Snowy is dead

My favorite place in Gloucester is Ducworth's Bistrot. Intimate room, great food, excellent wine. In east Gloucester on the way to Rocky Neck. Dinner only. http://www.duckworthsbistrot.com/ Tryst in Beverly is also quite good. Ithaki in Ipswich for Greek inspired food. Plenty of Clam places, mostly around Rt. 133 in Essex, Ipswich.

I once had a regular who was so tired of not getting manhattans the way he liked them he printed up business cards with his name and the EXACT recipe for his manhattan. He just gave one out everytime he ordered his drink. I always thought that was a pretty creative way of handling it. No confrontations, and very few cocktails not to his liking.

The calvados I see most often up here for mixing is Le Compte. Never tried it personally, however. The Darron Fine calvados isn't horrible expensive, if I remember correctly. Maybe $25? I don't know how it fares in cocktails vs. other brands.

Instead of renting glassware or using the 'snap together' plastic stuff they do make nice stemware and "glassware" out of a plexiglass type material. I was at a hotel this summer and they had cocktail hour by the pool with everything in these glasses. They look just like glass but are a bit lighter. No worries about breakage. I dont' know who sells it, but sometimes williams-sonoma sells things like that during the summer as ice tea/lemonade sets

Having lots of upper crust colleges, like Boston and New York do, seems to be a helpful factor. Maybe it assists people in accepting new trends or maybe there is just more inherent curiosity when you have 40,000 twenty-thirty somethings seeking to adopt an identiry or beverage that shows their sophistication. That said, it's gotta be tough to work at Eastern Standard after a game some nights...

I can't remember any cocktail bars at all in Lisbon. There is a pretty lively warehouse district on the water, near the bridge just north of the old city center that is jam packed with bars and clubs. I didn't get to check it out, but that is where all the 'fun' happens. Everywhere else was wine/beer. I'm sure the Hard Rock in Lisbon makes cocktails, but I wouldn't get your hopes up about that place.

I think the general public is partially to blame for the continuation of bad drinks. For example, take the martini: gin, vermouth and nice orange bitters sound good to me, but I've had MAYBE 2 people (that I've ever waited on) even know what that is. It's vodka, vodka, vodka, shaken to death and nothing else. The aversion to vermouth is so ingrained here that I've had to relocate my vermouth to the far end of the bar away from the gins and vodkas so I can "prove" I didn't add any. The manhattan hass a better track record. It's one of the few cocktails that I can make the correct way and not have it sent back. I'm finding the "classic" cocktails are beginning to suffer around these parts are well, which is particularly distressing seeing how they are so new here. Vodka is finding its way into things it has no business being in, so the general public's first experience with a classic cocktail is wrong. So when I do happen to get a customer who recognizes a drink on my menu and orders it, I suddenly become the bartender who doens't know how to make a drink because they had a crappy version they liked at the local "tini" bar. That said, the cocktail I'd love to order but can't is a sidecar. I can get a good one in Boston, but not a chance locally. So many good drinks out there and I have to drink beer. Lots of beer. Sean

Is there currently any distribution in Massachusetts, or are these exclusively mail order outside of New York?

Yikes, I just re-read my last post. sounds like a scene from "They call me Bruce"

Andy, do you know Jeff Kent?

I've tried those, I just don't care for them. I know I'm in the minority with my crazy fixation on this particular wine key. The run down is thus: the knife has a serrated blade with large grooves, allwing the knife to function properly well after it is technically dull. The super fine teeth or the flat blades do not do this. the worm is unusually long, eliminating the need for a two step pulltaps type corkscrew. Further, the sprial of the worm is not so compact and the sharp point has a much greater angle. This gets a nicer hold on the cork and reduces breakage, at least for me. The sharper, more angled worm end also makes it easier to retrieve corks when the do break. The bottle opener at the end eliminates the need for anther tool and enables opening even twist off bottles without beaking the rim of the bottle. The orientation of the knife and worm allow it to be stored in the back pocket, easy to grab, and in the correct position. further, the fact the the worm and knife fold down from the same side increases the speed I can open bottles. so basically, I grab the key from my back pocket and the knife is already out. In the same motion I close the knife I open the worm. There is no need to fish for it in my pocket, open the blade, then rotate the key to open the worm. Even the wine keys that are oriented the same way, like the one in the post above, I find are too small and fall into or out of my pocket. The one I like has both a long worm and knife and stays put on the edge of my pocket. I know I sound perhabs a bit irrational, but its kind of like finding out they don't make your favorite food or wine anymore. I have gotten used to this thing to the poing I don't even need to look (though I do, usually) when I open wine. With the several keys I have tried it just seems like such a production. There are some that are similar, but he knife is usually smooth and the worm is short and has less of an angle. Some don't even have knives, which boggles me. So there you are. Please excuse my phsycho babble about this thing. For the record, my girlfriend (bartender too) also thinks I'm crazy... Sean

already done the usual, amazon, ebay, endless internet searches, calling places that used to carry it then calling their distributors. Last time I happened upon it by chance. This time, so far no such luck.

So finally my last winekey broke. I've been using the same ones for years and years and absolutely love them. Now I discover that they are no longer in production and am heartbroken. I can't find them anywhere and the company that formerly made them is out and anyway doens't ship directly to consumers. The US distributor is also completely out. I did find some online about 2 years ago, but the link I saved is no longer valid, and I can't find them anywhere. If anyone can help me find this wine key, I will be very appreciative. This is the link to the Italian producers page: http://www.pedrini.com/pedrini.asp?idmenu=...tomenu=1&idL=42 I can find this style in all stainless steel, but they don't work the same and are vey uncomfortable. The plastic coated ones are better, and have a longer worm. Thanks in advance Sean

The only danger would be if a bartender really doesn't know how to make it but tries anyway, giving either the bar of origination or the cocktail itself a bad name when the ill-informed attempt is handed to the customer.

30,000 cases is an awful lot of anything. I can already hear the impending footsteps of doom of the sloetini or fizzini. here are some of the ones I found, nothing in US of course. http://www.drinksdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Gordons_Sloe_Gin.html http://www.comparestoreprices.co.uk/gin/un...50cl-bottle.asp Some brand named mohawk also keeps popping up, but I think it might be defunct. It doesn't sound that hard to make. Is there going to be a large difference between using the sloe berries and the plums? I've never even seen a sloe berry, so I have no point of reference. Thanks

I recently made a sloe gin fizz out of boredom the other day just to try it. I was surprised to find it wasn't at all bad, if not terribly exiting, despite using bols sloe gin that's probably older than me. I did notice that most of the imported gin producers (plymouth, gordon's, et. al.) make a sloe gin, I haven't seen one availiable here. No one even seems to know what I'm talking about. Is there a higher quality sloe gin than bols/dekyper/leroux availiable in the US? I was hoping for a Marie Brizzard solution, but I don't see that either. The second question is, am I wasting my time? I unfortunately don't have to time to experiment with making my own, or I would give that a go. Sean

That's an excellent solution. I'll have to get me some of those.

I get that a lot too...weird ← I can only assume it's because people who drink martinis like that don't really like the taste of alchohol, which might help to explain the large quantities of people who ask for ice on the side as well.

I had my first request in about 5 months for a stirred martini last night. On the other hand, I probably am asked about 5 times a night to make sure to shake it very well. Customers around here think the sign of a well made martini are the little chunks of ice floating on top. Seems like it's completely backwards, but when in Rome...

So it looks like I woulld have an easier time figuring out string theory than getting stuff brought in. I hadn't even considered the demographic issue...yikes.

We just had a crazy buyout of one of the big distributors here. There were several brands, like Absolut, that were carried by more than one distributor. This is no longer the case for almost all brands now and now that more of them are "exclusive" the price has increased. Sometimes by a few dollars a bottle. I can't see how this arrangement benefits anyone but the distributors. I'm having to rework my cocktail, beer, and wine lists because so many brands have switched hands and I can't get lots of things anymore. Makes life difficult for little restaurants like us who deal with a 'mere' six or seven distributors. no competition = ripoff

Martignetti's on Soldier's Field Road has it. Or possibly it was Marty's in Allston? Worth a call to both to confirm. ← Thanks, I'll give them a shot. The beverage journal is like a phone book. You almost have to know where it is in the book before you start looking.

Is there a list someplace of all the bitters availiable? I've never heard of lemon or bitter truth before. I love playing around with bitters, but the chances of finding any obscure types around me are almost zero. You're lucky to find Fees Orange in one out of ten stores next to 4 sizes of Angostura. I've heard of Bokers (sp?) but isn't that defunct? I've ordered Regan's, Peychaud, Stirrings Blood Orange, and the Fees collection but that is the extent of what I know exists.

In Massachusetts it is availiable, I think from United, owned by southern wine and spirits. Someone told me in the North End that Aperol was unavailiable here for about 12 years then recently came back. Several bars in Boston feature it on the cocktail list now, so it should stick around this time.

I don't know about Vermont, but a few cities in Massachusetts had similar laws. In Burlington MA, for example, until a few years ago if you didn't have an actual chair in a bar you couldn't have a drink. No standing and drinking. When it was time for you to move from the bar to your table, a waitress had to come and move you drinks for you, then you could sit down. That town got rid of it, but a few still have that law. For the different offernings in different states, someone just told me that to any foreign producer that wants to offer their product in the US has to work out separate import deals/liscenses with each of the 50 states, then deal with all the wholesale/distributor crap mentioned above. Is there any truch to this? To further complicate things, I don't think the companies always even inform their reps as to what they do or don't have. We just got Taylors Velvet Falernum in MA, for example. It has been listed in the beverage journal for a few months. But when I order it, my rep has no idea what it is, they can't seem to find it in the wharehouse, or know what it looks like. So a few months of trying to get it, I still don't have it, and they still don't know what I'm talking about. So they company will no doubt stop carrying it shortly because it doesn't sell. Go figure.