October 2011

Cola Cocktails

You wouldn't think it judging by the fact that I write a liquor blog and I can get pretty particular about booze and the culture surrounding it, but I'm in favor of avoiding pretentiousness in luxuries like alcohol. In fact, the more my experience with the hard stuff expands, the more I'm convinced that foodie-style snobbery is making liquor culture insufferable. That's why I'm devoting an entire column to cocktails that prominently feature a thoroughly unpretentious and often downright populist beverage: Cola. The one allowance I'll make for nit-picky palates in relation to cola is the clear superiority of cane sugar over corn syrup soda. The stuff just tastes better and that's the only reason I'm okay with the rarer, somewhat pricier substitution. It has nothing to do with the stuff being made outside of America or the fact that even knowing about it is something of an insider track in the food world. If you're making a cocktail, you're already indulging. Spend the extra fifty cents for the glass bottle of Mexi-Coke or whatever cane sugar cola you prefer. Now, onto the cocktails.

The Seattle Nightlife Initiative

Say what you will about Seattle mayor Mike McGinn, the guy isn't shy about actually doing stuff, which puts him a cut above most politicians. McGinn's got my tentative vote thanks to his most recent project, the Seattle Nightlife Initiative. Basically, it's an attempt to fix some of the city's many ridiculous, outdated and strangely conservative liquor laws without sending the vote to the ballot, where progressive ideals in Washington state go to die. The centerpiece of the initiative is the extension of liquor service hours past 2:00 AM, which is something that makes my lushy heart flutter and will also cut down on a variety of problems that result from last call when bars puke out scads of drunks into the streets every night. Here's a breakdown of what the initiative is actually going to do.