An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

So after a couple of reminders and e-mails I saw this page over on the website for the restaurant “Mie N Yu”.

They’re having an event on “How to Make Exotic Cocktails” on September 9th. Cost is $50 and you can get tickets here. Phil Greene and friend-of-the-Den Derek Brown are putting it on, and Chris Kelley of Mie N Yu and Tom Brown of Cork will be making up some drinks.

It’s sponsored by the Museum of the American Cocktail, Mie N Yu, Depaz Rhum Agricole, Finlandia Vodka and Domaine de Canton French Ginger Liqueur.

Any of y’all out there in blog-o-land going? I haven’t bought my ticket…yet…but I’m thinking about it. I do have my trip to NYC the weekend after and an event Monday night.

Last Friday night Marshall and I met up with Derek Brown and our friend Roy to go out and hit a few places. We started off at Bourbon, down in the Adams Morgan district of Washington DC, and one of my favorite bars.

Because I’m just that kind of guy, I was at Bourbon early and ended up starting off with a Stone IPA (because I am an idiot and cannot order correctly) and then a couple of Racer 5 IPAs. I’m also the kind of guy who just can’t recognize people right away (this comes up later, trust me) and so mistook bartender Patrick for Owen.

Once the guys showed up Owen started off in proper style with a Scofflaw. Now that’s a drink that we’ve tried making here at least a few times but his was SO MUCH BETTER than any of mine have been. I am not at all afraid to be completely honest about that.

From there he next put up a very tasty Manhattan using Carpano Antica vermouth and rye whiskey plus an “Old Old Fashioned”. It was the first time I’d really had an Old Fashioned like that and it was very good.

Next up was a strawberry basil shrubb with a balsamic and champagne, an interesting drink that has made me once again think more about using balsamic vinegar in my drinks.

Next up was a “real” martini – i.e. like the ones I make only without the olive juice, and then a Martinez made with Anchor Genevieve gin. Wow. What a neat drink that was. I’m going to have to make one of my here sometime soon.

From there we went off to Urbana, where we said hi to Kevin Rogers. He sent us an Aperol spritzer and a Leap Year, while I ordered an Old Flame (Plymouth, Cointreau, Campari, sweet vermouth, orange juice, and bitters). Next up were some Papa Dobles like Marshall had – Mount Gay rum, maraschino liqueur, and Velvet Falernum.

Derek took us to Cork next to meet his brother Tom but Tom had left for the night. We got a “Washington Apple” from the bartender, hit the little boy’s room, and it was off to Bar Pilar where Adam Bernbach made us up another drink whose name I completely missed.

At that point I realized I’d left my briefcase back at Urbana, so I trekked back there, got it, then taxi-ed back to Virginia.

Flash-forward to last night.

A friend wanted to go out and have drinks with me to help celebrate my recent raise. After throwing around some places to go we decided to go to EatBar, a place I love but don’t get to nearly enough. We sat at the bar and my friend asked me if Gina (the fantabulous Gina Chersevani, a great local mixologist) was working the bar. I said no.

I was wrong.

After a beer, I ordered a St. Pete’s Denial – Skyy vodka, Godiva, Frangelico, and a blue cheese redux. Topped with chocolate shavings it was FANTASTIC. But I wanted one of those drinks Gina was making for the girls in the corner…

As she walked by I said hi and that Marshall said hi. She came out with one drink (sorry, no details for you on that one). Then a Miller High Life on ice with lime, and a ghetto mind eraser – Redbreast Irish whisky, High Life, simple syrup, and lemon. Oof!

So now it’s time for me to decide what to do with the rest of this evening – college football or more bar-hopping? It’s a hard life!

Recently we here at the Den were contacted by someone representing Sobieski Vodka. They wanted us to take a look at their new (at least, to us) product. Despite the fact that we don’t use a lot of vodka except to make infusions and help protect my precious, precious simple syrup, I thought it’d be a good idea. I always keep a bottle of Charodei vodka around for drinks that require vodka. Plus I always have a few flavored vodkas, too, mostly for experimentation.

I have to admit that at first I was turned off by the marketing. It seemed like it tried too hard; the fact that it’s Polish is great and all, and that it’s named after a Polish prince. What really got me, however, was when I found out what the MSRP was – less than $11 a bottle.

Let’s get into it more – let’s look at the actual product.

I opened up the bottle and tried to take in as much of the nose of it as possible. Then I poured it into a glass, just by itself, and sniffed more of it.

The smell of it is rather subtle – it’s not like it’s not there at all, but there was nothing offensive or anything about it. There’s no harsh smells, but the hint of something. I want to say – well, what kept coming to me was that it smelled like butterscotch.

I can’t remember when I’ve actually had butterscotch any time in the previous few years, but hey, that’s what I kept thinking.

Okay – that’s what I thought about what I smelled in the glass and it was time to try it straight – no ice, just by itself.

Mmm, after dealing with finding tickets for the USC-UVA game, it was time to enjoy a bit out of one of my UVA lowball glasses.

The first drink showed a real lack of any identifiable taste – it is, after all, you know, vodka – and a strong alcohol burn at the end.

It had viscosity to it, and an unidentifiable taste that wasn’t bad – to me – but nothing I really wanted, well, cared about. I sipped it some more, comparing it to the Charodei I usually drink (which is three times the cost by default at VA ABC) and I felt like I liked this better.

I then tried it iced.

I gave it some time to sit, let the ice melt a bit, and then tried it again.

The nose goes away almost completely but the viscosity remained at least a bit. The background flavors came out a bit more and once more they reminded me of butterscotch. I don’t know why I kept fixating on that flavor but it kept jumping into my head.

So what’s the verdict? It’s vodka. Seriously. There are good vodkas and there are bad ones – and the better a vodka is, technically, the less you should taste it. I’ve heard a lot of people say they can’t stand Sobieski, and hey, that’s their choice. At the price point – which was, admittedly, free for me, but even at $10.xx a bottle – I have to figure that for as little as I use straight vodka, this is a good deal.

This upcoming weekend I plan on making a cosmo or two for my mom using it. She’s used to Grey Goose. A bartender convinced her to use Smirnoff, but she hasn’t been happy with it; I think it will be interesting to see what she thinks and I’ll blog the result. Depending on how the weekend goes, I might even get some other vodkas together and taste-test them against each other.

Like most things, it comes down to individual tastes. Here at the Den, we don’t hold our punches just because we know someone or got something but at the same time, our tastes aren’t yours. Heck, our tastes aren’t “ours” – Marshall has very little to say good about any vodka that I’ve ever heard of.

The way I figure it, given the price – it can’t hurt to try. Given that I go through MAYBE a bottle of vodka a year, honestly, I go for what I like.

And if I make some cocktails using it – one suggestion in the chat today was the Vesper, which is much more gin than anything else – I’ll also let you know.

Until then…well, I’ll probably kill off my Charodei in cocktails, and if someone else (this has happened before) asks for a draught of straight vodka to take to a beer festival (and yes, I was ashamed to accede to that request, though I did) I’ll pour them some Sobieski.

(Or Charodei if I don’t like them…well…if they’re asking for vodka at a brewer’s ball…)

I don’t want to go into too much detail here but let’s just say: today ended up being a very good day.

When I got home I debated what I wanted to do for dinner to celebrate. Talking in a chat room, I decided to go for an Aperol negroni, but that got derailed for my brother, his fiancee, and I to go to Legal Seafood. A couple of Harpoon IPAs and some tasty shrimp later, I perused some stores then headed back home.

I decided to celebrate with a drink. I did the usual – the cocktail a la louisiane. That’s 3/4 of an ounce each of rye, sweet vermouth, and Benedictine, plus three dashes each of Peychaud’s and pastis.

For mine, I used Wild Turkey Russell Reserve rye, Carpano Antica, and Lucid absinthe.

Even when bad it’s a great cocktail. I only had one regret in mine; it seems that you can go heavier on the rye than you can any other ingredient. I went a bit light by accident – oh well.

I smoked an Opus X cigar with mine and followed it with a Dogfish Head India Brown Ale and some Stone Pale Ales. Yummy.

Now to get some sleep and hope tomorrow rocks, too – and I’ve got something really cool coming up tomorrow…