Booze & Bones

With the shut down and some job changes my travel changed a lot. No more trips for work. A quite long pause in analog trips for music. And just now and slowly are things coming back.

I tried my bone marrow yelp reviews in Chicago in 2022 and it worked, delicious and full of bourbon I contemplated kicking this back up, but every restaurant, every travel still felt so fraught.

It was just this past week at AmericanaFest in Nashville where the real traveling / restaurant discovery amongst the chaos vibe returned and it felt like... time. So Nashville... land of southern cooking and country music and where to go for the one fancier meal that I always give myself on the road? I chose Pelican & Pig.

First thing - best bartender in the world. Welcoming with a queer / ally vibe which was refreshing after the 'not malicious but very heterocentric' vibe that me and my people had been mostly swimming in since arriving. (Gender neutral bathrooms help us all y'all). I'm there with my pal and we opt for sharing ALLLLLL of the appetizers. But primarily - nom nom nom - I am excited about the Steak Tartare. Drinkin is martini (for pal) and a rye manhattan for me and the world is suddenly a wonderful place.

Then Steak Tartare on Texas Toast and hot damn the deliciousness

Somewhere along here I start thanking the person who I think is the waiter and calling him my favorite ever. He doesn't believe me, but by the end of the night I've convinced him. Turns out... he is the chef and owner. Dang. Wow. Ok but... he is still my most favorite ever. Then its a combo of baked and raw oysters on a hearty bed of Himalayan salt...

Oh.... did you say shishito peppers?!? Don't mind if I do!

There was more.... corn ribs, and brussel sprouts, and and and...

I have to say, Washington DC is an odd place. It always reminds me of a Capitol in some comic book meshed up with Ivy League fantasies of power. People here are still shocked by my tattoos. I see far too many khakis with navy Blazers, and all of the buildings are tall and concrete and glass. I have a hard time finding the two story wood or brick places that makes more sense to me and signal the artsy or weirdo neighborhoods. It feels like everything is just so... Shiny. And fortress like.

So after landing from the cross country flight, two hours in traffic, and checked into the hotel - I was 15 hours of travel and only some airplane food into a very long day. This was a work trip and as those go I still had more work to do later - but first... A real dinner. The Internet gave me about six options for places with bone marrow - but only one that was walkable. So I strapped on the sweater and the walking shoes, memorized the directions so I wouldn't be the tourist as a target, and hit the road. About 3/4 of a mile later there it was. Brasserie Becks. And it was packed with a Friday night date crowd. No tables open so I sat at the bar.

Treats for one was the order of the evening. Since I was in the nations capital I decided to be hilarious and get the Filibuster Rye. I immediately texted my whiskey cohort and sometimes band mate Ed. Spicy, bold, with a little extra earth on the underbelly. This seemed quite appropriate for a booze named after political processes. It was a win for sure - better than Bulleit but not as good as Whistle Pig. It would be a nice one to have on rotation for sure though.

Then came the bone marrow. Roasted perfectly. However covered in jam. Like... So much jam. It was not bad. The jam was good - but the proportion was off. Felt like training wheels for those too afraid to just jump right into buttery bone marrow goodness.

I scraped a bunch of it off and wished for pickled veggies. Thankfully I had ordered pickled cucumbers. Excitedly I waited... And got cucumber salad with Greek yogurt. Now let me say that it was good. All of their food was good. But when I see marinated cucumber and vinegar is mentioned - I want pickles. I love cucumbers like a madman so won't ever turn them down. But oh pickles I missed you so.

To start this whole shebang off - we start in Oakland - well Emeryville to be totally accurate. The place where the bone marrow love affair began. The place where I bring every friend that I love (who isn’t vegan). The place that all travelers passing through my house end up. HONOR BAR.

They have amazing bartenders. Amazing foods of all kinds (even for vegetarians). But mainly... THEY HAVE BONE MARROW BRULEE! Perfectly roasted, bruleed, and topped with roasted garlic, and perfectly roasted to crispy jalepeños - it’s smokey, garlicky, sweet, luscious, and buttery smooth and smears perfectly on locally made organic Acme Bread. There is possibly not a better food in the world IMHO. Though there’s a place in NYC that is close. Paired with a Whistle Pig Rye or Bulleit Rye on the rocks and heaven has arrived. OMG. Just LOOK AT IT.

So. Damn. Good.

This is the bone marrow against which all others shall be judged. Plus they have epic pickled veggies as well. And I have a weakness for pickles.

So soon (as soon as the phone charges at the airport station) there will be the first few blogs of the wine, whiskey, and bone marrow that finally tipped the scales and inspired this blog to be real. First though, let me tell you how we got here.

I’m a musician. I play accordion. I play guitar. I write songs. I have bands. And sometimes... sometimes I’m lucky enough to hit the road playing these songs and doing what I love most. Those are some of my favorite times.

Because of this I also have a lot of friends who are musicians. Who are writers. Who crash with me when they come through town and help me feel like a tourist in my own town.

And lastly, I have a music related job. Sometimes I even get to travel for that. Those are also great times because I get to see some of the world’s best musicians as part of my day job AND work pays for (most) of my meals.

Between all of these things I’ve developed some ways to find the quirky or interesting or divey or super tasty places in towns where otherwise I would be relegated to tourist fare because I don’t know everywhere as well as I would like.

One of the ways I do this is to look online for places that have roasted bone marrow. This is probably where I should tell you that this is an omnivore and non-sober blog. I love vegan food and I love super rare steak. I take extra steps in sourcing my foods to find sustainable and non-cruel sources (as much as that’s possible when you’re eating a critter). But this is omnivore territory - so if that shocks or offends you turn back now.

Roasted bone marrow is a food I stumbled across about three years ago when a good friend was trying to help me handle some pretty intense personal family stuff I was going through. It sounded awful and tasted amazing. Also - it’s usually not super expensive. However - it’s also not super common. As I’ve traveled around I’ve found that usually a place that has bone marrow on the menu also has a good whiskey / bourbon / rye selection and also - they usually don’t overcharge for the good booze. $10 dinner and top shelf bourbon for under $10? Well I can’t afford it every day - but on the nights where I want to go a little fancy - $20 is a decent fancy budget.

I’ve also found that places with bone marrow and bourbon are also usually done in that sort of speakeasy americana prohibition era feel - which while a bit overdone at this point - when done right is still a certain sort of cozy grandparents house out in the woods vibe for me - and can offer a little feeling of home when I’m out on the road.

Recently when traveling in Washing DC and joking on twitter that I was exploring the country (US at the moment) via bone marrow and bourbon - a pal of mine from nowthissound suggested I make it into a column for the newly launched (and gorgeous) #NoDepression magazine. While that sounds awesome - it also seems a bit high reaching for a column that doesn’t exist yet.

And then sitting in the airport, with four hours until I was to board my flight back to Oakland, I was writing in my analog journal and thought... why not?