Lawhill

To 'E' or not to 'E'? That is the question. So let us provide you the answer... maybe. What the hell are we talking about, you ask? Well, maybe you have noticed that some of your bottles of whiskey are spelled with an 'e' in them, while in others, it is omitted. What's the deal? Today, arguably whiskey is famed in four locations in the world - Scotland, Canada, Ireland, and the United States. Traditionally, Scotland and Canada spelled it without the 'e.' In the late 1800s, Scotch was not the same product you know today - it was poorly distilled and allegedly near undrinkable. Irish exporters to the U.S. didn't want their good whiskeys to be mistaken for swill, so they added an 'e' to distinguish their product from the Scots. The U.S. followed suit at home and added 'e's to their homegrown whiskey.

Now, we have recently come to the end of another of our favorite series on HBO - Boardwalk
Empire. In the opening of each episode, Steve Buscemi's character, the corrupt Nucky Thompson wanders off the boardwalk onto the beach amid scores of Canadian whisky bottles, labels prominent, washing up on the shore. Only thing is that the lables have 'e's! Someone call IMDb for the goof page! Well... maybe. Thing is, all kinds of whiskeys don't follow the general rules. Most prominent among them is George Dickel's Tennessee whisky without the 'e' and Old Forester and Maker's Mark bourbons without the 'e'. Maybe Nucky Thompson's whiskey is a Canadian exception or maybe, since the Thompson family is proudly Irish, they are bringing in Canadian whisky with the 'e' added labels in order to sell swill as premium product during prohibition. I like the second explanation. Either way, we will offer you a good-bye cocktail of Nucky Thompson's era, the Lawhill Cocktail.

Lawhill Cocktail
Classic Pour Series

1 1/4 ounce Canadian Club whisky
3/4 ounce dry vermouth
1 dash Absinthe
1 dash Maraschino
1 dash Angostura bitters

Stir all ingredients well and strain into a small coupe. Garnish with a lemon twist if desired.

Texas Beers - Drinking Notes

This summer we went south. That we would bring back liquid treats was a given. And with stops in
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, we ended up with a lot of treats! To start with, let's expose you to two of the tastier beers we came across in Texas. First up is Real Ale Brewing's Devil's Backbone Belgian-style tripel from Blanco, Texas.

Butterscotch and Cream

I love pouring drinks, most people know that. However, every once (or twice) in a while, I spend the entire party night in the kitchen. Like Victor Frankenstein, I exhaust the night splicing ingredients together, reveling in the creation. By the small hours, the party-goers dwindle to a handful and I always go, ‘Damn, I didn’t even get to talk to so-and-so!’ That’s why Cody Love was a life-saver. You see, Cody is a bartender out West (check the Loves Shack Pool and Pub) and whenever we partied, he would see a drink I was pouring and say, ‘Hey, man, there’s a shot like that drink you’re pouring!’ Then he’d take the bar, pour shots and I got to slink away to talk to people. Shot glasses in my house finally got used; ragers raged. Everything was good.