Liquor's Quicker

Last October, I went to Seattle to watch Sufjan Stevens in concert. This was the last leg of a US tour before he would head to Europe and perform there. When I arrived, I wanted to try some of the restaurants in Seattle, and settled on a breakfast place whose name escapes me.

The place seems a bit like a hangout for art types. I had to wait about twenty minutes to get seated because there was limited seating.

On the menu, there was a drink called a mimosa, which sounds like a make of porcelain. I asked what it was, and was told it was a mix of champagne and orange juice. Since then, I've learned it's sort of like a Bloody Mary, a drink people often drink on Sundays, presumably after a night of drinking. But unlike a Bloody Mary, which always seemed like an odd, hardcore drink remedy (to avoid a hangover, drink more!), a mimosa seemed more elegant, more refined.

Recently, I was invited to a party (more of a get-together). I was trying to figure out what to bring. Beer's a common choice. Simple, no fuss. I wanted to try something fancier. Originally, I thought I'd try to make sangria. Sangria is a drink made from wine, sugar, and a lot of fruits that sit in the drink. Often, you add ginger ale to it. It's kind of a cross between wine and fruit punch, and people think of summer.

But it does require a few ingredients, fruit being the minimum. That seemed a bit complex, and I wanted something simple. I then recalled my Seattle trip and my first experience with a mimosa and figured that couldn't be too hard.

Of course, being the geek that I am, I use the resource everyone seems to use, which is the Internet, more specifically, Wikipedia. In particular, this entry on mimosa, which conveniently had a link to The Art of the Drink's take on mimosa.

In particular, they suggested a mimosa royale, that uses a black raspberry liquer to kick it up a notch, as it were. Ah, that meant finding a raspberry liquer. Heck, I wasn't sure I knew what that was. Yesterday, I was at a liquor store, and saw the fruity concoctions, such as that, were put in the cordials section of the store.

I wanted to find a good liquor store, and hoped that the local Washingtonian would offer advice. Alas, while they do a good job of ranking restaurants (or at least pointing out good restaurants), they don't bother with liquor stores. Most liquor stores really rely on customers wanting beer, and not being too particularly picky about it. They aren't trying to have an eclectic selection. A few American beers, a few Japanese, a few European, and most people will be happy.

I eventually stumbled upon a place that I had been to about two years ago, but had forgotten about. This was the Corridor (Fine) Wine and Spirits. As liquor places go, this is like the Mecca of liquor. I'm sure there's some irony in saying that. Perhaps, I should say it's the IKEA of liquor stores or the Costco of liquor stores, mostly in that it's frickin' huge. Not IKEA huge, but huge nonetheless.

I mentioned this to Vasile, saying that this was perhaps the best liquor store. Of course, I was wrong in that sense. He mentioned that Rob had been in Germany, and visited a wine store where there were different rooms set at different controlled temperatures, where various wines sat. In Germany, they care enough to have multiple rooms, climate controlled, for certain kinds of wine.

Corridor's not like that, and therefore, it's closer to IKEA or Costco. Volume of choices is what they are about.

And it's stuck in what seems like redneck Maryland, built into the kind of suburban sprawl that afflicts much of the US. Nearby is a Kohl's and a Target thus leading to the truism "Thou shalt not build a strip mall in Maryland without a Kohl's and a Target". I ate at a nearby Panera, getting coffee and soup. You'd think you'd find such a place closer to a bigger city, but it was fine. I got a little lost finding it, thus adding about twenty minutes to my trip.

Then, I came back and realized I should get wine glasses, but this time, I would go to IKEA. One thing they make cheaply is wine glasses.

Now, I'm out to find an attachment you put on top of a liquor bottle to pour something out of.

Oh, did I mention? I've never made a mimosa, let alone a mimosa royale. We'll see how that goes.