We have decided to start going to real bars around the city.  We tend to go to restaurants for this drinking task – but only because we love food so much too.  This past weekend, though, we fancied it up a bit and got all dolled up and headed to the [tag]W Downtown[/tag] for the [tag]Drinkshop[/tag] experience.  Our good friends, Sierra and Ryan got all classy as well (not that they aren’t already classy) and joined us.

And what an experience it was! A Real Bar!  There is nothing better than watching a drink made with no soda guns, no pre-made nothing.  Everything is fresh – the fruit, the vegetable extractions, the 300 pound block of ice…it is all fabulous.  We were lucky to have Mitchell make drinks for us.  He explained every detail of the drink and made them with such precision…Alison and I could not figure out how they work in haste when the bar is actually full.  (We of course got there at 7pm.)

Mitchell made a few drinks – but we are rating only two:  The Devil’s Daisy (his own very unique concoction) and the Honey Paloma Fizz.  We will start with the Devil’s Daisy which included a number of items: (I hope I got them all) fresh lime juice, simple syrup, American Absinthe (St. George), mint, egg white, and Cointreau. Wow.

Don’t forget our ratings scale is between 1 and 5 Olives.  One Olive = waste of my blogging time;  5 Olives = oh my goodness/yummmmmm

Alison rated the Devil’s Daisy pictured below:

Presentation: 5 olives.  The egg whites created a gorgeous frothy top and the bitters Mitchell spread on top of the egg whites made a delightful little drawing that looked kinda sorta like flowers.

Taste: 4 olives.  This is a difficult one.  The drink was very different and any kind of Absinthe in a drink can really mess with one’s head. But, the Absinthe was not over powering and the lime juice and cointreau helped make it receive 4 olives on the voting scale.

Creativity: 5 olives:  Mitchell deserves an award for this one.  Excellent and well planned concoction.

Overall: 4.5 olives.  Not a drink I would order every day (or every month for that matter) but it was worth a taste and it was fun watching precious Mitchell (as Ashley called him) prepare it for us.

Sierra had the honor of rating her drink.  The Honey Paloma Fizz consisted of lavender infused tequila, honey, ginger, grapefruit, lime, soda and was served tall.  Her post follows:

“The whatever it was called was a refreshing twist on the classic margarita. This is the sort of margarita that Nancy Reagan, an American icon of class, elegance and Republicanism, would drink in between séance communications with Ronnie. She, nor I, would dare “just say no” to this drink.

Presentation: 3 olives.  I suppose a simple presentation is in order for a simple drink. The highlight was the enormous ice-phallus.

Creativity:  3 olives. The drink consisted of an artful combination of flavors. I like the use of lavender – a beautiful flower in name, appearance and essence. I am rating it a 3 because I feel that the bartender/mixologist community is getting too high on themselves and their infused liquors, and I want to do my part to keep their egos in check.

Taste: 4 olives. Drinking this was like drinking a margarita flavored soda. It was the kind of drink that could get you into trouble. I prefer a little kick on the end of a cocktail – a little something to remember it by, like a twenty dollar bill on the dresser – and this was sadly absent.

Overall: 3.5 – Because Ashley’s was better.”

We certainly shall be back to Drinkshop.  Maybe we will come a little later in the evening when it becomes the real hip and sexy joint it is known for.