Flogging Molly / Social Distortion in the Heat

We went to the opening 5 shows (August 10-18) of this co-headlining tour in Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Atlanta and Raleigh.  This is a big tour running almost until the end of September and hitting the whole country. I’ll be at 18 shows with only the Northeast being excluded.  These 5 shows were well attended and I thought very good.  Both Flogging Molly and Social D are playing  one hour sets.  The Devil Makes Three is the main support.  I’d never seen them, but their “speed bluegrass” sound was very appealing.

As far as cocktails go, we went back to the Anvil Bar and Refuge in Houston.  This time we went on a non show day and got in early so we had seats at the bar and time to speak to the bartenders.  This bar has been James Beard finalist a number of times and is generally regarded as the foundational bar in the Houston cocktail scene.  We had a number of rounds with each drink very well made and presented.  I’ve had my eye on the rum classic Corn & Oil for some time and Anvil had it on the menu.  Its hard to find with its two signature ingredients, Blackstrap Rum and Velvet Falernum. Anvil had the Cruzon rum, which is super dark and heavy.  Its’ oily look is the basis for the name of the drink.  They also had Taylors Velvet Falernum which is the progenitor of this classic Caribbean mixer.  It’s a syrupy liqueur that has intense clove, lime, ginger and almond notes.  The drink is a 4 to 1 proportion of rum and Falernum.  A lime wedge that can be squeezed over the drink is the preferred garnish.  It’s a great drink that has a distinctive look and feel to it and one you don’t see every day. 

We asked around the bar staff for recommendations for another bar and learned that Tongue Cut Sparrow was a hidden bar in the downtown area started by Anvil personnel. Its located in a Mezcal Bar which is weirdly named The Pastry War after a conflict between Mexico and France in 1938.  The speakeasy is located up a flight of stairs in the back.  The room is beautiful.  It holds about 30 people and seating is required.  We were lucky enough to catch an opening and get a small table.  They take reservations and those are highly recommended as we watched numerous other parties get turned away as the place filled up.  It was a pleasure to watch the staff manage the seating.  Each entrant was greeted by a server before they had taken more than a few steps into the bar, so no one had to give up a seat they’d already sat down in.  There was a small waiting area at the front and the staff kept the waits to minimum.  Once seated, a menu, water and some nuts were immediately in place and the server went over the game plan.  The menu itself was very small, but we each had a menu drink to start.  I had the Greenback, which was a gin and mint cocktail served up.  Very refreshing and well done.  Next round I stuck with the gin theme and had a bartender’s choice.  I got an Alaska cocktail.  This is a simple classic with gin, yellow Chartreuse and orange bitters served up.  In talking with the staff, they noted that the menu was so small, that they really enjoyed when patrons went off menu because making the same 8 cocktails all day can get a bit dull. I did one more round and after surveying the liquor inventory went for a bartender’s choice using Laird’s Applejack, which is an American Apple Brandy akin to Calvados.  The result was a Pink Lady.  This is a 1937 era cocktail using gin, applejack, lemon, grenadine and shaken with an egg white.  The applejack and gin really hit it off in this cocktail, it was unsuspected surprise.

The highlight of the trip came in Raleigh.  Our friend Lorraine joined us in town and we were guided by the amazing magician Michael Casey, who knows every great place in Raleigh.  First stop was the Green Light.  It’s a hidden bar behind a bookcase.  There’s a green light on the outside that is on when the bar is open, hence the name.  I thought it was a very solid bar, but one cocktail really stood out.  Apples and Allies.  Its 1 oz Rum, 1 oz Applejack, ¾ oz 1:1 cinnamon syrup and ¾ oz lemon juice.  Shaken and served in a coupe, I really loved the flavors and have made it myself a couple of times.  After dinner we had a quick cocktail at Foundation, an underground bar also in the downtown Raleigh area.  Again, a very strong effort.  However, my favorite bar in Raleigh remains the Fox Liquor Bar, which was closed that night.  I’ll be back in Raleigh in a few weeks and will definitely hit Fox.  After the cocktails, we went to the Flogging Molly / Social Distortion show at the Red Hat Amphitheatre.  Following that, we organized a small after party at a friend of Mike’s bar.  We had Dennis, Matt and Nathen in to see some of Mike’s magic so they would have a good sense of what he will be doing on the Flogging Molly Cruise in November.  Predictably, Mike blew everyone’s mind with some close up card magic and finished with a mind trick using Matt and Nathen, that people are still talking about.  All in all, a great night in Raleigh as usual.

A London Wedding

Next up on the travel schedule was a trip to London for our friend, Frank Turner’s wedding.  We had a week in London, all at the same hotel which is a change for us and a welcome respite from daily packing and unpacking.  Frank’s wedding was a very nice affair, held in an old music hall in North London.  It was nice to see so many friends together to celebrate Frank and Jess’s wedding.  It was extra special for us, since Frank proposed to Jess at our beach house.  I would also say that Felix Hagan has the best wedding band going.

The rest of the London trip was filled with dinners and cocktails with friends and a quick trip to Oxford to meet up with Tarrant Anderson and his brand new baby. 

We went to the Evans and Peel Detective Agency (which is really a speakeasy).  The 1930’s era detective entry gimmick was well executed with a perfectly in character detective quizzing you about your case before opening a secret door into the bar itself.  The atmosphere was pitch perfect with the Jazz music and staff in period costume.  I found the drinks to be solid, but not extraordinary.  I seemed to me that more time and thought was put into the garnishes than the actual cocktails as those were incredibly inventive.  It’s a bar that’s worth a visit, but probably not a repeat for me.

We returned to Murder, Inc which we found during our previous trip to London in July and really loved.  Once again the service was excellent and the drinks very nice.  One matter did come up which raised an interesting question for me that I’ve now been posing to bartenders I know.  As mentioned above, I’ve recently found the Corn & Oil cocktail. So I asked if they could make one and our bartender said sure.  When they brought the drink, it was a very nice rum cocktail, but they said that they didn’t have blackstrap rum and had just run out of falernum.  When you remove those two ingredients from a Corn & Oil, you are left with a glass of ice with a lime wedge.  While credit to the bar for trying to make a replica, my instinct is that if you are missing major components of a specific classic cocktail, the proper move is to tell the customer that you can’t make it and get another order instead of faking it and failing.  That seems to be the opinion of most who I have asked.

That wraps up the travel through August, next up is a solo trip to the Midwest for me, but Deena will be joining for 3 nights in Denver, so Union Lodge No.1 is going to be heavily trafficked