Friday, February 18, 2022

1. Young women drinking canned cocktails. The brewery had an extensive list of locally-crafted beers and ciders, too. Why not choose something that is the establishment’s specialty?

2. The fact that canned cocktails even exist. Seriously. Who came up with this? The very premise of “cocktail,” to me, means that the libation is lovingly mixed and served up almost immediately, and not created in a factory and placed in an aluminum cylinder and consumed weeks later. Shudder.

3. The busload of 20-somethings that arrived just as Husband and I finished our meal and first round of beers. I applaud the utilization of a Designated Driver, and I am pleased this group chose to patronize a small business, but I am quite sure most of these young people were not using their “inside voices” to chat each other up. The noise level made it exceedingly difficult for Husband and me to read trivia questions to each other. Humph. It’s days like today that make the divide between Boomers and Millennials all the wider.

Enjoyed: Saturday, February 5, 2022

Listed on the menu: Yes, as “Very Special Old Fashioned”

Ingredients: Hennessy VSOP, Simple Syrup, Muddled Orange and Cherry, Dashes Bitters

The occasion: Dry January/Holiday Recovery is over, and cases of Covid-19 are again going down in our area, so the time was right for a day trip to visit Youngest Son. We selected Monza for a very late lunch, since it was a short walk away from his apartment. We hadn’t seen him since Christmas, so we toasted to a healthy and prosperous 2022.

My rating: ** out of 5. I was initially intrigued by this spin on a classic Old Fashioned, which is usually made with whiskey of some sorts. I do enjoy a snifter of cognac–and VSOP Hennessy is lovely, and cognac is aged in oak barrels just like bourbon–but how would this work in an Old Fashioned? The answer: on this particular afternoon, it didn’t work. The drink was served in a tumbler which was too large and contained too much ice. A large orange slice and two whole maraschino cherries were muddled inside. And the simple syrup was simply over-abundant. Yes, cognac does have wonderful fruity flavor notes of its own, but this cognac  was totally overshadowed by all the additional items in the glass. 

Final thoughts: Husband and Son had no complaints about their cocktail choices or about the Monza racetrack posters decorating the walls. Perhaps, in this Italian restaurant,  I should have selected a glass of Chianti to go with my delicious spaghetti carbonara.