pals and favorite restaurants to visit when I go, as well as intriguing amaros and liqueurs and wines to track down and artistic sites and vistas to see. All that. This last time, I visited a city in Le Marche called Ascoli Piceno for the first time. It’s an off-the-tourist-track kind of a place by and large, but it has a lovely city center, all made of travertine, and some very lovely churches, and a history of pottery making. All good stuff. But perhaps best of all, it’s where the Meletti company is, a company known for making delicious imbibables. I was introduced to their products by the dashing Spirits Director at Vinum Importing, Andrew Bohrer (who also writes the blog Cask Strength). What I didn’t know, though, until getting to Ascoli Piceno, was how amazing the Meletti Café is.
It sits right on the corner (in the below shot, back right) of the city center I mentioned, which is known as the Piazza del Popolo, and which is one of the prettiest piazza’s I’ve been in:
After visiting it, I think I can say with some authority (considering just how many bars, lounges, watering holes, etc that I’ve been in) that Café Meletti is an awesome bar to spend a few afternoon hours within (in Italy cafés seem like local bars to me, as there is usually as much tipsy drinking as coffee drinking). I’d even go out on a tipsy limb and say one of the world’s best. It has an art deco-y style with remarkable tabletops:
interiors:
and a beautiful bar manned by charming and helpful bartenders:
I ordered a Meletti Anisette, which is the most well-known of the Meletti offerings, and which is the finest anisette available anywhere. It has a layered anise flavor and an underlying sweetness that tastes pure and natural; it’s a liqueur that’s meant to be savored and not shot back, and one that mixes like a champion dancer into cocktails – but which has to be had solo (or with three very small additions) to be completely understood. I got it over a few ice cubes, and was going to have it just like that, until a gracious older Italian gentleman reached over and added three espresso beans for me. These are the “mosche” or flies, and not only add a faint pleasant zing to the flavor, but also represent health, happiness, and prosperity.
All of which I’m for. I took the Meletti Anisette outside to the tables there, and sipped it while watching the people stroll the piazza. It was an experience I’m darn glad to have had, and one I suggest you try, if you get the chance (and if you can’t get to Ascoli Piceno, then pick up a bottle of Meletti and have it on your back porch).
Tags: Ascoli Piceno, best bars in the world, flies in drinks, Friday Night Cocktail, Italy drinks, Le Marche, Meletti, Meletti Anisette, pretty piazza, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Bars, Italy, Liqueurs, What I'm Drinking
April 16, 2013
Somehow, the other day when I was going on and on about Day Keene and how much I dig him as a writer of the pulps and pulpy and mysteries and noirs and their ilk, and dropped down a Martini quote from the fine once-fit-in-your-pocket-book now part of a worthy three-novels-in-one-book collection from Stark House called Dead Dolls Don’t Talk, well, I meant to put in two quotes. And that, friends, is what’s called a long sentence. And a mistake I mean to rectify by putting in the second quote right now (cause I don’t want you to miss it. And want you to read the book. So, go on, do both).
Coe put a cigarette in his mouth and offered the package to his employer. “The hell of it is we haven’t any way of knowing for how long you may be stuck.”
Hart lit his first cigarette of the day and enjoyed it. “That’s the hell of it,” he agreed. “But if I’m not back in a couple of days you might try sending out a Saint Bernard with a keg of dry Martinis.”
–Day Keene, Dead Dolls Don’t Talk
*See all Day Keene Cocktail Talks
April 12, 2013
Sometimes, you can’t improve on genius. You can try, sure, but, well, you’ll fail. Which is why instead of writing some new post about the Trocadero, I’m just going to quote myself, from Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz:
We think often of dry and sweet vermouth of being like Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier fighting it relentlessly in Zaire, or like two large dogs gnawing on one big bone in the backyard (the bone here would equal a bar, if you don’t mind following a thinly stretched metaphor). This train of thought though, is out of wack. We should think of the vermouths more like A.J. and Rick Simon, brother detectives who are very different in style, dress, and tone of voice, but working together to solve a crime (the crime here is, as you might guess, the crime of a bad drink).
The Trocadero
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1-1/2 ounce sweet vermouth
1 dash orange bitters
1/4 ounce grenadine (I suggest making your own – there’s a recipe in the book by the by)
Lemon twist for garnish
1. Fill a cocktail shaker or mixing glass halfway full with cracked ice. Add the vermouths at the same time to show no favoritism, and then the bitters and the grenadine. Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with the lemon twist.
PS: Sure, I just called my own writing genius. But I was being silly, silly.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, dry vermouth, Friday Night Cocktail, Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, sweet vermouth, Trocadero cocktail, vermouth cocktail, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Ginger Bliss and the Violet Fizz, Recipes, vermouth
April 9, 2013
Day Keene is one of my favorite pulp-ateers. And by that I don’t mean someone who does puppet shows with puppets made of fruit. Though that would be, um, interesting, too. No, I mean one of the writers who wrote in the middle of last century, and who wrote books that usually fit in your pocket and stories in magazine with vaguely lurid names. Both genres tended to be about crimes, criminal, down-on-their luckers, drinkers, back-alley brawlers, just-in-troublers, and anyone who’s run into, or looked for, trouble. Day Keene wrote a whole giant bar full of tales featuring those kind of folks, with tight plots that keep you on the edge and wondering how it’ll all end in a manner that’s not quite bleak, but close enough to call out to bleak without a raised voice. Anywho, his characters usually need a stiff drink, and Dead Dolls Don’t Talk (which is part of an amazing collection of three Day Keene novels reprinted by Stark House) isn’t any different. As this quote shows us:
As he sipped his second drink Hart gave the girl her due. Peggy made good Martinis, albeit they were a trifle strong and she served them in Old-fashioned glasses. The date, if it could be called that, was proceeding according to pattern. Peggy had made the usual announcement that she wanted to change into something cooler and more comfortable. However, instead of donning the usual filmy negligee, she’d put on a smart red shantung coolie coat that ended halfway down her thighs, creating the illusion that there was nothing by flesh and girl under the provocative garment.
—Dead Dolls Don’t Talk, Day Keene
*See all Day Keene Cocktail Talks
March 29, 2013
The end of March is when you should start really thinking about summer: rum drinks, shorts, bikinis, rum drinks, beaches, rum drinks, and ukulele music. If you just don’t want to wait the extra months you could plane up and fly on down or over or such to an actual beach. Or, you could make this drink from Dark Spirits, which is a tangy tasty tempting treat. It does have one quirky ingredient: hibiscus flower. But knowing how resourceful you are, I’ll bet you can find them. Check your local herborium. But they really add a bunch of goodness to this mix, so track them down (one place that usually has them is Dandelion Botanical: www.dandelionbotanical.com).
Caribbean Bloom, makes 2 (cause being summer-y isn’t nearly as much fun alone)
1 teaspoon dried hibiscus flowers
4 lime wedges
2 teaspoons sugar
Cracked ice
4 ounces dark rum
1. Add the hibiscus flowers, lime wedges, and sugar to a cocktail shaker. Using a muddler or sturdy wooden spoon, muddle well.
2. Fill the cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add the rum. Shake very well, for at least 15 seconds.
3. Strain the mix into two fancy cordial glasses.
Tags: cocktail recipe, Cocktail Recipes, dark rum, Dark Spirits, Friday Night Cocktail, hibiscus flowers, What I'm Drinking
Posted in: Cocktail Recipes, Dark Spirits, Recipes, Rum, What I'm Drinking
March 26, 2013
It’s nice to know that the classics were full of Cocktail Talk. And nice to know that I’m still tappng into those great books, the Compleat Imbibers, those British compendiums of drink, wine, glassware, poetry, and so much more that everyone should pick up if they ever get a chance. If you don’t get a chance, well, read this quote:
Drinkers, such as Horace, were regularly mentioned in the New Year’s Honours. Indeed, Horace’s great ode on the defeat of Cleopatra begins, symbolically, with the words ‘Nunc est bibendum’: ‘Now for a drink.’ It is as if some patriotic American poet, the late Robert Frost perhaps, were to have celebrated the annihilation of an infinitely seductive female Mao tse Tung by demanding a Manhattan.
–Peter Dickinson, Love, Liquor, and Classical Learning, from The Compleat Imbiber 6
March 22, 2013
So, I’m in Italy. And since it’s springtime, and sunny, I’m sitting outside of Bar Pina (which is outside of Umbertide), one of the finest spots anywhere to sit in the sun and have a beer. I mean, it’s in Italy. Which means that this Friday Night Cocktail isn’t as fancy as others, but I wouldn’t trade it for any of them. And if you want to feel jealous about it all, well, that’s up to you. But a better impulse might be for you to just come on over to Pina your-own-self. It’s pretty darn fun.
PS: Yeah, Dr. Strange drinks with me when I’m at Pina. And you thought it couldn’t get any better.
