Travels and Adventures

Cocktail Safari

Washington’s Distillery

Tasting the New Vintage Evan Williams Bourbon

Cocktail Safari

We started out at Layla, a middle-eastern joint where we enjoyed Pomegranate Margaritas and a few other delicious potions, and a great selection of appropriate appetizers, and then we popped around the corner to Grace where, as you can see by this picture, they were more than ready for us.

Next stop was Pico, a very upscale Portuguese restaurant where bartender/mad scientist Eben Klemm shook all hell out of his cocktails and entertained us in true bartender fashion.

By the time we got to our last watering hole, Dylan Prime, we’d sampled a full dozen cocktails, but we’d been so wary of this safari that we were still stone-cold sober when Michael Waterhouse, mine host at Dylan Prime, started serving us drinks from his 48-ounce Martini glass.

And if that wasn’t enough, Agnes, a star bartender at D.P., made us try their latest creation, Pie á la Mode. Pie á la Mode was just divine, so we thought that one more cocktail couldn’t hurt, and Agnes treated us to their Key Lime Pie cocktail before we hit the dining room for a wonderful steak dinner.

And here we all are at the end of a very successful safari. From left to right, that’s Gary falling into Robert Hess’s lap, Audrey Saunders (a.k.a Libation Goddess), Mardee with a full Manhattan (just to round off the evening, you know), Renee St. Jean, who joined us at the last minute, and Dale DeGroff.

Apple Pie á la Mode

1/2 ounce Licor 43 (a.k.a. Cuarenta y Tres)

1 ounce heavy cream

1 ounce apple schnapps

1 ounce vodka

1 ounce maple syrup

Shake the Cuarenta y Tres and the whipped cream over ice, and reserve.

In another shaker, shake the rest of the ingredients and strain into a chilled Martini glass, leaving about 1/2 inch of the glass empty.

Carefully pour the liqueur/heavy cream mixture over the back of a barspoon so that it floats on top of the drink.

Washington’s Distillery

George Washington was a whiskey distiller as well as being our first president. We’re not quite sure which was more important to him, but it’s possible that he made more money from the whiskey than he did from wearing the presidential hat. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) has been helping out at Washington’s Mount Vernon Estate by donating money to help with the excavation of G.W.’s distillery, and some whiskey- and rum-producing members of DISCUS donated barrels of their products to be aged at the site—okay, they were already aged at the individual distilleries, but the barrels have spent over a year in Virginia. Recently, Gary was lucky enough to be invited down there to witness the barrels being opened, and sample a few of the products, of course. Here’s how it went down:

First off Gary caught a colonial bartender at the Inn at Mount Vernon preparing garnishes for her upcoming shift.

Then he chatted to good old George himself for a while

And who do we have here? That’s right, it’s the Godfather of beer and whisky writing, Michael Jackson, sharing his thoughts on the Mount Vernon whiskey with George.

John Hansell, publisher of the Malt Advocate magazine was there, too, but we think he’d been flirting with Martha a little just before we took this picture—George certainly doesn’t look too pleased about something.

And, for the first time in history, Washington met Lincoln. Okay, it was Lincoln Henderson, Master Distiller for the Brown-Forman company (think Woodford Reserve and Old Forester), and come to think of it, that probably wasn’t the real Washington either, but we snapped the shot just the same.

After Lincoln bashed the barrel a few times, Washington declared war on it—he’s so impulsive.

And finally, the whiskeys and rums were bottled on site.

Tasting the New Vintage Evan Williams Bourbon

Gary met up with Ray Foley (blue shirt), publisher of Bartender magazine, John Hansell (white shirt), publisher of the Malt Advocate, and spirits maven Stuart MacLean Ramsey (the other one who isn’t Gary) at Louisville’s Old Seelbach bar to get a start on the evening, then it was off to the Bernheim distillery for a drop of the good stuff.

Max Shapira, president of Heaven Hill, rang the whiskey thief, and Parker Beam, Max’s Master Distiller started to pour samples straight from the barrel. What can we say? The whiskey was divine, and Max treated us all to dinner afterwards so we wouldn’t go to bed hungry.

The following day saw us all at Churchill Downs racetrack where Gary got a tip on a horse from, well, we think it was a horse. The horse didn’t win the race, though, but although Gary lost a few bucks that day he didn’t feel too badly about it when he found out how much John Hansell had lost. All’s fair in love and whiskey.

Back at the Seelbach Hotel that night, Gary was persuaded to mix up a few drinks for the guys. Okay, he pleaded with the manager to let him get behind the bar.   Rock on Gary... Rock on!