Hard Liquor: The Invisible Food Group...

Recently one of my bartender friends introduced me to doing a shot of Jameson's with a pickle juice back, called in some circles a pickleback, reminding me as to how much I associate hard liquor with savory tastes rather than fruity or sweet flavors. More often than not I'd take a bloody mary over a screwdriver at a sunday brunch; I'd take a shot of tequila with salt over a margarita any day; and if there's ever a bottle of vodka in my freezer, chances are it's been in a caviar service and not a Cosmopolitan.

Often when I tell people about my particular tastes, it produces a pretty polarized reaction, ranging from "Wow that's pretty gross" (In particular when I've ordered a pickleback in unfamiliar bars) to "I've done that before, it's pretty good!", but what surprises me most is when I get someone to speak up and say something like "Oh yeah, I've got an uncle/aunt/cousin that does something like that..."

One tale spoke of their big Eastern European family dinners centered around a platter of smoked salmon with blini and fixings where they're slugging back shots of vodka inbetween bites; another spoke of a pretty hardcore table of Koreans diving into some great bulgogi while passing around a bottle of high octane soju; and evesdropping on a bar conversation at Ruth Chris I couldn't help but agree when a patron insisted that a Tanqueray martini with blue cheese olives is a far better pairing with steak than a nice glass of red wine.

I'm sure there's some crazy sort of molecular gastronomical explanation as to why I think of hard booze more like dinner than desert, or maybe it's a vague cultural thing that's managed to keep being passed down between generations. At best, I can only offer that pairing hard liquors with savory foods works quite well, and is something I think everyone should try at least once, be it vodka with oysters, or vodka and chicken soup, and yes, chicken soup with vodka is quite spectacular, especially if you've got a cold.

...man that TOTALLY sounds like a great idea!

Most everyone I know can relate with this scenario: it's pretty late, well past that rational point of not drinking anymore despite everyone still having a cocktail in their hand, but not quite to the point where guests start dropping to the floor, and someone comes up with "the best idea ever", and regardless of the proposal, be it grabbing someones smartphone to map a roadtrip to a hole in the wall diner or grabbing someones smartphone and throwing it into a blender, at the time it always seems pretty spectacular.

More often than not, as most everyone can attest, these ideas are the exact opposite. In fact, the majority of the time they're pure bollocks, dare I say, borderline retarded. Thankfully, 90% of the time these ideas are kicked to the curb, with about 7% of the remaining usually resulting in wondering "How the hell did I get this far out of town?"

However, there is that 3% crapshoot where these boozy epiphonies results in something not quite so ridiculous as losing ones pants/keys/vehicle, and actually works out pretty damn well. Off the top of my head, I can think of a few hit songs that were the result of a drunken ramble or two, and rumor has it that the founders of Southwest Airlines doodled their original carrier routes on the back of a cocktail napkin at a pub one historic evening.

So lies the origins of "A Lush Life", the shitfaced brainchild from 3 years ago outside of a local cigar bar where me, my wife, and one of her best friends came up with the "brilliant" notion that we were going create our very own lifestyle publication, starting from a simple blog and working our way up to a Martha Stewart sized empire. The original Lush Life was to cover the local bar and pub scene, covered my me, restaurant and foodie reviews, covered by my wife, travel, contributed by all, and arts and fashion, covered by my wife's friend.

Of course the idea never got off the ground (which in some regards is a good thing considering my wife's friend has some pretty hideous taste), but the idea of writing about the things I've enjoyed most in the area (i.e. booze) never really went away.

So for everyone that's here as I'm setting up bar, I want to say thank you for checking this out. Hopefully me writing about the things I love most about local food and alcohol will end up in that successful 3%, but at the very least, I'm happy to know our happy hour idea 3 years ago wasn't a complete fools errand. Now where did I put my pants...