"Happy Days Are Here Again!!!"

Happy Repeal Day everyone! Make sure you pour yourself (and at least one other person around you) a glass of beer, wine or spirit to celebrate your Constitutional right to booze! 

Cheers!!!

Apparently, California Wasn't So Infusiastic About a Craft-Cocktail Trend, Until Last Wednesday

New York Times Diner's Journal writer, Robert Simonson, has been on the case. I call this "Jacob Grier bait":

"On Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown of California announced that he had signed Senate Bill 32, which overturns a legal vestige of Prohibition that made it unlawful to infuse alcohol with fruits, vegetables, herbs or spices. Such infusions have been popular in the country’s best cocktail bars for several years, and the old rule became a nuisance early last year when State Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents started warning bars like San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch that they were breaking California law with their house-made tinctures and bitters.

To bartenders, the sudden enforcement of the obscure rule was alarming."

Obviously, cracking down on liquor infusions is just asinine.

“More than anything else, it’s similar to developments around the country where cocktail culture has outpaced the legacy of Prohibition laws that exist,” observed Frank Coleman, senior vice president of The Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S., a trade organization representing distillers that spends a lot of its time trying to strike down obsolete, antiliquor laws."

Libertarianism and mixology collide.

(h/t: MixCo)

Note: This post has been revised since its original publication

"Boardwalk Empire" Gets Inside Prohibition

Martin Scorsese teams up with Terrance Winter (of the Sopranos) to recreate Atlantic City, New Jersey during Prohibition.  Steve Buscemi is a racketeer.  Enough said. 

When I reflect on alcohol history in the United States I think of things before and after Prohibition.  Americans' perception of booze remains altered since that era.  I hope we're treated to a superbly brutal series. 

BTW - Episodes I can't wait to see: the celebration after the Volstead Act is implemented into law.