Seen in a Bar 06.09 - Cool New Gadget

We were in Colorado recently for our nephew's graduation from high school. Suffice to say, we did not have much time for cocktail adventures due to family commitments, but we did manage one trip to a couple of places in Boulder. Our favorite by far was the West End Tavern, which was recommended by a friend of ours.

While there, we saw this cool gadget on their back bar, holding fresh basil. The bartenders said it extends the life of the basil for several days - basil is a notoriously short-lived herb, but is also a great addition to certain cocktails.

This gadget is called the "Herb Savor" and is made by a company called Prepara. They have some other cool stuff on their website, especially this "Power Plant".

I think I've got some ordering to do....

Seen in a Bar - March 09 Edition

I've been spending more time in bars, and less time at the computer, lately. A couple of things I've seen recently that were notable:

Indiana and St. Germain - a rep for the largest distributor in Indiana was out telling people about St. Germain today and I crossed paths with her at a nice restaurant in the NW corner of the state. Only thing is, she told the restaurant owner and bartenders that it was a PEAR liqueur (and her boss, who was with her, reiterated it). When I asked her if there was elderflower in it (trying to give a hint but be nice about it), the response was "it tastes like pear, and besides, no one knows what elderflower is anyway." Interesting.

St. Patrick's Day in Chicago - a relatively new Irish bar in the River East/Gold Coast area of Chicago was charging a cover charge just to get into the bar and drink/eat after the downtown parade on Saturday March 14th. No band, nothing special going on, just doing it because they could, I guess. As a restauranteur, maybe it's smart - work less for the same money, perhaps. It seemed a little exploitive to us, given the economy and the occasion, so we moseyed on down the street and found another place that just wanted to take our money for our beer and food, thankyouverymuch.

Heard in a Bar: 6.13.2008

While I was in Indianapolis in April, Bruce Tomlinson and I went to a couple of places in search of great cocktails, including Nicky Blaine's in downtown Indy. Nicky Blaine's bills itself as a cocktail and cigar lounge. We had a couple of drinks (I had Booker's neat, and then water), and I had a cigar too (can't do that in a bar in Chicago anymore). Here are a couple of shots of the place - they have pictures of Kennedy and Lincoln at opposing ends of the bar to help guide your seating selection.

At some point in the evening, the guy next to us, Ryan, exclaimed loudly "All this bar needs is a pole."

Somehow this struck me as funny so I wrote it down.
And then I forgot to actually post it until now. Better late than never, I figure.

Seen in a Bar: 4.17.08

Late one night recently in Louisville, in the 4th Street tourist area, I found myself sitting at the bar with Joe Corley from Germain-Robin. We were trying some bourbons and having a great time. We started looking at the bottles on the bar (looking for something new), and noticed that a whole bunch of the bottles did not have caps. They were on the top shelf with no caps, no pour spouts, nothing. Hmmm... troubling. Luckily we hadn't ordered any of those, and we made sure not to going forward.

Much later, around 4 am when we were (finally) heading back to the hotel, we walked past that bar again. We hoped to see caps on those bottles, but we didn't. Just think about what might be in those bottles (and what has evaporated)... fruit flies, etc.... yuck!

Seen In a Bar - 3.30.08

Periodically I will share a funny/interesting/weird thing I see on my travels through bars and restaurants. As you might have gathered if you've been reading this blog, I spend a fair amount of time in them.

Here's today's entry, just to get the ball rolling:

Seen in a Wrigleyville bar: Bartender using rail vodka to clean his glasses.
At last, a use for the stuff.

Got one to share? Let me know!