Class is in session folks. This is my kind of education.
So, freshly recovered from my turkey & wine overdose, I decided to get back on the wagon of health and fine food. Haha… right. Wednesday night was filled with attending a “bourbon dinner” - which is a little bit of a misnomer, cause it was sponsored by Jack Daniels, which is a whiskey. Anyway, we’re talking about food and booze here people, no reason to get particular. My ex-Stepfather used to give me a shot of whiskey when I was sick with a cold/sore throat. I think it worked. But it might have been the tears of a 7-year old boy from feeling FIRE roll down my throat that loosed things up. Maybe that helped me build a tolerance, but you don’t have to ask me twice to attend. So this is how my brain works, it absorbs all type of useless info, and now I pass it on to you. My spirit guides on this journey was United Distribution’s Megan and her “silent” counterpart Brandon. So, here’s your daily dose:
- Green label Jack Daniels is not special enough to get the black label. Basically, it didn’t make the cut by the tastemasters at the Jack factory. Think of it as the “damaged goods” aisle. Someone brings a bottle of that to your party, you can now give them a sly, “you cheap mother f……” look.
- Bourbon is actually an exclusive name of a type of whiskey (bourbon whiskey vs whiskey), requiring certain levels of corn, aged for at least (I think) 2 years, and made in the US. Just because its not bourbon, does not mean its lower in quality. Basically, its the corn.
- Most whiskey’s are actually 180 proof (think paint remover) out of the cask and watered down for bottling. Cask conditioned whiskey’s are not diluted. They are the pure, good stuff. Bring me that.
- Legend says that Jack died from breaking his toe, kicking his safe, and infection set in. Didn’t we see all those westerns with guys getting shot and whiskey killing the infection?
- No one has any idea why it is called Old No. 7. My favorite is that Jack had 7 girlfriends. At one time.
Fun stuff, right? The hardest thing to watch during the night was seeing people order a pint of Coke and dump their glass of Gentlemen Jack or Single-Barrel in there to drink it. Seriously? This should have been illegal. I was waiting for the reps to say - “you can’t do that, you’ll ruin it”. Are these the same people that ask what kinds of White Zinfindel are on the wine menu or order their Filet Minon medium-well? Nothing like ruining the taste.
Anyway, a buddy of mine Russ (GM at Cheyenne Grill in Atlanta) hosted the event and pulled together a killer menu, including bacon wrapped shrimp and bourbon-glaze pork tenderloin. Nice work Russ. Excellent.
So, forget taking that bottle of wine to your stuffy holiday party. Bring your buddy Jack. Its the new tequila. You never know, he might spice it up a little bit. Jack’s my friend.
Couple things to know about me - 1) Love hockey, 2) Love beer, and 3) love hanging out with good people who love items #1 and #2. We have our season tickets to the Atlanta Thrashers (I’m still trying to come up with a good nickname) and manage to make it to a game a couple times a month. Every now and then, you get a bone thrown your way. This past monday was the Thrashers v. Lightning at Phillips, and our wonderful friend Meg (thanks meg!) invited us to the luxury box to enjoy the festivities. Easy decision, scrap our tickets and rub elbows with Atlanta’s elite (if you know me at all you know how hard it is to type that while I am laughing hysterically). If you have ever been to Phillips, its got a giant railroad track (metaphorically speaking) running right down the middle. I’ll explain - one side is almost all luxury suites. Many levels of them. And a full club level (the Horizon Club) with food, beverages, etc… I’m sure you could get an oil change and massage if you so desired. On the other side is seats. yep, just seats. So, you basically get to look across the tracks and watch the “other side” either enjoy themselves or look at you in loathe & envy.
Ok. So I’m a little late with this update.
Well, my first disappointment was the location of the protest. It literally was around the corner and way out of earshot of the event. Maybe about 20 strong and just waving some hand-made signs that looked like something created by Edward Scissorhands. Man, I’m just way too used to NYC protests. Little more “In your face”. They get out the big inflatable rat, hand out flyer’s, and enlist some radicals to stir it up a little bit. Then things starting looking up a bit. As I turned the corner towards the capital, you heard this guy yelling at the top of his lungs - “This is a public sidewalk. This is my free speech.” Oh the insanity! 2.7 seconds later, he’s being escorted into his very own black and white taxi, complete with handcuffs and “Christmas lights” (that’s what we called them in college). Weeeeee…. Dammit! I really wanted to see the clash of religious fanatics. Tear gas. Riot gear. Cats and dogs. Sta-Puft marshmallow man.
I’m not quite sure how to describe the rest of this. It was definitely a “religious event”, complete with a choir and multiple religious speakers. There must have been a template for the speeches - greet the crowd, make a comment about the shortcomings of scientific explanation, toss out a religious joke, and kick into a translation of 
So we are a little dry here in Atlanta. And that’s putting it mildly. You pretty much can’t turn on the news without hearing about the “drought”. We see these images of Lake Lanier all dried out and the boats resting on the bottom. There’s been a battle between 