It Doesn’t Get Any More Basic…

Water.  We all know we can’t live without it.  There was an article recently about the benefits of drinking a gallon of water a day (a little excessive?), and you know your doctor has told you how important it is.  Some communities are super proud of their water – NY City has a massive campaign to convince residents that the millions they have invested in their water purification leaves the tap water in the Big Apple as some of the best tasting water in the world.  On the other end of the spectrum is the disaster in Flint, Michigan.  I have a hard time imagining a scarier scenario for a US community than discovering that the tap water has been poisoning your children.  I think we are all hopeful that things are improving there, but all the coverage did cause me to think about tap water and how we take it for granted.

Everyone is used to being offered water at any restaurant they visit.  When we opened more than a decade ago, we had a plan: we would save the bottles from the mineral water we sold, wash and then fill them with tap water and snap a new metal bottle top on them.  Once chilled (and with the labels removed, naturally) these would be a cute way to repurpose a used product and serve our guests at the same time, right?  Funny story, but no.

We were informed by the Health Department that the bottles we were using had been deemed only fit for a single use.  That means there is no purpose for which they could be reused - they had to be destroyed when empty.  Glass bottles.  Sterilized glass bottles.  Hmmm.  Okay.

So, we still liked the idea of offering chilled bottles of water rather than pouring water from a pitcher for each guest. So we found a supplier who could sell us a re-sealable bottle that was approved for multiple uses.  We topped them up with water, stuck them in the fridge and were back in business.

“Whoa!  What are you doing with these bottles?” asked the Health Dept.  Uh, serving water? In the bottle you made us buy?  Oddly enough, no.  These bottles have to be labeled – they could contain anything.  “Like what?” we asked.  “Anything.”

Okay, so we need to label our water.  And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how “Historic Tap Water” bottles were born.  So, are we particularly proud of our tap water?  Uh, sure, I guess?  I mean, it’s water, right? That makes it the stuff of life.  And, as an Earth Science teacher will tell you, all the water on the planet has been here for millennia (yes, dinosaurs drank the same water!) – giving some serious credibility to the title “Historic” on our bottles.

The Golden Rule?

I wanted to share an observation about how the social media world has changed the restaurant industry.  We’ve all heard about newspapers going out of business or famous magazines (like Gourmet) closing their doors after decades of prominence.  The introduction of virtually limitless media sources on the internet meant that anyone could write anything and put it out there for free, which makes the business of selling actual news or quality writing very difficult.  

What you might not have noticed is the gradual change in the way you read about restaurants. In the old days (you absolutely MAY NOT read that as an admission that I’m old) one could count on almost every newspaper running a restaurant review once a week, often written by one of their staff writers.  In big cities, the position of Food Critic was a huge deal.  Some of the biggest names in food writing were restaurant critics for notable newspapers – Ruth Reichl, Frank Bruni, Tom Sietsema, and lots more.

These guys were powerful.  I mean chefs had pictures of them hanging in the kitchen, with bounties paid to the server who spotted them.  The critics would go out in actual disguises, under fake names, because their review the next Wednesday could make or break a restaurant.  I remember going to an event at a farm with a couple hundred serious food people, chefs, etc. outside of Washington DC several years ago.  My wife returned from powdering her nose and told me about the hilarious lady she had run into who seemed to know everyone there.  She pointed her out to me and waved at her as she walked by. “Oh my God!” I whispered.  “What did you say to her?!  That’s Phyllis Richman!”  Ms. Richman could crush my restaurant with one off-hand insult.  All good, as it turned out, Phyllis had enjoyed more than a couple glasses of wine already.  Crisis averted.

Fast forward to today. In downsizing print media world, newspapers can no longer afford to pay food critics. Oh, sure, the LA Times has Jonathan Gold, the NY Times now has Pete Wells and I think Tom Sietsema still writes reviews for the Washington Post.  But when was the last time you decided where to eat based on an article in your local paper?  Right.  Never.  Why should you?  You can click on Yelp, or TripAdvisor, UrbanSpoon, FourSquare or any of a host of others and instantly see 475 reviews of nearby pizzerias.  You swipe down through the top 10 and find a place with a cute name, a decent review score, a nearby address and you’re off.  When you’ve finished you can go online and tell the world all about your experience. Just click on the button and start moving your thumbs.

Much like a unicorn or the tooth fairy, the perfect holiday cocktail doesn’t exist. 

Let’s be honest:  holiday gatherings include a much wider range of guests than the average cocktail party.  The group will probably include folks that regularly drink cocktails, some that usually drink wine, exclusive beer drinkers and some that almost never drink.  Can you see why the “perfect holiday cocktail” is a myth? This group could never agree on one drink.

I suggest you draw up a very small drink menu - and that’s not as intimidating as it sounds.  For instance, you could offer beer from a local brewery (think mild lager, not a hoppy IPA), a pitcher of fruity sangria, maybe an affordable red wine from your local wine shop (or Trader Joe’s?) and then a whiskey based cocktail like a Brown Derby. (recipes & recommendations for all – see below)

Let’s face it – you are not going to make a beer drinker happy with anything other than beer, so get something local and tasty but way on the lighter side.  Some of the pumpkin ales and IPA’s out there are more than twice the alcohol of regular beer and can catch folks by surprise.  Sangria is a great option for folks that don’t normally drink or who are in the mood for something soft & refreshing.  A couple bottles of red wine are an easy thing to have on hand and can get you out of trouble and, finally, a classic pre-Prohibition cocktail will firmly establish you as the coolest party host ever!  It can work for folks that generally drink harder spirits but is tasty enough to win over some people who would normally not look twice at a bourbon drink.

It’s not a unicorn or a winning lottery ticket, but it is a recipe for a really great party! 

Salut!

 SANGRIA

Combine all the ingredients except the ginger ale the night before and chill.  Add ginger ale & serve.

2 btl             Moscato

2 ea            oranges, 1 squeezed & 1 cut into small wedges

1 ea            apple, peeled and cubed

1 ea            nectarine, peeled and cubed

1 liter            ginger ale

 BROWN DERBY

The trick to this drink is equal parts bourbon to juice, with the honey syrup to smooth it out. Mix ½ at a time to make things less messy.  If you’re an “over-the-top” person, add a dash of Grapefruit bitters – either at your local gourmet shop or online.

1 btl            Old Foresters

25 oz            Fresh Grapefruit Juice

12 oz            Honey Syrup (equal parts warm water & honey, stirred until combined)

 BEER – Devil’s Backbone Vienna Lager, Legend Lager, South Street Virginia Lager

EMBRACE YOUR INNER GEEK

It’s safe to say we all have at least one subject that we know FAR more about than we are willing to admit publicly.  Maybe it’s the list of actors with cameos in Happy Days, or the life cycle of the Japanese beetle that is eating your wife’s lilacs outside.  With the internet and hundreds of TV Channels to watch on demand, you can spend a little too much time digging into some fairly off-the-wall stuff.

For me, it’s wine.  Not memorizing wines and vintages and scores (though I confess to a little bit of that too).  I am talking about wine trivia.  Fun facts that really serve no purpose. Like, who knows what wine is on the dashboard of the launch as Capt. Willard (Martin Sheen) is preparing to confront Col. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) at the end of Apocalypse Now?  (It’s Chateau Latour – check it out!)  Or, did you know that it is illegal to fly over or land in the vineyards of Chateauneuf du Pape in a UFO? 

There are times, though, when esoteric knowledge can help shed some light on a misunderstood subject.  Case in point, we are completely head-over-heels in love with dry rosé.  The rosés we love are produced by one of two methods: either the winemaker sets out to make rosé from the beginning, like in Provence, and removes the skins while the color is still very light - or the wine is the result of the winemaker deciding to “bleed” off some juice from his red wine as the skins are soaking, so that the remaining wine will become darker and more intense.  This process is called “saignée” (bleeding).  Rosé aficionados will argue the merits of either (in true “geek” fashion!) but I say they’re both good.

So why isn’t everyone on the rosé train?  Two words.  Sutter Home.

the 1960’s & 70’s California grape farmers were looking for a crop that grew well, had good color and flavor and was relatively hearty, so they planted Zinfandel.  A lot of Zinfandel.  And it grew really well.  The only problem was that Zinfandel never caught on.  OK “econ geeks” – what happens when you glut the market with a quality product that won’t sell?  (hint – the price goes through the floor!)

The (evil) geniuses at Sutter Home combined the pretty pink color of rose and the very sweet flavor profile of wines like “Blue Nun”. (Who remembers Blue Nun?  Put your hand down!  Don’t admit that! )  It worked.  Just like that, Zinfandel had an outlet.  It worked so well – and so damaged our view of both Zinfandel and rosé - that just last Friday night (30 years later) a customer came in and asked if we sell a Zinfandel by the glass.  “Do we ever!” says I.  “We have one from a family estate, 60 year old vines - only 700 cases are made each year!”  “Great, “ they say, “I’ll have a glass”.  Another satisfied customer.

“Uh, I thought Zinfandel was pink?”

Damn.

 Don’t worry – I don’t’ let it get me down.  That’s the “geek superpower” – the belief that the next person you share your knowledge is SURE to get it, right?

There are some principles in the universe that are simply immutable - concepts so basic and powerful that everything else flows from them, kind of like echoes in a canyon.  I suppose that really smart people spend their days thinking about what all that means.

I mostly spend my time thinking about how glad I am that there are no universal laws like that about wine. OK, sure, there are guidelines to follow but nothing that could affect the space/time conintuum.  In fact, I was backed into a corner at a friend’s house recently and forced to admit that I happily drank red wine with fish tacos.  And grilled salmon.  And a Chicken Caesar Salad. 

You shouldn’t get the idea that I don’t love white wines though. I started in the restaurant business in college and had the good fortune to find myself invited to join a weekly tasting panel that sampled 50-75 wines each Thursday night for months.  These were serious restaurant professionals – the wines were grouped by origin, grape variety, vintage, alcoholic content, etc.  For a 19 year old kid, it was mind boggling.  Needless to say, at the end of 6 months, I had tried thousands of wines and there was no looking back.

What never happened, however, was a discussion of how or when to serve the wines.  They were strictly being judged on their own merit, as though there was some unwritten rule that food conversation was off limits.  I didn’t know why this was at the time, but it definitely allowed me to focus on the task at hand.  It was only years later that I realized if you are considering specific dishes as you taste wine, you will find it impossible to be impartial, as you brain starts sifting and comparing, looking for taste memories, scents from the past, elusive flavors that aren’t present in the glass in front of you, causing you to miss a potentially amazing discovery.  So, keep it simple.

Like I said, there is no shortage of books, websites, sommelier classes, etc. to teach you about the proper balance and weight of matching food to wine.  There is a warm place in my heart for the multi course dinner with perfectly paired wines all along the way.  But remember that sometimes the issue is simpler than all that.  Appreciate something that is right in front of you and spend your time drinking and eating what you like. 

You may have read that we have a new distillery here in Williamsburg.  A couple, in fact!  I was recently invited over to Copper Fox and offered the opportunity to sample a peach-wood-smoked single malt whisky made from Virginia barley.  Let me start by saying that it came from the barrel, so it was strong.  Really strong.  Luckily the addition of some water to dilute the spirit kept my eyes from tearing up and I was able to smell and taste the subtleties of the peach influence.  In my humble opinion it was the finest whiskey made in the Commonwealth and I can’t wait for it to hit the market.

That got me to thinking.  We aren’t necessarily born with tastebuds that appreciate “the finer things in life”.  Consider some pretty recognizable “gourmet” items: a really fine cup of espresso, a great glass of aged whiskey, a taste of fine red wine, the finest Osetra caviar (it’s the size of the eggs that makes it better than Beluga).  What do they all have in common?  There’s not a kid in the world who liked that stuff the first time they tasted them!

I am not one to pick on others, so I’ll stick to first-hand knowledge.  The first flavor I took on was coffee.  In boarding school coffee was a milk-and-lots-of-sugar affair.  It was 6 years later before I was ready to enjoy the richness and subtlety of a great cup of espresso.  I will say I liked wine from the get-go, but we are talking about Lancers & Mateus Rose, maybe a Bolla Soave (don’t make fun of the author, it’s not polite).  As I got more and more into wines, it occurred to me that the world of spirits might also be more nuanced than Long Island Iced Teas and Kamikazes.

It did not take much reading (remember, we are pre-internet here, right?) to discover that there was only one spirit that commanded a passion and loyalty that came close to wine, and that was Scotch whisky.  And not just Scotch, but Single Malt Scotch.  (Bourbon was not anything like the juggernaut that it is today.)  So, being game for something new, I went to my favorite bar & ordered a Glenlivet 12 year old.

It’s hard to express how awful that glass of whisky tasted.  I persevered in the coming weeks, however, trusting my research and tackled the problem from another angle.  Coffee with Drambuie (a Scotch based liqueur)became my new starting point – then Rusty Nails (Scotch & Drambuie over ice), then drier Rusty Nails, then Scotch on the rocks and, after almost 3 years, I was back to The Glenlivet.  

How that whisky had changed in three years!  What had been all fire and noxious smells had somehow become a rich, warm dram with hints of vanilla and caramel.  It was magic. 

This whole story was designed to justify why we have more than 60 Single Malt Whiskies on our bar.  If you aren’t quite there yet, take heart.  After all, you know the old saying, “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”