Hear ye, imbibers of the Hub. I’ve been brushing up on my Boston booze history, and I thought it would be fun to lead, you know, a little salon with fellow boozehound-historians interested in the topic. So I mentioned this to Adam Lantheaume of the Boston Shaker one day, and he said, ‘Why don’t we do a class?’ And I said, ‘You’re on.’
“A brief history of drinking in Boston” will take place Monday, August 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Boston Shaker, which resides in the Union Square, Somerville, store named Grand. Tix are $20 (includes cocktails). Topics on the agenda include:
Colonial taverns
The New England ice industry & Boston’s role in the evolution of cocktails
Saloons
Massachusetts temperance and prohibition laws
Locke-Ober and the Parker House
Scollay Square
The Cocoanut Grove fire
Tiki bars
The revival of classic mixology in Boston
Sure, it’ll be educational, but it’ll also be informal and festive, as Adam and I will be serving samples of both classic and new Boston cocktails, including a Ward Eight made with Sazerac 6-Yr Rye (aka Baby Saz). Whether you know beans about Boston bar history or work for a tour company called the Boston Hooch ‘n’ History Trail (in which case we need to get acquainted), reserve yourself a spot — you’re bound to learn something.
» Interested in going to bartending school? A website called Groupon, which posts daily deals in various cities, including Boston, is today advertising a $445 course at the DrinkMaster Bartending School for only $150. I know nothing of this school’s reputation, but, hey, it sounds like a deal worth exploring for those so inclined.
» Storied Seattle bartender Murry Stenson of the ZigZag Cafe recently celebrated his 60th birthday with a group of fellow bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts, including Jeffrey Morgenthaler, who was soliciting toasts for the fête from Murray fans nationwide. Even though I’ve never met the man, he has bought me drinks on two occasions through other bartenders. So I got together with two ladies from LUPEC Boston—Misty Kalkofen of Drink, who has also been remotely treated to drinks by Murray, and Kirsten Amman, who recently actually met him in person—to pen an homage (after downing a few cocktails, of course). To our delight, it was transcribed into “one of Murray’s first-edition copies of Embury,” says Morgenthaler. Yes. One of them.
Here it is: “Legend has it there is a bartender in the Northwest named Murray Stenson. His myth echoes from the Pacific through the hills of the Midwest, past the Isle of Manhattan, up the coast of the Atlantic. His legend comes bearing twenties to the heirs of the Pilgrim Rum. Puritans near and far long for the opportunity to glimpse Seattle’s beacon of hospitality. For now, we raise our tankards to the gracious man who touches the heart of Boston. Happy birthday, Murray, from a city of folks who love you though we’ve never met you. We look forward to having you at our bars.”
» Check out this clever montage of Boston bar and cocktail folk (including me) shaking their tails off to a soundtrack by dSonic.
President Obama, acknowledging his part in spurring the media circus around the arrest of Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. through his “stupid” remark about the case (which has by now been downgraded from Exhibit A: Racial Profiling Epidemic to Unfortunate Incident), and wanting to shut that circus down so that we can resume talking about life-and-death stuff like health care and the war in Afghanistan, is having Gates and Cambridge Police Sgt. James Crowley over to the White House on Thursday for a beer.
Whether or not we agree that this particular presidential summit is warranted, I think we can agree on the notion of getting together over a beer to solve problems. It should happen way more often. But hearing what kind of beer each gentleman requested disappointed me. From the Reuters blogs:
Asked what beer the president might have, [Spokesman Robert] Gibbs observed that Obama drank a Budweiser at the baseball All-Star Game a couple of weeks ago.
“Sgt. Crowley mentioned when the president offered this on the phone Friday that he likes Blue Moon,” said Gibbs. Blue Moon is a Belgian-style white beer brewed by Molson Coors.
Gates told the Boston Globe he was a fan of Red Stripe, a Jamaican lager, and Beck’s, a German lager.
Oh, god. Bud, Blue Moon and Beck’s? Really, gentlemen? Is the meeting at a Ruby Tuesday’s or something? Not to mention the fact that every one of these brews is made by a global conglomerate. Can I interest you in something still well-known (i.e. not “elitist”) but American-made — Sam Adams, maybe? Fitting that it originates from the city across the river from the incident. Or maybe the Cambridge guys could bring a local brew from their city, while Obama brings a D.C.-made beer to the table. I suggest, given Crowley’s taste for unfiltered wheat ales, that he grab a growler of hefe-weizen from the Cambridge Brewing Co. Mr. President, you bring some Capitol City Kolsch for yourself and Mr. Gates. That way you get symbolism and flavor.
You’re welcome. Let me know if I can be of any further help.
I followed up my how2heroes video on Boston’s Ward Eight cocktail with this one on the Red Rot Cocktail. You may recall that Misty Kalkofen and I created this confection for a party at the Boston Athenaeum. It’s inspired by the “red rot cocktail” that book restorers use to bring musty, old, red leather-bound books back to life. Never thought you’d see footage of rotting book covers in a cocktail video, did you?
The great thing about the video is that we actually got to shoot it in the historic, Beacon Street building that houses the Athenaeum. If you’ve never been there, you should pop in someday and check out the first floor and gallery areas. Better yet, become a member and get access to the whole place. You can check out books, attend lectures (I’ve been to some really good ones) and other events, and bring your laptop and work in a spacious, art-and-antique-filled room overlooking the Granary Burying Ground. Contrary to any preconceptions you may have, you don’t have to be a blue-blooded retiree to join. All you need is a credit card and a couple of references.
As for the cocktail (recipe here): it’s pretty, it’s tasty, it’s balanced, and it’s accessible. Serve it to your vodka-swilling friends, and they will be converted to the ways of gin.
That World’s Biggest Bar Crawl seminar I talked about in my previous post about Tales ’09? It just dawned on me: why not offer up the whole list? I know there are more than a few globetrotters among you drinkbostonians, and, hey, if you find yourself in Barcelona or Hong Kong looking for a serious, historic, plush, legendary or otherwise kick-ass bar, just keep this list in your phone or tattoo it on your thigh or something. Here they are, in order of mention, and with a few sparse notes I took:
Carousel Bar (New Orleans); Florida Room (Miami); La Floridita (Cuba); Merchant Hotel bar (Belfast); Quaich Bar — 1,000 single malts (Speyside, Scotland ); Bramble — built for just £16,000 (Edinburgh ); Bar 50 — home to the world-famous Peter Sellers lookalike and Breakfast Martini inventor Salvatore Calabrese, Dukes Hotel, Quo Vadis, Milk & Honey, the LAB (London); Blackfriars Distillery Bar — shameless plug from brand ambassador Simon Ford (Plymouth, England); Apoteke (Tromso, Norway); Ruby (Copenhagen); Hemingway Bar, Harry’s New York Bar (Paris); Widder Bar (Zurich); Barfly’s Club — 60 different ryes! (Vienna); Dry Martini — over 1 million served, Boadas — here they “throw” drinks between giant shakers like in Jerry Thomas’ day (Barcelona); Paparazzi, UFO (Bratislava, Slovakia); Le Lion de Paris (Hamburg); Schumann’s (Munich); Becketskoff (Berlin); Nottingham Forest — molecular mixology pioneer (Milan); Door 74 (Amsterdam); Burj al Arab — world’s priciest cocktail (Dubai); Sky Bar (Moscow); Felix, Captain’s Bar, China Club (Hong Kong); Olives (Mumbai); Rick’s (Delhi); Raffles — originator of Singapore Sling but a depressing tourist trap, Tippling Club (Singapore); Constellation (Shanghai); High Five — jaw-dropping technique, Tender Bar — six different shaking techniques, carved ice cubes (Tokyo); Bayswater Brasserie (Sydney); Der Raum, Tiki Bar, 1806 (Melbourne); Motel, Matterhorn (Wellington, NZ); Cafe Tortoni (Buenos Aires); Andres Carne de Res — filled with junk (Bogota, Colombia); Westin Hotel bar — home of the Caesar (Calgary); Zig Zag, Vessel (Seattle); Bel Ami (Portland); Bix, Tommy’s, Bourbon & Branch (San Francisco); Doheny, the Edison (L.A.); Downtown Hotel (Dawson City, Yukon Territory); Churchill Downs (Kentucky); Pegu Club, King Cole bar in the St. Regis Hotel, P.J. Clarke’s, PDT, Death & Co., Randall (NYC); Drink (Boston); the Gibson, Bourbon (Washington D.C.); Absinthe House, Alibi (New Orleans). Extra credit: Vodka & Shotguns (Lithuania).
I have only been to a handful of these places. Got some travelin’ to do.
"Lauren Clark takes readers on a supremely sudsy tour of New England ales, lagers, pilsners, and porters. This is the New England the Puritans warned everybody about, but few have chronicled."
– Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails
