Questions First, Schust Later: When Sith Happens, Whisky, and More!
This is the debut of a series of question/answer columns for Schustack
Did you taste anything good this week?
Yes!
A. Overholt, a new expression from Old Overholt rye that is made with a Monongelah rye mash 80% rye and 20% soft malted barley recipe—the type that was popular when the brand was based in Pennsylvania in the 1800s. It’s wonderfully unctuous and spicy. 47.5% ABV, $40 SRP.
Hatozaki Omakase Rye Mizunara Cask Finish Third Edition, a limited release that is matured American style in new, charred oak then finished in mizunara cask, which imparts an aromatic gingerbread-like flavor to the whiskey. Limited to 3,000 bottles, 42% ABV, $95.
Compass Box Celestial, the fourth and final release in the brand’s Extinct Blends Quartet. The flavor profile is in the same vein as No Name, which is one of my fav blended Scotch releases from years past (both use Ardbeg and Caol Ila in the blend)—light, but smoky, with a delicate snap of spice and citrus peel flavors. 50% ABV, $375.
I heard you have a weekly long distance movie watching meetup with a friend that started in March, 2020. Do you ever pair drinks with the movies and if so, what do you recommend?
It’s true and yes, we do! My friend Stephanie Moreno—who lives in Texas—and I have a Zoom almost every week, a thing we’ve kept going past lockdown because it’s such a relaxing way to catch up and put our hectic lives on pause. Early on, we decided to assign themes to certain days or months, and we often challenge each other to make a drink that corresponds with what we’re watching.
This year we’ve mostly been revisiting movies from 1984 and 1994 since it’s a big anniversary year for some of our favorites. I look forward to re-watching Amadeus soon and making something with Mozart chocolate liqueur, and, since it’s nearly three hours long, perhaps also an Opera Cocktail (recipe at the end).
Some of my other favorites so far (in no particular order):
Lady Snowblood — perhaps the one and only time I’ve ever made a single serve Bloody Mary
Jaws — a messy, unstrained strawberry-mint Daiquiri (it looks like chum)
The Life of Brian — Corpse Reviver No. 2s (for Easter Sunday)
Highlander 2 — a pretty unwatchable sequel made way better with finishing samples of Diageo Special Release Scotch
The Jerk — Beaujolais Nouveau (“...no more 1966. Let's splurge! Bring us some fresh wine, the freshest you've got. This year's! No more of this old stuff.”)
Singles — we couldn’t get Zima, so we drank Dewar’s and soda, since, even before we knew one another, that was what each of us used to drink in bars in the 1990s
After Hours — an Espresso Martini
Who Framed Roger Rabbit — a Martini with a pickled carrot garnish
Ice Castles — gin and tonic with rosé gin (if you know, you know)
The Thing — (John Carpenter’s, obviously) this was one of the first films we watched. I think we had planned on making frozen blender drinks but then just ended up drinking cognac that had been in the freezer for a couple of hours, which is a delicious way to drink it if you haven’t tried it. Really brings out the fruit flavors.
Repo Man — whatever you drink with this movie has to have a generic label
The Tingler — a spicy Margarita
Sextette — this is a movie from 1977 starring an 84 year-old Mae West as a silver screen actress who—while filmed through enough gauze to stanch a gusher from a freshly amputated limb—is marrying her sixth husband, an English lord played by Timothy Dalton. For reasons that are never made clear, but it doesn’t matter, her character is also brought in to advise an international Cold War council in a conference room that is in the same hotel as the honeymoon. Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, Ringo Starr, and Regis Philbin also make appearances, so you can imagine what kind of movie it is. What to drink? Everything. Or maybe just take an edible an hour before you watch it.
Can a brand new bar be considered a dive bar?
My answer is typically no.
However, my friend John Hedigan, who spent years bartending in them, told me about this bar on West 14th St. called One Trick Pony that opened in the past few months. He says you access it down a few stairs and it “looks like it was nailed together by contractors who only showed up for one day of work”.
I’m still going with no.
I love pizza! Is it worth waiting in line for six hours to eat at Lucali’s?
No.
So what’s the longest you’ve ever queued for something and why?
In the mid 1990s and early 2000s, when all of the new Star Wars movies were rolled out and the original three were re-released theatrically, I saw them all at the Ziegfeld, a stunning, single screen, art deco movie palace (in the early 20th century, it was home to the Ziegfeld Follies) that had what was then the best projection and sound system in the city (it has been closed as a cinema since 2016), located on 6the Avenue and East 54th Street. I would go with a big crew of friends. Back then, you couldn’t purchase movie tickets with reserved seating, so we had to wait in line for hours and rush in once the doors opened to get the best seats. We saw each of the releases on opening night, and would queue up by the late morning/early afternoon.
If you’ve seen the legendary clip of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog from the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, then you have a sense of what that line culture was like.
Since there were at least eight of us (sometimes more) we’d stand in shifts, with people pairing off to grab food and find restrooms, etc. But most of the other fans were so committed they wouldn’t leave for any reason.
In 2005, when Revenge of the Sith came out, there was a savvy halal kebab truck parked near the theater that was proving popular with the hungry line standers who wanted more substantial fuel for a two-hour plus space flick than popcorn, or ice cream from the nearby Mister Softee truck.
Except, apparently, Halal had parked there without permission and was on Mister Softee’s turf. Softee, disappointed to see that he no longer had the Star Wars line concession monopoly, picked a fight with Halal.
Before we knew it, Mister Softee was waving a gun!
Holy sith! MISTER SOFTEE HAS A GUN!!!!!
Not a single person on that line scattered. We just ducked.
The cops were there in what seemed like a flash. I vaguely remember that Halal didn’t press charges and just drove away. Or maybe it was the other way around. Anyway, my friends and I joked that, given the disappointment of the previous two prequels, that crazy moment would probably be more memorably entertaining than what we were standing so long in line for.
It was.
Opera Cocktail (a recipe from Harry’s New York Bar, Paris, 1920s)
2 oz (60 ml) dry gin
3/4 oz (22 ml) Dubonnet Rouge
1/4 oz (8 ml) maraschino liqueur
dash orange bitters
garnish: lemon twist
Add ingredients to a mixing glass. Add ice. Stir to chill and dilute. Strain into a chilled coupe of Nick & Nora glass. Twist oils from lemon peel over glass then place in the glass.
Have a question for me? You can direct message me here. All questions (if I am able to adequately answer them) are published anonymously unless specified.
And kudos to your Thing drink. I, myself, have been workshopping my “John Carpenter’s The Fog Cutter” (subbing Goldschlager for Orgeat- “Here’s your gold, Blake”). But really, to watch The Thing you just need a bottle of J&B.
Opening a “dive bar” is like spending money on post effects to make a movie shot on HD look all scratched and grainy like it was shot on 16mm. Fuck that shit.