[dc]T[/dc]he perk of living in a small-ish town like Lansing is, most of my friends know each other. This makes attending events less scary, as my chances of knowing someone besides Stephanie are much greater. Because, talking to people I don’t know, well ::shudder::.
Whisky business. Image via Amazon.
Such was the case at my friend Suban’s birthday party last week. A sizable group of folks joined her at the recently reopened Zoobie’s Tavern in Old Town for birthday drinks. While there, I chatted with another guest, John, at the bar for most of the evening.¹
Our talk covered important topics like b-movies, the oeuvre of Andy Sedaris, fictional characters besting each other in random tasks, and the recent Red Wings off-season signings. While I explained the brilliance of 1987’s Miami Connection,² John decided to buy me a drink.
YES. See this movie. Image via Amazon.
John waved to the back of the bar, “Pick a bottle you’ve never seen before.”
The dim lighting, distance from the bottles, and our shared poor eyesight made the task a challenge, but I spotted a label with ‘W’ and a ‘Y’ in the same row, and took a chance. John waved the bartender over and pointed to the bottle, “Two. On the rocks.”
When the bottle landed in front of us, two words immediately came into focus: Single Malt.
My brain sputtered, sparked, and made a quick correlation: single malt = expensive. As the bottle tipped into a pour, I grabbed John’s arm. “Wait! Ask how much it is first!”
John nodded. “How much?”
The bartender held the bottle suspended in midair, the contents swirled inside like an angry genie. “$25.”
“Total?”
“Each.”
John cleared his throat, “Dan, I like you. But I don’t like you that much.”
My second choice, Woodward Whiskey by Detroit’s Valentine Distilling, proved a winner (and easier on John’s wallet). We sipped our whiskey and I explained, at length, why John needed to see Pacific Rim in the theater ASAP.
A whiskey drinking aside: For the times I drink whiskey neat (no ice), but I still want the drink chilled, I use a set of whiskey stones, similar to these (it depends on the whiskey. Some kinds I like chilled, other kinds I don’t).
They really work. Image via ThinkGeek.
You just pop the whiskey stones in the freezer and use them like ice cubes. Easy! They chill my whiskey (or any drink, really) without the dilution you get with ice cubes (but, there are times I want ice cubes instead). I received my set as a Best Man/groomsman gift at a friend’s wedding last summer (see: My Prince Lyrics/Rickroll Best Man Speech). All the groomsmen received these whiskey stones, but as I also received the Best Best Man Gift Ever: a Viking Drinking Horn.
¹. For the purpose of this story, pretend he looks like a young Sam Elliott with an epic beard.
². Ninja, UZIs, and a severed arm in the first five minutes.
Well, I can’t speak to the bottle you were staring at but honestly, life is too short to drink cheap whisky. If it isn’t single malt I don’t have time for it. There are many fine single-malt whiskeys that are (relatively) affordable and tasty. My personal favorites are Glenfiddich 15 and The Glenlivet 12 or 15. They are both available for about 40ish a bottle and while they do get a premium price in bars, they are nowhere near 25 a shot.
Whiskey stones are the only way to go with a single malt though with either of the above whiskeys I don’t see the need to chill them.
I’ve had both of those single malts too, and really enjoyed them. I’ll have to go back again and find out what we accidentally almost ordered.