August 2010

The Lush Chronicles: Why We Drink- Meeting People

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Dean Martin, the patron saint of all 21st century lushes, once said, "It was a woman who drove me to drink. Come to think of it, I never did hang around to thank her for that." Though Deano's wit was as dry his his martini ever was, there's a kernel of truth to this particular off-hand comment. The greatest motivator for the consumption of alcohol always has been and always will be people. More specifically, people who are strangers and might not be soon. We drink to meet people who will sleep with us, be friends with us, or even fight us without a question. That's why there's nary an armrest between you and the next person at the bar. We drink to be closer to people than we usually let ourselves be while sober.

St. Germain: A Flower, For Remembrance

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Recently there has been an increase in the demand in America for unusual bar ingredients. Bitters are coming back in a big way, as are various anisette-style herbal liqueurs and various European tinctures that haven't left their arrondisements for ages. One such French oddity is St. Germain, a sweet liqueur made of elderflower, among other things. This stuff has been popping up in more and more Stateside bars and liquor stores every month, and with good reason. There's something special about St. Germain, aside from the fact that it's likely the only yellow bottle on the shelf aside from that perennial misfit, Galliano.

Love and Fear for Rum and Cola

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I'm a firm believer in the idea that drinks have personality. Whether lone spirits or mixes, potables have idiosyncratic qualities just like people. As such, a lot of my opinions about drinks have more to do with whether or not I like them as people than how they actually taste. Take absinthe, for instance. I'm not a fan of the flavor of anise but I don't have many disparaging things to say about the green fairy. It does what it's supposed to do and doesn't apologize for its quirkiness. Like a man who's too old to change his ways, absinthe dresses, talks and believes how and what it wants, modern conventions be damned. I have a great amount of respect for the martini for being both bold and refined, a long-lived professional of a cocktail that continues to be the sharpest guy in the room without doing anything flashy. So, when I say that I both love and fear the rum and cola, know that it comes from a place of both experience and contemplation.

The Savoy Hotel

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What do you think of when you think of luxury? It's a strange thing to define in the wealthier parts of the world in the 21st century seeing as so many elements of comfort have become de rigueur in most places. If you went into a hotel room and found anything less than hot and cold running water, an in-suite toilet, electric lights, climate control and a telephone, would you consider it proper lodging? These days, of course not, but for the first fifty or so years of its run the original Savoy Hotel in London was considered a place of innovation for being the first hotel to implement all of those things in its standard rooms. Indeed, the very things we have come to associate with hotels began at the Savoy, mostly between 1900 and 1945. It opened in 1889 as a companion to the famous Savoy Theatre where the wildly successful musicals of Gilbert and Sullivan premiered. It was a favorite leisure destination for such people as Oscar Wilde and Charlie Chaplain. Monet and Whistler made paintings of the view outside their windows there. But for our purposes, the most notable celebrity associated with the Savoy in London is Ada Coleman, the woman who first presided over the Savoy's illustrious bar.