Bobby’s on the Bayou
2622 Greens Road
Houston TX 77032
(281) 442-1777

Two buck beer and the best burgers on the north side of town. I hope they rebuild.

Mena’s Palace
200 Chartres Street
New Orleans LA 70130
(504) 525-0217
www.menaspalace.com

Calling Mena’s a “palace” is typical New Orleans bragging. Anywhere else it would be Mena’s Cafe and Bar.

I arrive at 6:58am. I know it’s 6:58am because the door is still locked, but there are people sitting at the tables inside. Mena’s doesn’t open until 7am.

I know if I stand by the door politely they’ll let me in to sit and drink a cup of coffee. Yup, Margaret is opening the door now.

There are only a dozen or so tables in the whole place. I walk to a table near the back and sit so I can look out at the street. Margaret brings me a cup of coffee and I wait for Mena’s to be officially open.

At about 7:15am Margaret comes back and asks: “What’ll you have, dear?”

“Two eggs over medium. Hash browns. Toast. And a side of andouille sausage.” (I am in New Orleans, after all. I can get bacon or ham anywhere.)

“The andouille will be extra,” says Margaret. “Is that okay?”

“Sure.” It’s five bucks for the eggs and $3.50 for the andouille. Still a great price compared to the higher prices at the white tablecloth restaurants back on Royal Street.

I settle in with my coffee and go back to reading the copy of USA Today that I bought along.

Quickly enough Margaret brings my order. First the eggs and hash browns then, a few minutes later, a rather large andouille sausage. It’s the same kind of breakfast you could get at any cafe in any small town in America. Except for that andouille.

As I enjoy my quiet breakfast the free show starts up right outside Mena’s front window.

There’s a motorcycle cop slowly riding by, trying to get past first an even slower-moving bicycle and then a young couple walking in the street.

It all seems normal enough.

Until the guy on foot takes a cigarette out of his mouth, throws it to the ground and takes off running.

I’m not completely sure what happened next — since the show exited stage left — but in a minute or so the cop has the poor guy’s face pressed against the window at Mena’s and the cuffs are going on.

Two lessons to learn here:

• 1. Never draw unwanted attention to yourself –and–
• 2. Always order andouille sausage when you’re in New Orleans.

This year, I’m going alone (since my wife has other out of town obligations). I’m on the “Founder’s Day Pass” so I’ll be able to attend all the big events.

I’ll be posting regularly on my twitter feed. Follow me at http://twitter.com/jm9900.

page 480
Beverages, Past and Present: An Historical Sketch of Their Production
by Edward Randolph Emerson. Published 1908

Vietopia Vietnamese Cuisine
5176 Buffalo Speedway
Houston TX 77005
(713) 664-7303

“What would you like to make for me?” I ask Victor, the barman, a stylish young man who looks like he might be tending bar at night and attending college during the day.

“Oh, anything you like. I know them all,” is Victor’s confident reply.

“Negroni, up,” I say, not wanting to task his skills or threaten his confidence.

“Sure, What’s in it?”

He and I talk a little and it seems that Victor, the barman, had set my expectations a bit high. It also seems that Victor, the barman, has no Campari.

“You have a nice bottle of Woodford Reserve, so how about a Manhattan, up?” I ask.

“Sure, no problem.”

Turns out that Victor can make a nice Manhattan. So I sit and sip as my friends arrive, one by one, each also asking Victor for a drink that he might be able to make. Some he knows, some he doesn’t. (The request for a sazerac blows him away completely.)

My Manhattan has gone dry. Now, here’s a trick that I learned long ago, although it’s not always one that I abide by. It’s called “One strong. One weak.”

“Victor, I’ll take a Trinidad Spritzer.”

“Sure. What’s that?” is Victor’s well-anticipated reply.

“A Trinidad Spritzer is club soda from your gun, topped with about four or five healthy dashes of Angostura bitters.”

Trinidad Spritzer

5 ounces club soda
1 teaspoon Angostura bitters (4-5 dashes)

Pour soda over ice in a rocks glass, top with bitters.
Do not stir. Garnish with a lemon twist.
Serve with a straw or swizzle stick.

“One strong. One weak. That’s my secret for a long night out. I’ll be here another three hours and I’ll want to drive home when I’m done.”

Seems like everyone is twittering these days.

Twitter is a micro-blogging site: sort of a combination of a blog, instant messaging and mobile phone texting. It’s a social media thing, one that not everyone (including me) fully understands.

Twitter is good for publishing and promoting links, announcing events and exchanging information in an almost real-time fashion. It’s trendy: lots of well-known people twitter on a daily basis. Hard to say if it’s just a fad and how long it’ll last.

I’m experimenting on twitter. Maybe you should, too.

Basically, these all drinks are extensions of the classic Manhattan recipe (3 parts Rye or Bourbon, 1 part sweet vermouth, bitters), shaded towards the bitter side.


Here’s my current favorite:

Black Manhattan
a darker, more bitter version of the original

3 ounces Russell’s Rye
3/4 ounce Cynar
dash Fee Brother’s Orange Bitters

stir briskly, serve up with a cherry

The original Manhattan can seem too sweet to some. Not this one.

“So now I need a word or phrase that describes having every drink on the menu in one night - the cocktail menu equivalent of a triple crown or marathon or Iron Man.”

For me, the answer was easy. Here’s my logic:

• Trying three or more glasses of wine (or food or cocktails, for that matter) is called a “flight.”
• In golf, a team scoring method where the strokes of several players contribute to the final score is called a “Texas Scramble.”

Writing here from Houston (where the cliche is we do everything in a big way), a cocktail adventure where a team of cocktailians together have every drink on the menu in one night sure sounds like a “Texas Flight.”

“Be sure to find Marvin Allen at the Monteleone Carousel Lounge and order a Vieux Carre,” I told Barbara. Somehow, just because I visit there every other month or so, I’m supposed to be an expert on everything New Orleans.

“What’s a Vieux Carre and how do you spell it?” Barbara asked as George furiously wrote down my suggestion on a cocktail napkin.

“Not sure how to spell it, exactly. It’s French. Who can spell in French?” I replied. “You don’t have to spell it right or pronounce it right, Marvin will know what you want.”

Vieux Carre Cocktail

1/2 ounce rye whiskey
1/2 ounce cognac
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
1/2 teaspoon Benedictine
dash Peychaud’s bitters
dash Angostura bitters

Shake, serve on the rocks with a twist of lemon

Vieux Carre is the traditional French name for the French Quarter and this classic drink is hard to find elsewhere.