Return to Palace of Wonders

Homeless Rob and I went to Palace of Wonders last weekend.  

Homeless had never been there.  I hadn't been there in many moons (that equals a couple of years).  The weather had been getting silly and it was time to hit up a real Friday night freak show.  

So I figured, why not take the trip out to H Street in NE and check out the Palace?

If you live close to Washington DC and you haven't been to Palace of Wonders (or POW as the kids call it) you're missing out on a truly twisted saloon in the heart of the district.   

 

It is essentially a Vaudevillian carnival side-show style bar.  It was once owned by Jeremy Pollock and Bernie Bernstrom of Tonic (my current part-time employers).  They threw a kick-ass Tonic Holiday Party at POW once upon a time.  The twist was that this "holiday party" was at the end of January. 

These fools dug out all of the Christmas decorations, costumes, and music that had been out only a month before.  It was as if you had walked into Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. 

This night we caught the Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow with Tyler Fyre, Thrill Kill Jill, and company.  They're maniacs.  Bonus win.

I had mostly seen the show before thanks to that Tonic Holiday party.  I could tell that they had switched up some of their act.  This show was heavy with audience participation and big on spectacle.  Tyler does many things to WOW/repulse the audience. 

One of his bread and butter shenanigans is a bit where he sticks a condom-wrapped screwdriver into his nose.  He did that.  Furthermore, moreover and therefore he proceeded to move it in and out of his nostril!  He even went so far as to pull the screwdriver out of his nose, leaving the condom flaccidly in place, allowing him to use it like a floss.  Like he was flossing his sinuses.  True story.

It was fucking hilarious.

We were blessed with a few slinky burlesque acts throughout the show.  Thrill Kill Jill and Peek-a-Boo Point (great names).  The stripteases were done pretty tastefully and basically added another level of old-school showbiz to the production. 

The show continued with a comical ukulele act here and there.  I bet this guy is pretty burned out from people trying and compare him to Tiny Tim.  I mean it's the first thing I thought about.

Eventually, Thrillshow went into a short intermission.  Homeless Rob and I took the opportunity to reload on booze. 

When Tyler Fyre returned, we got to see the most hell-raising part of the Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow - Tyler Fyre's pyrotechnics!

This was where Tyler Fyre was truly impressive.  Or truly crazy.  

First, he ate fire.  I can't say that I've seen anyone else eat fire other than Tyler.  But he made love to it with his mouth.     

Then, the real fireworks happened.  As the climax to the show, Tyler took a swig of a little bottle and began shooting fireballs from his mouth.   

It was friccckkken awesome.  Homeless Rob liked loved it.  And he thinks everything is over-rated!

We had a great time at Palace.  I imagine I'll make my way out there again sometime soon.  There's quite a few establishments I've yet to explore on H street.  What a great bar here in DC.  If you got a free Friday night, take a trip out to 12th and H in NE DC and check this freakshow out!

A Rube Goldberg Device That Makes Cocktails

I saw this on Cocktailians.  I believe the person who made this Rube Goldberg device is the same person who created the one for the OK Go video This Too Shall Pass.  The funny thing is that this contraption can actually mix drinks quicker than some bartenders I know.



If you couldn't tell, the cocktail was a Greyhound. 

Making My Own Grenadine

So I'm making my own grenadine based off Morgenthaler's recipe.  The idea is to try the recipe.  Test it.  Tweek it.  Then recreate cocktails like the Hemingway Daiquiri, the Tequila Sunrise, or Jack's Rose.  Any cocktail that has grenadine in its ingredients is up for revisting with my own home-made stuff.  I won't relive Jeffrey's post on the subject but I wanted to post the pictures of my own attempt.  So without further adooooo....

I'll report on my progress soon.

The Foggy Bottom Breeze

The cocktail menu is being updated for the spring and the management has asked the bartenders for some ideas.  I came up with this drink on a whim and it came out tasting pretty good.  And, since I formulated it at the bar, I decided to name it after the wonderful Foggy Bottom neighborhood. 

The Foggy Bottom Breeze

- 1 oz St Germaine Elderflower Liqueur
- 2 oz of Sauvignon Blanc
- 3 basil leaves
- 3/4 oz simple syrup
- 1 1/2 oz of soda water

Glassware: chilled martini/cocktail glass

Pour 3/4 oz of simple syrup into a glass.  Add 2 basil leaves and lightly muddle them at the bottom of the glass with the simple syrup (just enough to open up the veins).  Mix 1 oz of St Germaine and 2 oz of Sauvignon Blanc into a Boston shaker with ice.  Take the basil leaves out of the glass and throw them away.  Add the simple syrup to the Boston shaker and shake well.  Pour the mixture into a chilled martini glass.  Add 1 1/2 oz of soda water.  Garnish with the last basil leaf (this leaf should be much smaller than the others for garnishing purposes).  Enjoy.

Next Song for the Jukebox

Gimmick Alert!

True Story.

Cocktail Pairing at PS7's

Sherette Williams was in Tonic marinating on a glass of Gran Marnier.  She told me that she found the perfect dining experience for Nicole and I.  Gina Chersevani and head chef/owner Peter Smith set up a cocktail pairing menu at PS7's in Chinatown.  Sherette said if Nic and I tried it, we'd "fucking love it."  

Then I happened to stumble upon Jane Black's article in the Washington Post about her experiance at this cocktail pairing. 

Needless to say, the sense of urgency had doubled.  So I asked Sherette to set up a reservation as soon as she could.    

She did.  We went.  And guess what...

We fucking loved it.

So when we arrived, Sherette had set up a spot at the bar for us.  They gave us this little menu which lays out the cocktail/food pairings that you'd be experiencing.  Each plate had some basic descriptions of the ingredients.  Both the cocktails and the food had some pretty imaginative names.  Many of the names had some sort of funny story behind them as we came to find out. 

From my perspective, the arrangement of the cocktails in the menu had a particular order.  In fact, I'd even say there was some symmetry, at least in the first part of the menu.  Here's what I mean:

Cocktail List:
a) Tea Punch
b) Cytron Sake
b) Soooo... Sake
a) Toasted Spice Punch

I realized also that we'd experience not only a symmetrical layout but also a slight historical progression. 

Did Gina set the menu up on purpose?  I dunno.  But it was fun to try and interpret it.

The first cocktail was Tea Punch.  Punch is considered the first version of drinks that we now consider to be cocktails.  British sailors had been drinking punch in their travels throughout the British Empire, especially India. In fact, the word "punch" is believed to be an Indian word (thank you Wikipedia). Anyway, the bartender tells us a little about the drink and how this particular punch was used by sailors to fight scurvy. And shlabadabading dong if it didn't kill my scurvy.  The pure lime was the most noticeable flavor initially. 

But once that initial lime flavor subsided you began to taste the other ingrediants.  The tea, the sweetness, the rum.  All of these flavors are bouncing off of each other, ready for interaction with our first course.

The Cast Iron plate was one of the most delicious vegetarian dishes that I have ever had.  A genuine vegetarian dish bursting with flavor.  I was sad to see it go so quickly. 

Did the Tea Punch pair with the Cast Iron well?  Sure.  It all had a very earthy theme.  The celery root, mushrooms, and the sweet potato were a great match for the tea.  Meanwhile, it kept things light with the citrus of the lime.  I got it.

Next, the Cytron Sake which I can't even begin to explain.  It had a very classic cocktail look.  The citrus garnish was an exclamation.  The curveball flavors of the sake and hibiscus tea.  It certainly wasn't lacking in flavors to explore.

The Red Bullet plate was fantastic.  Win.

The (snack pack attack) dish was the molecular side to the experience.  Thin, crisp, chip-like wafers.  Bite one, you taste popcorn.  Bite another, you taste beef jerky or a frito lay flavor.  It was a fun departure from the rest of the meal.

The best drink of the night.  It was called Soooo....Sake.  It was so good I crushed it well before receiving the Pho dish it was meant to accompany.  It was light and refreshing.  I fancied the pineapple trident garnish.  Believe it or not, this beauty had Miller High Life as one of its ingredients.  I could have drank these all night.  Bonus win.

At this point, you would have noticed that you had crossed the axis of the symmetrical menu.  Have I given you vertigo yet?  Anyway, the sake drinks mirrored each other.  Only this sake drink was little less classical and fitted a more contemporary sensability. 

The Pho dish.  God almighty I loved this dish.  The menu listed noodle, Thai basil, sprout.  The protein consisted of duck with a dabble of foie gras. 

Did it pair with the cocktail well? I couldn't think of anything else that I'd put with that dish.  Gina nailed it. 

Our next beverage was the Toasted Spice Punch.  The ingredients were Old Overholt Rye Whiskey, Navan, powdered sugar,fresh apple cider, orange peels, bitters, soda water and roasted cardamom pods/cinnamon sticks/whole star anise.  It was refreshing and clean.

I felt like this cocktail was meant to mirror the Tea Punch at the beginning of the meal.  The punch was a little more modern.  And it paired well the next dish...

The Tatonka.  Bison.  This dish reminded you why it is not a sin to be a meat-eater.  Nicole said that this animal died happy.  I guess I had never really thought of it like that.  Anyway, it was perfectly prepared.  I couldn't help but notice the crisp earthiness with the apple and the rutabaga.  It was delicious.

Effin Starbucks was a steamy, nutty, sipper drink.  It was accompanied by the chocolaty nugglet you see below.

Perfectly sized.  It was a hazelnut mousse with a chocolate coating and I could barely fit it into my stomach.  I liked the presentation: an almost Impressionist chocolate paint brush stroke.

Finally, we had the scorched milk.  By this time, I could barely remember my own name.  And, while I tried hard to record some of my thoughts for this blog in the moment.  At a certain point, the alcohol took a hold and I was loopy.

In the end, Gina Chersevani put together a great pairing and Peter Smith's dishes were wonderful.  Before the end of the experience, we had a great time chatting with the people that worked there.  

Thank you Peter, Sherette, Andrew, Eric, Frank, and Jason.  We had a wonderful time.

Next Song for the Jukebox

Bill Murray Bartends at SXSW 2010

I've always been a huge fan of Bill Murray.  Ever since I was a kid.  He has been, arguably, the funniest man on the planet for well over three decades now.  Since this is a blog about booze and the industry that surrounds it I figured this video would be a treat - particularly for bartenders.

Rum Runners

Anyone who knows me knows that I know politics. I am actually kind of a political junky. But that's all I'll say about that...


I found this report interesting. Booze politics is surprisingly very involved in the tides of history. Anyway, let NPR's Greg Allen educate you on the politics of rum - Enjoy.

Pick Your Poison

I just read this article by Deborah Blum in Slate:

The U.S. Treasury Department, charged with overseeing alcohol enforcement, estimated that by the mid-1920s, some 60 million gallons of industrial alcohol were stolen annually to supply the country's drinkers. In response, in 1926, President Calvin Coolidge's government decided to turn to chemistry as an enforcement tool. Some 70 denaturing formulas existed by the 1920s. Most simply added poisonous methyl alcohol into the mix. Others used bitter-tasting compounds that were less lethal, designed to make the alcohol taste so awful that it became undrinkable [...] By mid-1927, the new denaturing formulas included some notable poisons — kerosene and brucine (a plant alkaloid closely related to strychnine), gasoline, benzene, cadmium, iodine, zinc, mercury salts, nicotine, ether, formaldehyde, chloroform, camphor, carbolic acid, quinine, and acetone. The Treasury Department also demanded more methyl alcohol be added — up to 10 percent of total product. It was the last that proved most deadly.

Amazing stuff.  Is this where the phrase "pick your poison" comes from?  I dunno.  But I do know that I almost completely agree with the analysis by Megan McArdle from The Atlantic.  Her blog entry in Asymmetrical Information reads: 

I wish I could say I found it surprising, but it seem to me to be of a piece with too many other brutalities in American law.  We pass a law with the best of intentions, and find it doesn't work, and so we pass new regulations and policies designed to crack down on non-compliance, until we are brutalizing the population all out of proportion to the original good we were pursuing.  Consider the way we have cracked down on pain medications, impeding the effectiveness of pain control for people in chronic agony out of the fear that somewhere, someone might be getting high.

This unfortunate story, if you think about it, is an ancestor to so many things that are currently going on.  I think just like anything else it's important to note a few things.  First, it's really not astonishing to me that our government did something as brutal as this.  It's more important to me that we learn something from it and ensure our government knows it's pretty much unacceptable to start putting incrementally poisonous doses of formaldehyde in junk food.  There are better ways of curbing the appetite of Bebe's kids in America. 

Furthermore, I think we all can think of other activities that are currently illegal but seem pretty pointless to prosecute.  Dare I say, pointless to the level that prosecution produces no greater good to the society than other more progressive alternatives? 

I digress...

The reason this story relates so closely to this blog and cocktail making in 2010 is crystal clear.  For starters, the application of science and the principles of chemistry in cocktails have become more frequent (albeit less for the reason of outright poisoning people).  Now, I don't know very much about chemistry so this thought may seem a little ridiculous.  But I am curious to know if any of the same principles and/or processes that were used by bootleggers (and, consequently, U.S. Treasury Department chemists) are used by anyone for today's alcohol experimentations in any capacity.  Now be easy.  I'm pretty sure Todd Thrasher from PX isn't playing with strychnine in his cocktails.  I'm also not trying to take mixology to a whole new level or anything.  Maybe this is over-simplifying the science here, but it is the poisonous properties of alcohol that makes us loopy after all. 

It would just be a fascinating topic to explore.    

Anyway, this sinister application of chemistry juxtaposed against the scientific renaissance in bartending we've seen in the past decade also kind of imparts some signal that our society has progressed.  It may seem like a stretch but many times it feels like our society often flips aspects of its shadowy past around into a light-hearted, powerful or poignant symbol.  In turn, as a relic, it helps to enrich the culture even more moving forward.  Ok, so maybe I got too deep there... 

Anyway, I think it should also be noted that the scientific approach to hooch has developed an aura of professionalism in cocktail-making for some parts of the industry.  Maybe its a prestige that is long overdue.  The once comical scientific-sounding term "mixology" or the professional-scientist-sounding "mixologist" somehow gained some degree of legitimacy. 

The prohibition history of this story also relates more obviously in the speakeasy-style bar concepts have sprung up in cities like Washington D.C. (Have they peaked?  Read Derek Brown's entry regarding Gossip Girl).

History is pretty crazy when you get down into it.  And there's a great deal of history in the bar/booze industry.  I guess you can tell I'll take any chance I get to learn and talk about it.  If you'd like to expand on any of these ideas feel free to comment.

Next Song for the Jukebox

The Rusty Root

So I brought my bottle of ROOT liqueur to Tonic with me.  I've been playing with a concoction quite a bit by now (as you can see from a few posts ago) so I had a drink ready for people to try.  Lucky for me, a bunch of my friends made it to the bar to booze it up. 

The drink was a hit.  It was limited only by the fact that we only had enough in the bottle to make approximately 8 drinks.  Here's the recipe for it.  I'm not totally sure someone hasn't already come up with this.  My inspiration was Dark & Stormies.  I call this the Rusty Root.

The Rusty Root

2 oz ROOT liqueur
Gosling's Ginger Beer
2 limes wedges

Glassware: pint glass

Squeeze one lime wedge into a pint glass and drop in.  Fill the glass with ice.  Pour 2 oz of ROOT liqueur into the glass.  Pour Gosling's Ginger Beer on top.  Squeeze the other lime on top and mix.  Enjoy.

Vegan Beer, Wine and Liquor Guide

The good folks at Barnivore have put together a beer, wine and liquor guide for vegans.  I took particular interest in the Barnivore beer guide.  There were some brewing companies that I wasn't really surprised to see as vegan friendly (Anchor Brewing Company, Rogue Ales, etc).  Then there were the brewing companies I was surprised about (Mickey's?  Who knew).  Anyway, anybody who knows me knows that I am certainly not a vegan.  But I thought the guide was interesting and maybe even helpful to those of you in the other Green Revolution.  Sláinte!

Art in the Age - ROOT Liqueur

I love moments like this... meandering your way through experimentation until a solid cocktail is found. I got a bottle of ROOT liqueur from my good friend Virginia Lee for Christmas last year. I brought the bottle to Tonic with three ROOT cocktail recipes ready to test out.  My guinea pigs? Tonic employees who were going to be sitting down to have their shift drink anyway.

I first undertook the Rootini. While the name itself sends shivers down my spine (see Derek Brown’s Goodbye to '80s Bartending Trends entry #1) I decided to give it whirl. Here’s the ingredients:

The Rootini

2 oz ROOT liqueur
½ oz Navan
Splash of heavy cream
Granulated sugar

Glassware: chilled martini glass

Begin chilling down a martini glass. In a shaker, add ice and 2 oz of ROOT liqueur. Add ½ oz of Navan and a splash of heavy cream. Rim the chilled martini glass with the granulated sugar. Shake the ingredients vigorously in the shaker and pour straight up into the martini glass.

So this cocktail received a mixed response. Some people hated it. Some people didn’t mind it. Those two reactions told me it wasn’t quite ready for prime time. OR this cocktail will need time for a little more experimentation to hit the right flavors.

I worked on this particular drink throughout the evening when I could. Then, as things began to wind down, I thought about the ROOT and ginger beer cocktail I’d seen. So I decided to start off simply putting ROOT with Gosling’s Ginger Beer. The result was great and it got a good reception from everybody. My bar manager, Doug, called it "a great summer drink." So keep this in mind when the warm weather comes back to DC.  I'll keep experimenting. 

Next Song for the Jukebox

Anchor Bar for Superbowl XLIV

For Superbowl XLIV, Nicole took me to Anchor Bar, home of the original Buffalo wing. We found ourselves a seat close to the bar. Nicole and I got a couple of Labatt’s, a beef on weck, and a plate of Buffalo wings. And yes the Buffalo wings kicked ass. They were crispy and sloppy.

Jim's SteakOut - Buffalo, New York

Nicole has been begging me to come to Buffalo, New York ever since we met. It’s her hometown. Most of all, she wanted me to have her favorite "junk food" - a Chicken Finger Sub from Jim’s SteakOut. She’s obsessed with it. So we went to Buffalo just as Washington DC was being consumed by a record-breaking blizzard (ironically, Buffalo was forecast to get no significant snow accumulation).

We made our way to Elmwood Avenue to the Jim’s SteakOut location of Nicole’s childhood. We ordered. And I am happy to report that the Chicken Finger Sub lives up to the hype. If you happen to be in Buffalo, New York stop by Jim’s SteakOut and grab one. Then grab another for the road.

Note: This post has been revised since its original publication