|
|
|
Ardent Spirits e-letter
Volume 9, Issue 5, April 12, 2007
by Gary
Regan
and Mardee Haidin Regan
© 2007 Reganomics, Inc.
|
Ardent Spirits is a free e-mail newsletter for anyone and everyone with an interest in cocktails, bars, bartenders, distilled spirits, and beverage-related topics. If you were forwarded this letter from somebody else, then to become a subscriber, just click here to sign up. |
This issue of the Ardent Spirits e-letter is sponsored in part by each of these fine products,*
so click on ‘em why doncha? Help us keep ‘em happy.
EditorialHi there: If you read our last missive you’ll know about the tragic death of our friend, Chuck O’Connor. His friend, Al Lopez, is looking for someone to help him on the technical end of putting up a web site that will serve as a vehicle to raise money for a trust fund for Chuck’s daughter, so is there’s anyone out there who can help, please e-mail Al here. Chuck’s friends are also working on holding a ‘celebration of life’ reception honoring Chuck in New York, and a golf outing in Chuck’s honor in Florida. We’ll keep you posted. There’s still time to get ticket’s for the charity event next Monday (April 16), that Leo DeGroff has helped organized to benefit a small village in Africa, so please check out our Bartenders Making a Difference piece. And did we mention that we have a new feature in this issue: our very own events calendar. Aren’t we special? This year is looking like it will be the best ever for cocktail freaks, so take a look at what’s going on below. Cheers, Mardee & Gary In This Issue:
Bartenders Making a Difference THIS MONDAY, APRIL 16TH, NYC Join Bartenders Gary Regan and Leo DeGroff and celebrate promoting education in Africa. 100% of ticket sales go to providing a West Africa village Elementary School with enough desks so the children have a place to sit and learn.
Cheap Date
Gary was in La Belle France recently. And he was in good company, too. World renowned mixologist Brian Van Flandern was there (best known for his creativity at Thomas Keller’s Per Se restaurant), Bar Chef Junior Merino who works with Yuri Kato from Cocktail Times were on board, the incredible Jim Meehan from New York’s Gramercy Tavern, came along, and Eben Freeman, the “Cocktails a la Terroir” demon who holds forth at Lexington Bar and Books and is well known for his work in Molecular Mixology, joined this merry bunch of misfits, too. In fact, Gary and Eben were the lads who had a bit of a tiff with a sultry waitress in Cognac. Okay, Gary was the main trouble maker, but it ended well so the less said the better.
We’ll bring you more info on this trip soon, but for the time being we wanted to let you all know about the incredible Pre-Phylloxera Sidecars we had on our last night in France. The wheeze started at the home of Martell cognac where we were treated to tastes of two vintage cognacs, one distilled in 1843, the other in 1875. Both, therefore, were made before the epidemic hit and destroyed most of the vineyards in France. Gary’s tasting notes were stupendous. This one is nutty, and this one is fruity, he said. He’s gone all minimalist on us, you know. As we were leaving the tasting room Gary noticed that there were dregs in the bottom of many of the tasting glasses, and since he’s a green sort of a guy, and didn’t want anything to go to waste, he requested that the remains of these impossible-to-find cognacs be put into a clean bottle for cocktailian pursuits at a later date. And the good folk at Martell complied.
For one reason or another, it was Brian who took control of the bottle, and everyone else forgot about it until, when we sat down for dinner on our final night in Cognac, Brian presented us with a round of Sidecars he’d made with the mixture of the two vintages. How were they? Let’s just say that they might have been the best Sidecars that Gary ever did taste. The miraculous cognac, when put into Brian’s hands, and with a little help from Cointreau and fresh lemon juice, was transformed into an elixir fit for the Gods.
The problem with this story is that we can’t tell you how you, too, can procure this cognac, and neither can we impart Brian’s recipe--cos we never bothered to ask. As compensation, therefore, we bring you this wonderful picture of our happy crew in France, in a pose the likes of which you’ll probably never see again. À votre santé, nos amis.
Gary, our host Jean-Louis Carboniere, Jim Meehan, Brian Van Flandern, Yuri Kato, and Eben Freeman. What happened to Junior Merino?
Oh, there he is . . .
Potent Quotables We think you’re gonna love this one. In fact, we think you might wanna think about buying the whole book after reading this quote from it (and, no, we don’t get a kick-back from Amazon! J ). Gary loved this book, though, so he thinks everyone should love it. Typical, huh? Without further ado, then:
"When does the day turn? Clocks and calendars say midnight, but the man who lives his life by a clock is no better than a robot. Daylight? Letting the sun determine is only slightly less arbitrary. So what? Consciousness? Does the day begin when you rise out of bed into it? Is there a fixed moment when you pass from one to the other? Even awake, Vince has felt the turn from one day to the next; no rule says when it happens, you just know it when it does. If he had to peg it, he'd say closing--when the bars shut down. That's generally when the day ends for Vince."
From Citizen Vince: A Novel, by Jess Walter.
The Cocktailian |
|
Friends and Affiliates The editors of Ardent Spirits are proud to count the following organizations and web sites among their friends
|
|
*Ardent Spirits accepts advertising dollars only from products that are, in the opinion of the editors, of superior quality. For details on advertising rates, etc., please contact Gary at gary@ardentspirits.com |
Just Who Are The Regans Anyway? (Click the Pic to Find Out)
We'd love to hear your comments about Ardent Spirits: What would you like to see more of? What would you like to see less of? Just write to we@ardentspirits.com
|
|
