March 19th, 2009
Were you wondering what was happening to the space formerly occupied by Somerville’s most venerable live-music venue, the Abbey Lounge? Here’s what:
March 18, 2009 (SOMERVILLE, MA) Trina’s Starlite Lounge, a restaurant and bar located at 3 Beacon Street in Inman Square, is slated to open Summer 2009. Owners Josh Childs (co-owner of Silvertone Bar & Grill) and Trina and Beau Sturm (City Bar and Highland Kitchen, respectively) have sixty years of collective front-of-house and back-of-house experience, including some of Boston’s most notable bars. Together they will bring exceptional service, fun and appealing cocktails and affordable, southern-influenced bar fare to the urban diner in an environment inspired by 1940s and 1950s.
The folks behind Silvertone and Highland Kitchen? Check. A new, hip hangout in the Inman Square vicinity? Check. “Appealing cocktails,” “affordable, southern-influenced bar fare,” and “an environment inspired by 1940s and 1950s?” Check. Unfortunately, however, this will no longer be a live-music venue. And, instead of just being called the Starlite Lounge, it’s called Trina’s Starlite Lounge. Do we really need one of the owner’s names attached? Couldn’t we let the concept speak for itself?
Still, sounds like a place well worth investigating.
In other bar-launch news, I’ve heard a couple of reports that the old B-Side is being gutted (at least partially) in order to make way for the new establishment that will occupy that corner of Windsor and Hampshire in Cambridge. Could we really be in for two new good bars this summer?
Permalink | 19 Comments | Filed under Boston bars | Tags: Abbey Lounge, Inman Square, lounge, music club, somerville
March 15th, 2009
A few nights ago at Eastern Standard, three young, svelte women dressed in figure-hugging gentlemen’s clothes and fedoras approached me and offered to shine my boots. They were part of a promotion for Canadian Club. As we know, CC’s retro, “Damn right your dad drank it” marketing campaign conjures up a bygone era when men were unapologetic scamps, drinking whiskey on the rocks, going fishing, and running around with girls wearing mini-dresses and Aquanet. Or at least getting their shoes shined in a bar by sexy androgynes.
I declined the shoe-shine offer, which, frankly, came only because the men sitting next to me were wearing sneakers. Their cheerfulness unclouded, the CC Girls handed me a tin of shoe polish with the whiskey’s logo and moved on to the next prospect.
‘Oh, the manufactured banality of liquor promotions!’ I thought. But then I had to admit that, not only was this campaign more clever than most (memories of a Captain Morgan night at a Pizzeria Uno long ago, with a band of short-skirted Morganettes accompanying a guy dressed as a pirate, are still vivid), it was for a brand of whiskey. And we weren’t in a steak house; we were in a cocktail bar. A sign of the end of vodka’s hegemony in the world of mixed drinks, perhaps?
Here’s another sign: Bushmills Irish Whiskey has tapped mixologist-bartenders in various cities to join in a St. Patrick’s Day cocktail promotion. The theme: Irish Breakfast. The criteria: drinks must use Bushmills and eggs. Seriously. A mainstream brand of whiskey is pushing egg drinks.
“Talk about ‘old school’ penetrating the mainstream market! The fact that this year a major marketer is investing in that kind of mixology shows how this thing is really spilling out to the general public. Also, it creates some interest among us bar folk. Usually the only ‘opportunities’ like this are tied to this year’s buzzberryflavorofthemoment,” said Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard, who, along with Misty Kalkofen of Drink and Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli of Craigie on Main has created an original cocktail for this event (recipes below). And speaking of Cannon, he is the star of a new online show called Barcraft.
OK, even as we see positive developments like the above, we can always count on stupid developments in the booze world happening right alongside. Like the A-Roid cocktail at Bonfire. According to Boston.com’s Dishing blog, this drink is “a shot of El Mejor tequila, straight up, with a ‘Performance-Enhancing Boost of Spicy Tomato Juice’ (smoked tomatoes, tomato juice, lemon juice, Tabasco, and jalapenos). It comes in a syringe without a needle; you can inject it into the shot or use it as a chaser.”
Actually, it’s helpful when bars offer such clear signs about the clientele they aim to attract. Another brazen example: opening a new bar during a recession that charges $17 for cocktails. Sensing, the restaurant in the exclusive new Fairmont Hotel at Battery Wharf, uses premium spirits and fresh juices and herbs in its drinks. So do a number of other bars around Boston that charge a lot less for their cocktails. I know that high prices are designed to send a message — “Riffraff, keep out” — but in times like these, that sort of message is as insulting as big bonuses for executives of failed banks.
Which, finally, brings me to a strange phenomenon. We’re in the worst economic downturn since the Depression, right? The Dow is where it was in 1966, right? Everyone knows someone who has been laid off recently, right? And yet, business at the bars that drinkboston.com frequents appears to be booming. I know people turn to alcohol when times get tough, but the places I’m talking about — while they’re way cheaper than Sensing — aren’t exactly dive bars with $4 pitcher specials. It warms my heart (and my liver) that good bars are doing good business. But I can’t help but wonder sometimes: Is this the Manic Party Hour before last call?
Ah, never mind. Have a whiskey-and-egg drink.
Bushmills in the Afternoon
Jackson Cannon, Eastern Standard
1 half slice of artisan wheat bread
1 whole egg
1 1/2 oz. Bushmills Irish Whiskey
1/2 oz honey syrup (1 to 1 clover honey and water)
1/2 oz fresh squeezed orange juice
Dash of house bitters
Muddle the bread with 2 oz. whiskey for 1 minute, and pass through tea strainer. It will yield 1 1/2 oz. of wheat bread-infused Bushmills Irish Whiskey. Add the rest of the ingredients and dry shake for 1 minute. Add ice and shake for two more minutes. Strain into coup glass and garnish with fresh grated cinnamon.
Boyd’s Midday Fizz
Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli, Craigie on Main
1 1/4 oz. Bushmills Irish Whiskey
1/8 oz. allspice liqueur
3/4 oz. beet juice reduced and infused with clove, allspice, coriander
1/4 oz. agave syrup
Pinch of salt
Dash of Angostura bitters
Dash of orange bitters
White of one egg
Shake hard and strain into a chilled Collins glass without ice. Top with 4 ounces of Belgian-style ale.
Irish Coffee Fizz
Misty Kalkofen, Drink
3/4 oz. Bushmills Irish Whiskey
1/2 oz. dark rum
1/4 oz. Navan Vanilla Liqueur
1/2 oz. simple syrup
8 coffee beans
1 oz. egg white
1/2 oz. cream
1 oz. soda water
Shake spirits, muddled coffee, egg white, and simple syrup in a shaker with no ice. Add cream and ice and shake vigorously. Strain into chilled single rocks glass which contains one ounce of simple syrup.
Permalink | 8 Comments | Filed under Booze in the news, Tequila, Whiskey | Tags: A-Rod, Bushmills, Canadian Club, egg drinks, recession, St. Patrick's Day
March 7th, 2009
Save this date: Saturday, April 4. Drinkboston will co-host a tiki party at Eastern Standard beginning at 2:00 p.m. There’ll be exotica and “tiki noir” spun by Brother Cleve, tiki education and artifacts by co-hosts the Fraternal Order of the Moai, and, of course, deliciously potent tiki cocktails by the bar staff at Eastern Standard.
Now, for those who think “syrupy umbrella drinks made with powdered mixes” when they think “tiki drink,” I got news for you: this event will feature Real Tiki Drinks — the kind made with fresh-squeezed juices, traditional liqueurs, and layers of aged rum. When you try a couple, you’ll understand … and you’ll turn into one of those people who run around Boston looking for all manner of hard-to-find rums.
Stay tuned for details and ticket info.
Permalink | 9 Comments | Filed under Cocktails, Events, Rum | Tags: tiki
March 6th, 2009
Hey, imbibers, guess what? Drinkboston’s been nominated for the Boston Phoenix’s 2009 “best” issue, and your vote is crucial!
The category: Boston’s Best Blog/Podcast. The stakes: high. The payback: a giant bowl of punch on Boston Common? A keg party at Redbones? A group hug at Eastern Standard? Oh, I’ll think of something.
While you’re at it, check out (and place your vote for) some of our old friends in the Best Bartender and Best Bar categories.
Permalink | No Comments | Filed under Bartenders, Booze in the news, Boston bars, drinkboston in the news | Tags: Boston Phoenix Best 2009
March 5th, 2009
By Scott N. Howe
Here’s my problem, and it’s what some would call a nice problem to have. I never know much to tip a bartender who’s given me a free drink.
Now, of course, the idea that a barman/maid would be doling out cocktails on the sly to a favored customer is the kind of thing that would send many a bar manager into a yelling, kicking, firing rampage. But let’s face it. It happens. And it’s great that it does.
Once in a while a regular customer, someone who tips well and isn’t a nuisance, is rewarded with one on-the-house or a little something knocked off the tab. It’s a reward. A low-cost, highly appreciated “thanks” for making life behind the bar a little nicer. And it goes a long way. A freebie reinforces good behavior and builds customer loyalty. Besides, it’s a nice thing to do, and what goes around comes around. Karma, and all that.
I’ve been very fortunate to have been, from time to time, on the receiving end of a free drink or two or a suspiciously skimpy bar tab. It’s a wonderful feeling. At first. Then the dread kicks in. How much do I tip? I mean, I must overtip, but do I compensate for the free drink’s price penny for penny? Do I figure out what the actual bill would have been, then split the difference? Do I need a calculator? An accountant? A clue?
So, I turn to you, readers of drinkboston. What’s the tipping point?
Permalink | 15 Comments | Filed under Bartenders | Tags: buy-backs, free drinks, Scott N. Howe, tipping
