Posted in Spirits on Aug 31st, 2010
Forgo the hearty breakfast and start your day with a cocktail before plowing the fields. Who needs an injection of coffee when Bourbon and mint are on hand? For some hardy southerners in the late 18th century, the Mint Julep was part of their morning ritual akin to shaving and pulling on the trousers. John [...]
I had a roommate who loved car bombs. Let’s call him “Patty”. It started as something he would do at bars, but quickly became a habit he brought home. Nearly every night of the week for months, Patty was shooting them off in our apartment. He’d pour some Bailey’s in a shot glass, top with [...]
Posted in Spirits on Aug 17th, 2010
“Daisy had a hint of bedrooms upstairs more beautiful and cool than other bedrooms…of romances that were not musty and laid away already in lavender….It excited him, too, that many men had already loved Daisy - it increased her value in his eyes.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby I’ve read The Great Gatsby many [...]
Posted in Spirits on Aug 10th, 2010
1920-1933. Prohibition sucked the nightlife out of the scene like one does an oyster from a shell. But the party raged on…albeit behind secret doors and fueled by often dangerous concoctions of bathtub gins and white lightning. And so, many American simply crossed the border to Havana, Cuba where the party heated up in broad [...]
Posted in Beer, NYC Events, Reviews, Spirits, Wine on Aug 6th, 2010
Dearest readers, I am stoked to share some exciting news with you. In addition to my vinous, brewish and libatious duties here at Grapes & Grains, I am pleased to announce that I will be expanding my reach further into the realm of the blogosphere… I have been invited to join the staff of the New [...]
Posted in Spirits on Aug 3rd, 2010
The sight must have been incredible. A whir of flashing metal cocktail shakers streaked the bar from end to end as the crowd crushed in around you. There they stood. Thirty-five “shaker boys” all earnestly focusing as their arms screamed from the pain of ceaseless shaking. It is said that to properly make a Ramos [...]
Posted in Spirits on Aug 2nd, 2010
The streets of the French Quarter were given a full shake and an Absinthe rinse for the 5-day fiesta that was the 8th Annual Tales of the Cocktail. Bartenders, barbacks, barmaids, bar wenches and bar geeks invaded New Orleans once again this year for what has become the premier yearly gathering for spirit hounds. Just [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jul 27th, 2010
“Miner’s lady, stranger to blue water. Dark and dusty, painted on the sky. Misty taste of moonshine, teardrops in my eye. Country roads, take me home. To the place where I belong.” -John Denver Every country has it’s hillbillies. Its backwaters where the yokels live by their own rules. For Brazil, these people are called [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jul 20th, 2010
“Oo la la…who is that dashing American in the leather jacket?” “Why that’s Captain Sidecar, mademoiselle. But you be careful with his kind.” The Hôtel Ritz is one of the grandest, most opulent hotels in the world. Built in 1898 in the heart of Paris, its bar saw the likes of Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jul 13th, 2010
As the Gulf Coast wakes up to another morning of promises from their good friend, BP, the world waits to see if their latest containment cap scheme will finally stop the gushing oil. After 83 days of being pounded by black crude, the Louisiana Bayou has been sent through the ringer. Add to that, the [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jul 6th, 2010
There was a time when pilots were heroes and the nation was fascinated by their exploits in the sky. Captain Sully Sullenberger aside (you are a prince among men, sir), we’ve moved into a new realm of hero. Like Justin Bieber, for instance–I mean, like, wow, how does he get those bangs so perfect? But [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jun 29th, 2010
A bullfight is the most hypnotically awful event I have ever seen. I’m glad I went that hot afternoon in Seville, but have no desire to return. Strangely elegant in its mismatched death, one of the haunting images that has stuck with me is that of the bull’s blood being mixed in with the sand [...]
Posted in Beer, G&G Videos, NYC Events, Spirits, Wine on Jun 25th, 2010
North Williamsburg. On a rather desolate block, a mini-Mecca for libation lovers awaits in two-story glory. Be you beer geek, cocktail purist or refined wino, this is your place. All under one gloriously designed roof and with a level of hospitality that will warm any NY’ers heart. The Counting Room, at 44 Barry Street in Brooklyn, plays [...]
Posted in Spirits on Jun 22nd, 2010
Spin the bottle? No, baby, spin the bar! Why play childish games when we can ride the booze carousel? The Hotel Monteleone in downtown New Orleans, not only has a revolving bar, but is the place to get down to some serious libation business. Today, it’s the home to Tales of the Cocktail, the five [...]
Can the spirit of the land be captured in a bottle? Can time, geography and culture be turned into liquid? Yes it can. The Finger Lakes is a place of magic with rolling countrysides, vineyards, orchards, lakes and hamlets that remind me more of Ireland than the US. And there, Finger Lakes Distilling is cranking [...]
