Author: Andria Lisle

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

How to Survive Gonerfest With Your Liver Intact

CREDIT: Jake Giles Netter

Gonerfest 15 is this weekend, and, boy, is my liver already tired!

I was in my mid-30s when the garage-rock music festival — the brainchild of Goner Records co-founders Eric Friedl and Zac Ives — was started. In those early days, the promise of endless rounds of booze rivaled the guarantee of great musicianship, and there were pre-shows and post-shows galore, which led to drinking around the clock.

I vaguely remember tossing back a vodka and Kool-Aid concoction during an after-hours party in a trashed room at the beleaguered French Quarter Hotel at the corner of Cooper and Madison. Another year, I recall carrying a bottle of tequila into Evil Army’s home base, the Armory, as dawn was breaking on a post-post-Gonerfest show. And at the very first Gonerfest, back in 2005, I pogoed inside the also-long-gone Buccaneer Lounge, spilling more Busch beer on the floor than I could pour into my mouth as the Black Lips caroused onstage.

Now I’m 49, and a little wiser about my drinking habits — particularly when it comes to maintaining the stamina required to make it through four days and nights of live music.

Jake Giles Netter

Ex-Cult

It was former Memphis Flyer music editor/Ex-Cult frontman Chris Shaw who stated that “if treating your body like a trashcan while thrashing around to high-energy bands is your idea of a good time, then consider Gonerfest the shit-head Olympics.” Shaw coined the phrase for a Vice article, in which he chronicled Ty Segall baptizing the Hi-Tone audience with four bottles of champagne, amongst other liquor-fueled hijinks. As he sagely noted, Memphis’ relatively lax drinking laws lure garage-rock boozehounds like moths to a flame. Seriously — I’ve clinked beer bottles and red Solo cups with people from Australia, New Zealand, all corners of Europe, and even Japan, who travel to Memphis for the weekend year after year.

Unfortunately, there are no open container provisions in Cooper-Young, so when the opening ceremonies begin in the gazebo on Thursday night, I’ll be a teetotaler. Or, if I get a wild hair, I’ll brown-bag a tall beer. Tecate, bought from the corner store, is a likely contender.

Even if garage rock means nothing to you, the crowd-watching during the Friday afternoon show at Memphis Made Brewing at 768 S. Cooper is sublime. This year, the brewery’s tap room will be serving a time-honored favorite: a cream ale dubbed Gönerbraü, which has 4.5 percent ABV. It’ll be a smooth component to the musical line-up at Memphis Made, which includes bands from Austin, New Orleans, and Chicago.

After a late night at the Hi-Tone on Friday — where I hope to stick to water after pre-gaming with a round of cocktails — I’ll be ready for white wine (I’m no snob — the Barefoot Pinot Grigio, listed on the menu at $4.50 a glass, suits me just fine) or a beer at Murphy’s on Saturday. The music, slated for indoor and outdoor stages, starts at noon and runs until 7 p.m., with the party moving back to the Hi-Tone at 8 p.m. My strategy includes sunglasses, plenty of shade, and a few healthy meals that will cushion whatever I decide to imbibe.

No matter which musical genre floats your boat, when attending festivals, moderation is key. Getting so wasted that you forget all the fun — or wind up acting like a total jackass — is an issue, but so is dehydration. Water is especially crucial if you’re dancing, walking, or staking out your spot on the front row. Add in some Gatorade to replenish your electrolytes. Pace yourself. And for heaven’s sake, don’t drink and drive.

At concerts, I hate standing in line at the bar, so when I do buy drinks, I tend to purchase them two at a time. Sometimes I drink them both; more than likely, at Gonerfest, I’ll run into a friend from halfway across the world and share. That kind of camaraderie is what the weekend is all about — and, along with the stellar music, it’s what keeps me attending year after year.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Desert Drinking

I am writing this week’s Spirits column from a balcony overlooking Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico. This is my first “real” vacation in two years (trips to the Gulf Coast to see my mom, to New Orleans or Nashville, or that 24 hours I spent in Harlem last spring hardly count), and m-a-a-a-n am I enjoying it. Within an hour of my arrival at the fabulously laidback Hotel Chaco, I was seated at Level 5, the rooftop restaurant, where I sipped on a cocktail while watching the sun set over the Sandia Mountains.

My first drink was Hotel Chaco’s variation on the gin and tonic, called the Botanist. Zippy and peppy, their recipe included pepper, thyme, preserved lemon, and house-made kombucha. I drank it with zest.

Hotel Chaco

With dinner, I drank the beautiful pink-hued Hummingbird, a sweet, fruity Patron tequila-based drink that included lime, agave, damiana, and hibiscus. I had to google damiana to find out what I was drinking — turns out that it’s a native woody shrub that was used to make many patent medicines in the 19th century, including Pemberton’s French Wine Coca, a drugstore brew concocted by the creator of Coca-Cola. Mexican distillers still use leaves from the bush to make a traditional liqueur, while herbalists make tinctures and teas that are seen as either relaxants or stimulants. Let’s just say that I felt both energized and chilled out afterward.

At breakfast the next day, I splurged on a Bloody Mary, which, as it turned out, was worth every penny of the $10 I paid for it. The drink was as spicy as I expected, being in the Southwest, but it came with an added bonus: In addition to the requisite celery stalk and olive garnish, two strips of perfectly fried smoked bacon lay crossed atop the glass. I don’t know how the locals do it, but I dipped my bacon into the vodka-tomato juice mix and ate it, then slurped down the drink.

Later, I strolled through the aforementioned Old Town, the historic center of Albuquerque, founded in 1706. I wound up stopping for lunch at Backstreet Grill, which had seven beers I’ve never heard of on tap. I wish I could say I tried all of them, but I’m just one person — and I already felt a little lightheaded from the altitude.

I did sample the Bosque Lager, a Pilsner-style beer with 4.8 percent ABV that was brewed just a few miles from my lunch spot, at a brewery on San Mateo Boulevard. I also drank a glass of a slightly lighter beer, the 4.3 percent ABV Body Czech Bohemian Pilsner from Boxing Bear, another craft brewery located in Albuquerque.

Unfortunately, I had to bypass samples from other local brewers like the Boese Brothers, La Cumbre, and Steel Bender. Back at my hotel, I did some online searching, and it turns out that Albuquerque has a robust beer scene, with 23 breweries active within the city limits. Marble Brewery, big contenders in the World Beer Cup, are on my short list to try before I fly home to Memphis.

Next, I’m heading to the desert, where I’m spending two days far from any luxuries, including bars, refrigerators, corkscrews, and taps. When I return to civilization, I plan to hit up Garduño’s at Old Town, a 40-year-old restaurant and cantina located inside the venerable Hotel Albuquerque. Monday night is margarita night at Garduño’s, and they have no less than 16 varieties on the menu. The restaurant served as a location for a pivotal scene in season five of Breaking Bad — it’s where Walter and Skyler White met up with Hank Shrader and his wife (and Skyler’s sister) Marie after Shrader discovered that Walter White was indeed the meth-making Heisenberg. Things didn’t go well for anyone sitting at that table, but then again, Walt didn’t stick around for a margarita.

I’ll try just one, then head to Left Turn Distilling, the distillery behind La Luz Vodka, Rojo Piñon Rum, Brothers Old Tom Gin, and NM Blue Corn Whiskey, a twist on corn whiskey that is made with New Mexican water and locally sourced and ground blue corn. While Left Turn also has a happy hour on Mondays, I’ll buy my drinks for the road — or for the plane flight home. Local spirits, after all, make the best souvenirs.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Boozy Milk Shakes to Celebrate the End of Summer

“If you have a milkshake and I have a milkshake and my straw reaches across the room, I’ll end up drinking your milkshake.”

Disgraced New Mexico Senator Albert Fall uttered that line during congressional hearings about the Teapot Dome scandal in 1924 — and to be truthful, he was explaining the concept of oil field drainage. But his analogy was immortalized in Paul Thomas Anderson’s 2007 film, There Will Be Blood, and the lines have been seared in my brain forever since.

I love milkshakes. Especially alcoholic milkshakes, which, these days, are available in eateries and bars all around Memphis. I’ve gotten boozy on classic milkshakes at the Arcade Restaurant Downtown, and on 1,000-calorie S’mores- and Nutella-flavored concoctions at newer joints like Railgarten and Hopdoddy Burger Bar in Overton Square. And this Labor Day weekend, I’ll be celebrating the unofficial end of summer by using my trusty Waring blender to whip up my own.

There is no secret to making a good milkshake. Sure, you want to start with quality ingredients, but beyond that, you really can’t go wrong. Use a few scoops of ice cream per person, pour in a little milk and a few jiggers of liquor, and blend. Add in your “extras” — chopped candy bars, fruit, or syrup, and blend again. Pour into a tall glass, add a straw, and sip. If you want to get fancy, rim your drinking glasses beforehand with sugar, chocolate, or caramel syrup.

Most spiked milkshakes call for bourbon. On the website The Daily Meal, I found a recipe for Grandma’s Treat, a caramel and vanilla ice cream shake that includes an ounce of Maker’s Mark and a Skor candy bar garnish. On the same site, there’s also the deliciously sweet-and-salty Crunch Cassidy, a combination of dulce de leche ice cream, coffee ice cream, bourbon, and salted pretzel sticks.

In Saveur magazine, I found the Peanut Butter Bourbon Milkshake, which calls for 2 ounces bourbon,
½ ounce maple syrup, ¼ cup crunchy peanut butter, one cup of vanilla ice cream, and one cup of ice cubes.

Bourbon isn’t really my jam, but it goes down smooth in a frothy shake.

If rum’s your liquor of choice, try on the Sailor Jerry Simple Hard Milkshake for size. Just combine two parts spiced rum, two parts milk, one scoop of chocolate ice cream, and a handful of M&M’s. Blend it with a few pieces of ice, until its consistency is smooth and rich. Or swap out the chocolate ice cream for butter pecan and trade the candies for salted pecans. Add a little caramel sauce, and voila! You’ve got a Salted Rum Praline Milkshake.

Equally decadent: The vodka-based Boozy Strawberry Milkshake recipe I found at Shake Drink Repeat. While the original recipe calls for cake vodka (who knew that such a thing existed?), I used plain vodka and it tasted delicious. Honestly, after adding in vanilla ice cream, milk, frozen strawberries, and two cups of diced angel food cake, I couldn’t have told you what flavor of vodka I started with.

I also adore the White Russian Milkshake, also known as the Lebowski. This drink, found on Chowhound, eschews the milk entirely — just combine vodka, Kahlua, vanilla ice cream, and instant espresso powder. It evokes, of course, another cocktail-friendly movie, 1998’s The Big Lebowski.

The creamy flavor of Baileys Irish cream also makes the perfect foundation for a great milkshake. On a blogpost by the Chunky Chef, I found the Boozy Baileys Oreo Milkshake, which has superseded all challengers to become my all-time favorite. This drink calls for vanilla ice cream, Oreo cookies, Baileys, and vanilla vodka. Make it extra-fancy by rimming your drinking glass with chocolate syrup and jimmies before you blend your shake.

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Music Music Blog

Classic Pimpin: 8Ball & MJG Bring It All Back Home

The distance between Orange Mound and Midtown is mere blocks, but the Railgarten appearance by Memphis rap duo 8Ball & MJG, slated to take place Sunday, September 2, is more of a metaphysical journey. Just two weeks ago, Premro “8Ball” Smith and Marlon Jermaine Goodwin celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of their nine-song studio debut Comin’ Out Hard, a funky, bluesy hip hop masterpiece.

Recorded in Houston, Texas by producer Tony Draper, Comin’ Out Hard is a lyrical marvel: On it, the MCs drop one juxtaposition after another: In one verse, they rap about running drugs on the corner and in the next, they’re ruling high school talent shows. There was truth to their lyrics, but there was also a lot of fantasy. The song “Armed Robbery,” MJG explained to me during an interview in 2007, is “a broke motherfucker’s fantasy, to be able to rob a bank and get away with it.” Laid over the hook from Lalo Schrifin’s “Mission: Impossible Theme,” the riveting story-song helped solidify 8Ball & MJG’s legacy on the top tier of Memphis rappers, right alongside the city’s other heavy-hitters, Three 6 Mafia.

While the members of Triple 6 covered more ground, 8Ball & MJG rapped specifically about Orange Mound, the first Black neighborhood in the U.S. to be built by Blacks, established on the site of the former Deaderick Plantation in the 1890s. 8Ball was raised by his mother on Lamar Circle and was bussed to Ridgeway Middle School, where he met MJG. The two attended Middle College High School, and, in their downtime, hung out at a pool hall across the street from the Lamar-Airways Shopping Center. MJG grew up a few blocks away, on Sample Street, where he absorbed the country music his grandmother loved alongside the jazz and R&B his father preferred. Each had formidable talent, but together, they gelled into a single unit that left lesser MCs in the dust.

Their music transcended the boundaries of Park Avenue and East Parkway, reaching audiences of all races around the world. Today, 8Ball & MJG don’t just serve as the prototypes for classic southern rap music: they are often rapped about, with their names popping up in the lyrics on songs like E-40’s “Record Haters.” Even National Public Radio has sung their praises, devoting a 2014 segment of “Morning Edition” to the group. Now, 8Ball & MJG are putting the finishing touches on a film biopic, also titled Comin’ Out Hard, written, produced and directed by the Superwoman Squad, a multicultural collective of creative women and female entrepreneurs. The duo is releasing a new live album, Classic Pimpin, this fall. They’re also slated to make an appearance at Atlanta’s A3C Musical Festival in October.

8Ball & MJG’s Railgarten concert, which also includes performances by Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, Unapologetic’s Weird Maestro, and DJ Witnesse, caps off a loose series of local appearances, including 901Fest in May and a listening party held at Memphis Slim House last February. Next, the duo hits the road for a fall tour, which includes stops in Birmingham, AL, Grand Prairie, TX, and DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The Railgarten show is slated to take place on the outdoor stage, with the first act appearing at 7 p.m. Admission is $10.

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Music Music Features

“Memphis Legends” Brings City’s Top Rappers Together

Barring a natural disaster, music promoter Peppa Williams will pull off the impossible this weekend. “I plan on making history; this has never been done before,” says Williams of his Memphis Legends concert. Starring rap pioneers Tommy Wright III, Kingpin Skinny Pimp, Gangsta Blac, Gangsta Boo, Playa Fly, La Chat, Al Kapone, DJ Squeeky, Gangsta Pat, DJ Zirk, and more, the event is slated for East Memphis’ Blue Moon Event Center Sunday night, September 2nd.

It’s the first time in decades — if ever — that such a roster has appeared on one stage. For true Memphis rap fans, the line-up is equivalent to Bonnaroo or Woodstock, and the timing couldn’t be better. A$AP Rocky recently sampled Wright’s 1992 song “Shoot to Kill” on the popular “OG Beeper.” Drake is storming the airwaves with homages to local rappers, riffing on Project Pat’s “Out There” for his recent hit “Look Alive,” and sampling DJ Squeeky’s 1995 track “My Head Is Spinning” on the brand-new “Nonstop.” The common denominator for Drake and A$AP Rocky’s Memphic-centric hits is 22-year old Raleigh MC BlocBoy JB, who now joins Yo Gotti, Moneybagg Yo, and Young Dolph as the latest local gangsta rapper to make the big time.

“People are reconnecting to the Memphis rap sound, but it’s never really left,” says veteran MC Al Kapone. “The way producers here made beats — particularly the rhythm of the drums, the snare rolls and the hi-hats—created an authentic Memphis sound in the 1990s. And right now, so many people are coming around to that sound. It’s the perfect time for us to unite and say that we’re all a part of creating it.”

Kingpin Skinny Pimp describes that sound as “underground and hard as hell. It’s a certain style we had, and everybody else is getting up on it now.” Meanwhile, the fast-spitting Tommy Wright III has enjoyed newfound popularity among punk rockers and skateboarders. “Not that audiences in the ’90s didn’t like to get wild, but today’s crowds can get wild without any fights,” Wright says. My audience nowadays is turnt up.”

That international fame came a few decades too late for most of these artists isn’t lost on originators like DJ Zirk, who describes the Memphis rap scene of the 1990s as “an era of just trying: What can we invent that’s different from what’s happening up north and out west? We were working on limited equipment, doing what we had to do, because we didn’t have the technology. With songs like ‘Lock’m N Da Trunk’ and Skinny’s ‘Lookin’ For Da Chewin,’ we were trying to see which one of us could be the wildest and have the most aggressive beats.”

Back then, there was nothing more aggressive than the “Triggerman” sample, a break that DJ Spanish Fly lifted off a little-known 12-inch called “Drag Rap” recorded by a New York duo known as the Showboys. They, too, will be making a rare Southern appearance at the Memphis Legends show. Thanks to Spanish Fly and DJ Squeeky, “Triggerman” showed up in dozens of Memphis underground hits. It also spawned the dance trend known as gangsta walking, which evolved into today’s jooking.

“‘Triggerman’ was so hot that we thought [the Showboys] lived in Memphis.” Wright says. “It was such a hype anthem, the one that brought the house down. The DJs around Memphis would mix it in, talk over it, create their own versions like ‘Shoot Triggerman,’ ‘Triggerman’s Back,’ ‘Triggerman’s Dead.’ It is a classic.”

Memphis Legends, with Tommy Wright III, Skinny Pimp, Gangsta Blac, Gangsta Boo, Playa Fly, La Chat, Al Kapone, DJ Squeaky, DJ Zirk, Gangsta Pat, SMK, Criminal Manne, the Showboys and more, perform at Blue Moon Event Center, 2560 Mount Moriah, on Sunday, September 2nd. $25.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Cool As a Cucumber Drinks for Summer

CREDIT: Kaiskynet | Dreamstime.com

I was enjoying dinner at Char last week — a payday tradition for me and a good friend — on one of those August days when the temperature soars so high that it feels like fall is a long way off. At Char, a great dining experience if you’ve never had the pleasure, I usually sip a Woody Creek Mule, made with a craft potato vodka distilled in Colorado. Last week, however, my finger wavered over the menu, and I selected Char’s tequila cocktail instead.

It was the best decision I’ve made all month.

The waiter delivered a concoction of Tres Agaves Blanco, cucumber liqueur, lime juice, cilantro and jalapeño syrup, and Vinho Verde wine. Served in a highball glass, the drink was a delight, easy on the palate, and utterly refreshing. It had a complex flavor: The cucumber and peppers mingled with the fruity notes of the tequila and Vinho Verde.

Two were my limit, but the drink has caused me to reappraise cucumbers. The timing couldn’t be any better — right now, cukes are at peak production here in Memphis. The crisp, juicy vegetables can add a real tang to your late-summer cocktails.

For the last several days, I’ve been sampling drink recipes at home. I’ve sliced and muddled cucumbers. I’ve made cucumber simple syrup. I skipped the cucumber-and-lime flavored carbonated soda I spotted on the shelves at Target, but I did splurge on a $21 bottle of Thatcher’s Cucumber Liqueur, which is bottled in Michigan but tastes like it’s straight from the backyard garden.

Kaiskynet | Dreamstime.com

And if September is as sultry as it can be, I’m sure I’ll try one of the cucumber vodkas on the market. I’m tempted by Effen Cucumber Vodka, bottled in the Netherlands, and Prairie Cucumber Vodka, which is distilled up the river in Minnesota. I’m also intrigued by Cucumber Bitters bottled by German distillery The Bitter Truth, a company that took top honors for their Celery Bitters at Tales of the Cocktail New Orleans 2010.

I like simple cocktails, and the Cucumber Cooler, a cocktail I found on the Minimalist Baker’s website, is quick and easy. Simply add 1½ ounces of gin, a few slices of lime, and 6 mint leaves to a shaker and muddle. Add 4 to 6 cucumber slices, shake vigorously, and pour into an ice-filled glass. Top the drink with tonic water (I used Schweppes diet tonic water) and stir. Let it sit for a few minutes to meld, then enjoy. If it’s too tart for your tastes, add a tablespoon of sugar to the ingredients in the first step next time.

Cucumber gimlets take a little more time to make, but the payoff is worth it. Start with 2 cucumbers, slicing off a few nice pieces to use as garnish. Set those aside, then coarsely chop the rest of the cucumbers. Puree the vegetable in a food processor, then strain and discard the solids, reserving at least one cup of cucumber juice. In a large pitcher, combine the cucumber juice with a half-cup of gin, 4 teaspoons of lime juice, and a tablespoon of sugar. Add a cup of ice cubes, and stir until the mixture is cool and all the sugar has dissolved. Strain the drink into Martini glasses, garnish with lime and cucumber slices, and serve.

I used more homemade cucumber juice to recreate the Cucumber Lime Tequila Cocktail recipe I found on a website called Food with Feeling. The drink called for lowball glasses, but I used a taller glass to combine 3 ounces of cucumber juice, 1½ ounces of lime juice, 1½ ounces of tequila, and a quarter-teaspoon of sugar over ice. Then I topped off the drink with club soda and garnished it with a lime wedge and a slice of cucumber. It might not have been as fancy as the cocktail I was served at Char, but it tasted just as refreshing.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Home Spirits and Vintage Memories

Last weekend, a friend and I made the 420-mile drive to Gulf Shores, Alabama. We both wanted to swim, bask in some sunshine, and check out from reality for a few days, but the main reason for the trip was to visit my mother, who lives a few miles from the beach on the Bon Secour River. The weekend was full of surprises — my dog managed to lock himself in the workshop next to the garage, and on the way home, we blew a tire while driving at 70 mph — but most of the time, we relaxed regardless.

I had my first drink — a vodka and tonic — when we arrived late Thursday night, after a somewhat white-knuckled drive over the Mobile Bayway. On Friday, I hit the vodka bottle once again, immediately after the locksmith sprung the dog free for a $75 fee. Saturday night, we drank white wine on the back porch while comparing sunburns and waiting for the barbecue shrimp to come out of the oven. Sunday, I longed for a cocktail while waiting for the AAA representative to rescue us on the side of the highway outside Meridian, Mississippi, but as the driver of said vehicle, it would’ve been irresponsible to drink.

Otherwise, we enjoyed penny drinks — a Tequila Sunrise apiece for me and my friend Jenny, and a Cosmopolitan for my mom — at Ginny Lane, one of our favorite restaurants at the Wharf.

Beach traffic was a nightmare, so we skipped the blackberry mojitos at one of my favorite restaurants, the Gulf in Orange Beach. Likewise for the margarita menu at Lulu’s. We discussed heading to the legendary Flora-Bama Lounge in Perdido Key for a round of Bushwackers, but the situation with the locksmith derailed us. Too bad — my brain could’ve benefitted from the numbing power of the frozen Bacardi, Kahlua, and coconut milkshake after that drama.

Thankfully, my mother was generous with her home bar. She even sent me home with a few unopened bottles of booze that have sat, full, since they were purchased by my father over a a decade ago. Truthfully, they’re nothing too special — just a bottle of Christian Brothers brandy and a bottle of Tribuno vermouth — but they make me feel close to my dad, who died in December 2007.

My father loved to drink just about any kind of liquor, but alcoholism didn’t get him like it did others in our family; he was felled by Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma instead. He was a south-Louisiana-born airline pilot who frequently brought home beers and bottles of booze from exotic places. In the 1970s and 1980s, I remember him downing cans of Stroh’s after a day of yard work, or cutting up bowls of fruit to make homemade batches of sangria. In fact, I’m sure that’s why he’d purchased the bottle of brandy I brought back to Memphis.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, my dad discovered Frangelico, the Italian liqueur that comes in a bottle shaped like a monk. For years, every time we had dinner guests, we’d end the evening with Frangelico Affogato served in my grandmother’s crystal. The dessert drink — a splash of Frangelico, a shot of coffee, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream — was my first taste of hazelnut, years before I enjoyed a spoonful of Nutella.

He loved discovering a liqueur or a wine and making it “his.” One of my proudest adult moments was when I uncorked a bottle of cheap Chilean wine, Concha y Toro’s Casillero del Diablo. We drank the peppery white wine with takeout barbecue from Cozy Corner, and my dad declared it so delicious that immediately after dinner, he drove to my neighborhood liquor store to purchase a case.

The Tribuno, I know, was a key ingredient in another of my dad’s favorite cocktails, the Manhattan. The whiskey-based drink isn’t one I particularly enjoy, but the tall green bottle, which retails for well under $10, now occupies prime real estate in my home bar. Purchased in the early aughts, it’s now aged to a particularly rare vintage never intended by the distiller. It’s too precious to drink, and so the screw top stays sealed tight.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Floaties: What to Drink at the Pool

In John Cheever’s masterful short story “The Swimmer,” Neddy Merrill swigs cocktails as he makes his way home by traversing across all the pools in the neighborhood. At the Bunkers’, Merrill interrupts a soiree where “a smiling bartender he had seen at a hundred parties gave him a gin and tonic and he stood by the bar for a moment, anxious to not get stuck in any conversation that would delay his voyage.” At the Biswangers’ pool, he throws back a whiskey. But the more Merrill swims and drinks, the darker his journey becomes.

I won’t spoil the ending, but I can’t help but think about Cheever’s story, first published in The New Yorker in July 1964 — or the film version, which stars Burt Lancaster and was released four years later — anytime I enjoy a beverage by the pool.

The truth is, drinking and swimming don’t mix well. Enjoy too many cocktails, and your senses become impaired, which might lead you to making reckless decisions. Plus, once the alcohol enters your bloodstream, your temperature drops, which can cause hypothermia if you’re swimming in cold water. Stick to the shallow end, and, when you’re imbibing, avoid open water.

Thanks to generous friends, I have my own Midtown pool to crash for a few weeks every summer. It’s small, not too deep, and saltwater. It’s not a diving pool, and my friends and I are long past the days of playing Marco Polo or Chicken. My most reckless behavior is treading water for so long that my toes turn pruney. So, yes, I do like to have a plastic cup of something to sip on while I lean on a foam noodle, or something more bracing for when we get out of the pool.

I’m not the only one: Despite the dangers of overdoing it on the booze while on the water, today you can buy everything from floating blow-up drink holders that come shaped as swans, flamingos, and unicorns to the Play Platoon, an inflatable beer pong table. There are floating bars, floating coolers, and floating beer koozies. Whether you’re actually getting into the pool or remaining dry on deck, avoid glass at all costs. Switch to the ubiquitous red Solo cups, hard plastic tumblers, or fancier options like silicone wine glasses. Grown-up sippy cups are a great option for backyards that are buggy.

There are dozens of swimming pool-themed cocktails, including a blue-hued vodka, rum, curacao, and coconut concoction that’s called — you guessed it — the Swimming Pool. It’s too fancy for me. Others swear by margaritas or mojitos. I prefer to keep my poolside cocktail simpler — say, gin or vodka with a flavored sparkling water from San Pellegrino, or white wine decanted straight from the box.

Another new favorite is pre-mixed sangria. The Spanish wine and fruit punch, available in red and white varieties, dates back to the 18th century. Thanks to modern packaging methods, sangria is enjoying a major resurgence. I’ve found Eppa SupraFruta Red Sangria, bottled in California and mixed with organic pomegranate, blueberry, and blood orange juices, on local shelves alongside the more traditional Santos Sangria, which hails from Spain and comes in a bottle or a pool-friendly box.

My top favorite in the bottled sangria category: The Eppa SupraFruta White Sangria, which boasts three times the antioxidants of white wine thanks to the superfruit blend of peach, mango, and blood orange juices. I also love the low-calorie Beso Del Sol White Sangria, which comes from Spain, pours from a box, and has just 74 calories per glass. And a bottle of Lolea No. 2 White Sangria, another Spanish offering packaged in a cheery, polka-dotted bottle, makes the perfect hostess gift for my pool-owning friend.

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Food & Wine Food & Drink

Old Tom Collins: A Sippable Summer Cocktail

CREDIT: Fibobjects | Dreamstime.com

At some moment during my teen years, I read a book or watched a movie that included a scene extolling the virtue of a Tom Collins. I’ve tried, desperately, to remember the reference, but no luck — it might’ve been Lisa Birnbach’s The Official Preppy Handbook or Little Darlings or, somewhat randomly, the obscure 1958 melodrama Marjorie Morningstar, which starred Natalie Wood as a love-struck camp counselor.

What I do recall is the sage advice that a girl on a date with a guy she didn’t know so well should stick to drinking Tom Collinses, because the drinks were tall, sippable, and full of soda water. It was highly unlikely that a “nice” girl would get schnockered drinking Tom Collins.

However it was delivered, that kernel of wisdom was permanently lodged into my brain, and for years, I longed for that moment when I, too, could demurely sip on the lemony gin drink. Unfortunately for me, my dating experiences once I reached legal age consisted of nights spent at Midtown hotspots like the Lamplighter and the Antenna Club, where beer was the only alcoholic beverage on the menu. And even today, although I’ve stepped up my game on the local bar scene, the Tom Collins is seldom featured on area cocktail menus.

That doesn’t mean that your favorite Memphis bartender won’t make one for you — or that you can’t mix up your own at home this summer.

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First, the history of this cocktail: The Tom Collins first appeared in bartender literature in 1876 as a kissing cousin to the John Collins, a British drink that was made from either bourbon or gin, lemon juice, sugar, and soda water. It’s likely that the drink was popularized two years earlier, when a practical joke later dubbed “the Tom Collins Hoax of 1874” swept across the United States. Everything’s a bit vague, though — as “the sage of Baltimore” H.L. Mencken once wrote, “The origins of the Tom-Collins remains to be established; the historians of alcoholism, like the philologists, have neglected them.” Nevertheless, by 1878, the cocktail was a mainstay on bar menus. It was — and still is — served in a Collins glass, a tumbler that’s a few inches taller than a highball glass.

Now, how to make it: Start with Hayman’s Old Tom Gin, a sweet, botanic variety that was stocked in every bar in Victorian-era England. Today, you can find it at area liquor stores with a wide variety; I’ve seen it around town for under $26 for a large bottle. An aside here: Old Tom is a sweet and higher ABV strain of gin that, in recent years, is enjoying a resurgence. In addition to Hayman’s version, Tanqueray bottles a limited edition Old Tom variety. At Buster’s Liquors, I’ve also found an American Old Tom gin that’s bottled by the Louisville craft distillery Copper & Kings. All told, there are approximately two dozen variations of Old Tom on the market, although few have made their way to Memphis shelves.

If you don’t have Old Tom on hand, go dry or go botanical. Cook up a batch of simple syrup and let it cool. Squeeze fresh lemon juice. Pack one-and-a-half cups of ice into a Collins glass, and put it in the freezer. Combine two ounces of gin, three-quarters ounce lemon juice, and a half ounce simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Add ice, cover, and shake until chilled. Strain the concoction into your ice-filled and pre-chilled Collins glass, and top with club soda. Garnish it with a lemon wedge and, if you’d like, a few maraschino cherries.

That’s the easy way. Years ago, Tom Collinses were actually mixed in the glasses they’re served in. To go old-school, just add two ounces gin, the juice of a lemon, and one teaspoon of superfine sugar to a Collins glass. (If you want, chill the glass, filled with ice, in the freezer first, then dump the ice before adding ingredients.) Stir with a tall spoon until the sugar has dissolved, fill the glass with ice, and then top it off with chilled club soda.

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Paul Snowflake Taylor — Inspired by the Old Forest

Paul Snowflake Taylor celebrates both a new EP and a new recording persona, Friday night. Under the nom de plume New Memphis Colorways, he’s debuting a six-song release called Old Forest Loop via a free cipher and community jam session at Crosstown Concourse’s Central Atrium.

Taylor has been an artist-in-residence at Crosstown Arts since March.

Old Forest Loop is mostly instrumental, with the exception of the second track. The EP’s origins lay, says Taylor, in a previous EP, Old Forest Trail, which was released in fall 2015. “When my dad [Memphis musician Pat Taylor, a veteran of numerous bands including the Breaks and the Village Sound] was sick, I was playing acoustic guitar by his bedside, and when he passed in early 2015, I was spending a lot of time in the Old Forest in Overton Park. Old Forest Trail came out, and within about four months, I realized that the signage that had been there my whole life had been replaced with these totem pole-like signs.”

The change was jarring for Taylor. “I stewed on it awhile,” he says. “And then, I thought, ‘What if I make an electric guitar psychedelic update of Old Forest Trail and call it Old Forest Loop?'”

That was the original concept, but instead, Taylor wound up creating an entirely new, stand-alone record that marked another passing — the death of his dog, Owl Jackson Jr., who had accompanied him on thousands of walks through the Old Forest.

“I decided I should do something more off-the-cuff, and this EP is it,” Taylor says. “It’s really a palate cleanser, both from old associations and from old records of mine. It’s homemade and light-hearted, and I see it as kind of a start-over for me. This is music I deliberately made for people to take summertime drvies to — they can grill to it or swim to it. I won’t get my feelings hurt if people talk over it.”

More substantial than most summery confections, Old Forest Loop has the citrus punch of an orange sherbet popsicle. Mastered by IMAKEMADBEATS, it will be released on most online music outlets, including Spotify and Bandcamp, at midnight on Friday. The free concert in Crosstown’s Central Atrium will run from 6 to 9 p.m.

“It’s going to be a loose improv jam session,” Taylor says. “I’ve invited rappers, jazz musicians, dancers, and artists. Hopefully, it will be really chaotic!”
Taylor has two months left in his residency at Crosstown, which is where he mixed Old Forest Trail.
“Besides mixing that project, I’ve been hosting and recording other bands,” he says. “I’m working on a duo project with Jimmy Crosthwait, and I’m doing an interview series with hand-held mics. So far, I’ve interviewed Eric Gales, Luther Dickinson, Jimmy, and some horn player friends. The plan is to edit the interviews into long versions I can use as podcasts and short versions I’ll release as videos. We’re also all building a collaborative piece of music — kind of like an Exquisite Corpse.”

For fans of Memphis music, Taylor’s aural interpretation of the surrealist game is a fascinating conceit. He’s laid down guitar tracks, Dickinson added bass, Gales contributed a drum track, and on it goes.

Meanwhile, on Saturday night, Taylor will appear with Merry Mobile, his band with bassist Daniel McKee and drummer Brian Wells, at Dirty Crow Inn.
Despite having spent more than 20 years in the Memphis music scene, which began with his partnership with Luther and Cody Dickinson in the group DDT, Taylor is enthusiastic about the current landscape.

“It’s easy to be a sideman,” he says.”But when it comes to my own stuff, I’m meant for a smaller or more left-bent audience. I have a lot of really positive energy in my life right now. I feel like I fit in.”