Chick's Wine Bar

[KatieLoeb]

Friday December 5, 2008, Chick's will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition. We'll be featuring several retro specialty cocktails priced at $7.50 that are made using all American spirits - the Ward Eight (bourbon), Sazerac (rye), Scofflaw (blended American whiskey) and the Jack Rose (applejack). Come on in and celebrate your constitutional right to have a drink! Unless you get off on carrying guns or free speech, there's no other constitutional amendment that guarantees your personal pleasure quite like the 21st amendment. Have a drink just because you can! I'll be mixing it up old school, so come and join the fun!

[lancastermike]

Friday December 5, 2008, Chick's will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition.  We'll be featuring several retro specialty cocktails priced at $7.50 that are made using all American spirits - the Ward Eight (bourbon), Sazerac (rye), Scofflaw (blended American whiskey) and the Jack Rose (applejack).  Come on in and celebrate your constitutional right to have a drink!  Unless you get off on carrying guns or free speech, there's no other constitutional amendment that guarantees your personal pleasure quite like the 21st amendment.  Have a drink just because you can!  I'll be mixing it up old school, so come and join the fun!

←

What? No Marconi Wireless?

[KatieLoeb]

Funny, Mike!

Actually, I'd love to be serving those, but haven't gotten my hands on the Antica yet. And even if I did, I doubt we could serve them at the special 75th anniversary price. The Antica is pricey! But worth it...

[Andrew Fenton]

Come on in and celebrate your constitutional right to have a drink!  Unless you get off on carrying guns or free speech, there's no other constitutional amendment that guarantees your personal pleasure quite like the 21st amendment. 

Fortunately for me, I get off on free speech, guns AND booze. So really I had no choice but to show up at Chick's on Friday, get drunk, start insulting people and shooting holes in the ceiling, Yosemite Sam style.

When not threatening Chick's liquor license with revocation, I managed to try three of the four all-American drinks Katie was pouring: the Ward Eight, Sazerac and Jack Rose. All of them were terrific, but I particularly enjoyed the Sazerac. Katie referred to it as "New Orleans in a glass," but you know, I've smelled Bourbon Street on a Sunday morning. And this was much, much better.

My friend also tried the Blackberry Beret, which I can recommend to anybody who's looking for a drink that perfectly balances sweetness and fruitiness with herbal and almost savory notes. It's a great drink.

[lfabio2007]

And we passed by, looking for desserts after a test dinner at Sweet Lucy's BBQ (good - ribs are possibly the best). The beignets and the cheesecake were very good, so were Katy's drinks. We had the Diablo and the absitnthe-infused cocktail whose name presently escapes me and they hit the spot even as after-dinner drinks.

Edited December 14, 2008 by lfabio2007 (log)

[lancastermike]

Katie got some ink, and by that I mean some publicity not a tatoo, here

Katie at Philly.com

Edited December 18, 2008 by lancastermike (log)

[Andrew Fenton]

Katie get some ink, and by that I mean some publicity not a tatoo, here

Katie at Philly.com

←

"Spanked" sage. Hilarious! That's a fun article- made even better by the inclusion of the Blackberry Beret recipe.

[KatieLoeb]

Thanks Mike! Somehow I knew that the "spanked" sage and the bartendrix joke was going to make it in there somewhere. Mr. Laban was quite amused by the reference. I did point out that since no one can actually see my feet behind the bar, I might very well be wearing stiletto boots with a tucked in whip...

Of course the Blackberry Beret is on the menu right now, if anyone wants to come in and try one that hasn't already. There are just a couple of tiny tweaks in the recipe I serve at Chick's that the home cocktail enthusiast wouldn't necessarily have at home, but the published recipe is a very close facsimile and credible reproduction of what I'm serving at the bar. But mine taste better. As they should...

[Rich Pawlak]

Wow, that is a hilarious passage in Laban's article, BRAVO, Katie!

She's the baddest bartendrix in town. We gotta get her some theme music and mood lighting.

[Chris Hennes]

I hit Chick's a couple times while in town over the holidays: unfortunately missed Katie, but George took good care of us (he needed a little help remembering how to make an Aviation rather than an Aviatrix, but that I can handle). We also tried the fig and gorgonzola flatbread: it seemed more like a cracker than a flatbread to me, but it tasted good, so who cares? I am always amused by the people who come in, take one look at the bar selection, and run away.

[KatieLoeb]

New World Wine Wednesdays start tonight at Chick's. Since we normally only feature wines of France, Spain and Italy, we'll be exploring wines from the New World in $8 flights Wednesday evenings beginning this evening, 2/18/09 with a trio of wines from Montevina Terra D'Oro Vineyards of Amador County California.

Tonight's lineup includes:

Terra D'Oro Barbera

Terra D'Oro Sangiovese

Terra D'Oro Zinfandel

A taste of Italy from California, as it were, with a Zinfandel thrown in for contrast.

Hope to see some of you there!

[KatieLoeb]

Next Friday, 3/27/09, Chick's Cafe & Wine Bar will be hosting a Calvados tasting with Jerome Dupont of Domaine Familial Louis Dupont, one of the premier Calvados distilleries in France. Come meet the distiller, learn how Calvados is produced and try a $9 Calvados Sidecar or a flight of 3 tastes of Dupont Calvados - the Vielle Reserve, Hors d'Age and the vintage 1989 for $12. The tasting and cocktails will take place from 5-7 PM. I've had the pleasure of tasting all of the products and they are DELICIOUS and undoubtedly the best Calvados I've ever tried. The flight is a screaming bargain for what you're getting to try.

We're flattered that Monsieur Dupont has chosen Chick's to introduce Philadelphia to his line of fine Calvados. I hope some of you will be able to join us.

[jdanton]

Unfortunately, we missed the calvados night, but made it to Chick's the following night, where Katie served us up some excellent cocktails. I had a sazerac, and some of the house specialty drinks such as the provencale martini, and the old facist (a nice take on an old fashioned with brandy) were hits.

[mattohara]

It was a lot of fun and very informative. M. Dupont sat down with us and told us all about the history of the distillery, the process for distilling, and about the 3 expressions we were sampling. The sidecar was the first I've ever had that I've really enjoyed.

You can find Dupont's cider (which is similar to, but not the same as, the cider he distills into Calvados) at the newish store Food & Friends on 20th and Spruce for $18. The Foodery probably has it too but seeing as how everything else is less expensive at F&F the same is probably true about this cider.

[rlibkind]

Katie, I am so regretful I didn't know about this (but don't feel too sorry, I was in Oslo imbibing Aquavits when your notice went out). I love good apple brandies (I include Laird's among them), but the Dupont calvados which I've tried, the Vielle Reserve, is delicious. In fact, I've just about finished off the bottle I purchased in the fall to get me through the winter!

[KatieLoeb]

Bob:

Sorry you missed it too, but I suspect the scenery in Oslo was far more exciting. And the aquavit was probably pretty good too!

There still some of the Vielle Reserve, Hors d'Age and 1989 vintage left on the shelf, if you feel the need to stop by and fulfill an apple brandy jones. They aren't the bargain they were during the tasting, but just as delicious as they were last week.

[lfabio2007]

Just a quick note - we passed by here last night on the way to Modo Mio. Though Katie, sadly, was not there, the cocktails were very good, so were the bacon wrapped dates filled with blue and the cured meats were also very good!

Edit: is Katie no longer here?

[KatieLoeb]

lfabio:

Sorry I missed you. You are correct in presuming that I am no longer at Chick's, however I have left the bar in excellent hands with my friend Phoebe. All my recipes remain as well, so they ought to still be making anything you'd tried before that you liked, as well as some of Phoebe's original creations.

I'm helping reopen Oyster House at 15th & Sansom. We'll be open sometime in early June. I'll report a date as soon as it's nailed down. I hope you'll come visit me there in addition to continuing to patronize Chick's.

[lfabio2007]

I think it was, indeed, Phoebe who served us - we were in the corner of the bar towards the door as usual. I signed up for the OH mailing list!

[philadining]

OK, after a slight pause in activity in this thread... speaking of Phoebe Esmon, congrats to her on having her cocktail, "El Periodo Rosado" picked as best cocktail in the 2010 Philly Magazine Best of Philly awards.

For more on Phoebe, she was profiled recently on Grub Street Philly. You can find her bartending at Chick's most nights (but not wednesday and thursday.)

Her Chick's cocktail list is very interesting, and of course, you can always just let her make whatever she feels like, which always works for me!