KatieLoeb

Pomeranian - cross between a Salty Dog and a gimlet 2 oz. Pearl Persephone Pomegranate Vodka .5 oz. Ruby Red Grapefruit .25 oz. fresh lime juice .25 oz. simple syrup .25 oz. Rose's Lime juice Shake over ice and strain into a salt rimmed cocktail glass. Garnish with a lime wedge. Also tasty on the rocks in a salt rimmed glass.

Sam - thanks for that link. A very interesting article. I'm in a position to have little choice, so anything I mix up with Falernum in it is going to be the Fee Brothers by default. I tried a very slight variant on the Flaming Orange Gully tonight with the Svedka Clementine vodka. Still a very delicious drink. I'm contemplating a mimosa variant that is half Orange Gully recipe and half sparkling wine/Champagne for a brunch drink. I'll let you know how that works out. I think it might be pretty tasty sipping in the sunshine in our lovely outdoor courtyard garden once it warms up enough.

Humility and admitting one's errors are a wonderful quality, Alcibiades.

Good on 'ya, MizDucky! You are an inspiration in many ways. I'll be eagerly looking forward to your healthy recipes as I'm currently enrolled in a medically supervised weight loss/maintenance study myself. I was very bad over the weekend so I'll take a cue from you and try and keep up. Blog on, Sister!

OK - here's the scoop on the Luxardo Maraschino. The distributor is indeed currently out of stock. It seems that Luxardo Maraschino has gotten a few high profile nationwide corporate placements at a few hotel chains (Marriott is one) as well as at Capital Grill. Hence, the limited supply in PA is being fought over by several bigger fish now, as well as the smaller independent restaurants and consumers that wish to place an SLO for it. The other excellent Luxardo products are still in stock so you can order the Amaretto, Sambuca, Triplum or the new Sambuca Cream (I'll definitely be looking into this) right now. Maraschino should be back in stock within two weeks. I'll be getting a personal phone call from my local representative from Laird Wine & Spirits so I'll give you all the heads up when that happens. I'll be anxiously awaiting getting my order in as well. Two bottles for the bar at M and one for me! Whee!

Cassoulet Feast chez TarteTatin was just lovely. Great food, great wine, great company. I loved the cassoulet - the perfect comfort food for an icy cold night. The frisee salad afterward was just perfect and lets not forget the wee thimblefulls of eau-de-vie that made it possible to have space for salad and fromage. Delicious stuff. I can't seem to locate the name of that flavor. Starts with a "Q" - anyone? Quite the lineup of wines as well. Really a triumph of hospitality, great cooking and generosity. I won't be eating for several days. I'm still full.

Living in the spirits deprived wasteland that is the Commonwealth of PA, I can't get Velvet Falernum and have to make due with the Fee Brothers non-alcoholic version. Mixed up a whole mess of different drinks with it last night at my bar. The Flaming Orange Gully, the Gin Ray, the Pomtini and the Queens Park Swizzle (recipes all HERE) were all big winners and got rave reviews from customers and staff alike. I went back to my local retail supplier today and snapped up the last 6 bottles of Fee Bros. Falernum they had!

Seriously? How does that work exactly?

lfabio - Welcome to eGullet and the Pa forum! Happy to have you join us. I hope all your future posts are as insightful and detailed as your first. Looking forward to hearing more from you...

Ask and ye shall receive. So does anyone know if the nonsense reported in the Philly Weekly about Tinto being Reservations Only (even at the bar) is true?? Seems like an awfully difficult way to curry favor with new clientele if there's no possibility at all of simply walking in for a glass of wine and a bite.

Pfft! Some might call them Lemmings, as well. I respect Mr. Laban and his writings very much, but seriously. There's too much good (and bad) food out there to wait for something to hit his radar screen, get reviewed three times, and make it into the publication rotation. And once it does you can't get a seat anyway.

Let me see what I can ascertain at the source on Monday, before we all panic needlessly. It might just be one of those "between shipment" things where there's none now but it's on the way. Or it might be the consumer vs commercial SLO is different. I'm not quite sure how that works. I know that they really do have to order anything you ask for if you do the legwork for them if the product isn't already in place. Southwark has real Herbsainte for their Sazerac cocktails as a result of some of their own fenaiglings.

This does not bode well for me. I am trying to have this ordered directly through Laird distributors for the restaurant. Will have to place a call on Monday to see what I can ascertain. I hope the SLO problems are only for personal use. Sorry Mike, but I'm more concerned about not even being able to get it for restaurant use.

I don't know if our esteemed former Chairman negotiated some special deal with Ravenswood or not, but the single vineyard zins have always been pretty reasonable here in PA. The low end stuff (the Vintner's Select, etc.) could always be found for less in NJ, but the high end stuff was usually in the $25-50 range which I thought was a great price for wines of that quality. In addition to the Ravenswood Pickberry, the Dickerson and Teldeschi are pretty good too. The only other single vineyard zins I like as much are the Ridge, which are about the same price range, sometimes a little less.

Maybe you only get the amuse if you order Al a Carte?

Actually the use of the limoncello was a "make lemonade" moment for me. I didn't have any fresh lemons in the house, and I only had plain, not citron vodka. So it was a make due, but it worked just fine. It definitely needed the fresh lime juice at the end. The limoncello combined with the pre-sweetened lemonade needed a tart counterpoint. I like to use limoncello for a burst of lemony flavor in a cocktail. Works well with the new Stoli Blueberry vodka too. 2 or 3 parts Stoli Blueberry, 1 part limoncello, fill with 7-up. The drink tastes like a lemon-blueberry muffin.

I'm anxiously awaiting the short seasonal appearance of Honeysuckle gelato at Capogiro Gelato, my favorite rite of spring. I indulged in my other favorite rite of Spring yesterday, the first 70 degree day in months. I went and treated myself to a lovely glass of rose wine at my local wine bar. - a glass of Spanish garnacha based deliciousness. I love pink wine and it just tastes like warm weather to me. It was very satisfying.

I tried mixing up a tall drink with the thyme syrup I had in the house tonight, to try and recreate the original recipe in this thread. Having never tried the original drink I have no idea if I was close or not, but certainly a pleasant and quite refreshing beverage resulted. 2 oz. vodka .75 oz. Thyme simple syrup .75 oz. Limoncello Juice of half a lime (I didn't have a fresh lemon in the crisper drawer) 4 oz. Lemonade (I used Minute Maid Light in the can 'cuz I had it) Shake first four ingredients over ice and dump into a Collins glass. Fill with lemonade. Sip. Sigh. Repeat. This was quite tasty. I think I'll try a variant on it with my Herbal Simple syrup that I make in the summer time. That's the stripped leaves of two bunches fresh mint and one bunch each of basil and cilantro whirled into six cups of 1:1 simple syrup while it's still hot and allowed to cool overnight and strained. It's delicious with bourbon and bitter lemon soda as a sort of funky julep. It would probably be delish in this lemonade.

Yes. We kill things in the back of the house and smile winningly in the front of house. .............................................. Ah, well. Some things have transpired in the past day, since all these lovely responses to my cry for help, and I've made my decision. Will the bunny hit the pot or not? I'll have to tell you tomorrow. I'm quite worn out. ← Again - not exactly where I was heading with that. Don't forget I work in restaurants. I was speaking more to the suppliers than the chef chasing the critters around the kitchen with a big cleaver a la Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd... I fear for the bunny. I'll look here first thing tomorrow for my answer.

Well - don't forget that since PA is by definition, a monopoly, a lot of wineries would prefer NOT to jump through the hoops necessary (finding a distributor to carry their product, or have enough inventory to have it as a LISTED product) to sell their wines here. Sure - you can purchase Chateau Margaux in PA. The 1979 vintage is currently listed at $282.19 as an SLO. I can imagine that there are only so many bottles allotted for the entire state. I'll bet dollars to donuts that Capital Grill and Le Bec Fin have a certain number of bottles set aside for them to purchase and mark up to approximately $750. The cachet of even having those wines on their list and the scarcity of them makes the restaurants the guaranteed sale and makes it a losing proposition for even the deepest pocketed consumer to try and compete in that particular shark pond. And as Evan pointed out, not knowing the providence of the wine (does the back of an unrefrigerated truck in mid-July shipping your order to your local store sound appealing?) makes finding it at auction or in a <cough> neighboring state a better bet anyway. As for "market-driven" pricing in PA - again, not gonna happen. It's not a market driven state. It's a freakin' monopoly and it's a system that won't soon change. The state's revenues are too closely tied to the current tax structure and discounting, particularly on high demand, high priced items is out of the question. I think the fact that the CS program was able to purchase some fabulous Super Tuscans and lower tiered Burgundies and Bordeaux was about as much of a miracle as I'd ever witnessed. There's oceans of fabulous wine that we'll never see in PA. There's oceans of fabulous wine that IS available but is more trouble and expense than it's worth. I try and satisfy myself by coloring inside the lines within the PLCB system and availing myself of the finer programs like the CS and the liter bottles of spirits at the Outlet stores, and make clandestine felonious trips over the border for everything else. :shrug:

I think the infused syrup is the better way to go. Less chance of screwing up and more control over the flavor. It's hard to mess up simple syrup infusions. Alcohol infusions are much harder to gauge. I just realized I have some thyme simple syrup in my fridge, as well as some limoncello and vodka in the house. I sense an experiment later in the evening. I'll report back....

Alcibiades: No apology necessary from you. I'd like to remind everyone to try and keep their tone here civil and to keep my job as easy as it's always been. I expect better from all of you eloquent folks than ad hominem attacks. I think Jason explained the CS program and the lack of higher end wines better than I could have. I was more concerned on Alcibiades behalf and was sincerely hoping he/she was not holding their breath awaiting a sudden influx of Premier Cru and First Growths. Not gonna happen. The eager anticipation and holding of one's breath could lead to a serious case of blue-in-the face as well as crushing disappointment.

It's always best to eat someone else's bunny whenever possible, it's true, Katie. ← Ahem. Well, actually I was more implying that my bunny could not possibly have lived so long, so I was certain it wasn't my bunny by the time I started eating rabbits recreationally. Nonetheless, I suppose my more sweeping point was I didn't want to eat my bunny, or any bunny that anyone had an emotional attachment to. I like my food impersonal. On a styrofoam tray wrapped in plastic with a price sticker. Or delivered by a pleasant waiter and not having to know its providence at all, because I trust the chef implicitly.

Alcibiades: Welcome to eGullet! Happy to have you here. I have to disagree with your basic premise concerning the Chairman's Selection program. The CS program isn't aimed at the folks waiting patiently (possibly interminably) for the Cos d'Estournel to go on sale. It isn't going to happen. By definition there's already a market for that wine at auction or in small "allocations" at high end wine shops. The CS program is about finding large lots of good to excellent wine from established winemakers and buying it up in bulk and passing on the savings to the consumer at large in PA. They have no interest in standing in line for high demand cult wines and small allocation Premier Cru Bordeaux. The prices for the CS program wines have been low enough to entice shoppers from "neighboring states" to cross the bridge this way to go wine shopping. The "border bleed" is now going the other way. That speaks for itself. There are plenty of "serious" wine drinkers that love the CS program, and more importantly, folks that it has allowed to become serious wine drinkers through the benefit of reasonably priced high quality wines that would normally have been either off their radar screen or out of their price range or both. That of and by itself is progress.

Glad to hear they're still open for business. I know there was some speculatin that they'd closed awhile back. I'll go back there soon, now that I know they're still there. I have never had a bad meal at L'Angolo.