Most drinks we order are around $10.00. I find some should probably be more like $12.00 and others should be more like $6.00.  I mean, I realize that alcohol costs – but there is just a difference in how cocktails are created, what goes in them, etc.  Point is, not all $10.00 cocktails are equal.

With that, I will write about Wahoo.  “Girl’s Night” was held there this past week and we ordered two “specialty drinks” from the bartender.  We chose the [tag]Cava Sutra and the Drunken Gardener[/tag].  I have had the Drunken Gardener before and loved it so I wanted to write about it since it is easy to make on our own and really refreshing.  But, we will start with the Cava Sutra – which looked really pretty – but tasted a bit like cough syrup according to Karen.

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

The Cava Sutra consisted of Hanger One Spiced Pear Vodka, Domain de Canton,  Cava, Angostura Bitters, and comes with a nice sugar cube plopped down in it.

Presentation: 4 olives – Nice presentation in a pretty champagne glass – the sugar cube makes the cava bubble even more.  Yet, when we first got it, it was not bubbling at all and looked a bit weak.  The waitress took it back, added a little lemon peel to it and had to have added a bit of fresh cava.

Creativity: 3 olives – I really think I thought this would be better than it was.  In fact, I think we all thought it would be better.  But it was not.  Maybe the bitters are a bad idea in this drink.

Taste: 1 olive – I mean, look at Cille’s face.  This is how we all felt.

Overall: I’d give is 2.5 olives because I think the concept was a good one…it just did not work out as planned.

On the other hand, the Drunken Gardener is just as delightful as I remembered.  Although, I swear I made it better when I tried it at home.   The drink has Crop 100% cucumber organic vodka, fresh basil from their garden, and simple syrup.

Presentation: 2 olives – Nothing fancy  – served up with some nice small flecks of basil in it.

Creativity: 3 olives – Again, very simple drink but a nice touch on cucumber vodka.

Taste: 3.5 olives.  Refreshing and very enjoyable.

Overall: 3 olives.  Good solid drink that I find I get most times I am at Wahoo.

So, there you have it.  I think these drinks are more of the $6.00 cocktails.  But alas, we are at a small restaurant – NOT a bar scene where creating drinks is the main objective.  Wahoo is a staple in our little Decatur community and we enjoy it – just don’t find the cocktails too terribly exciting.

We kept hearing about this cool space with kickin tunes on Edgewood Avenue for a couple of months – and after going to Top Flr for drinks the week before last, we decided to try out [tag]Sound Table [/tag]this past week.  We went really because we both thought Nate from Top Flr and Sound Table was such a “cutey pa-tootey” which I am sure he enjoys being called.

Nate was working when we showed up to this fabulous spot on Saturday night (at like 6:45pm.)  We knew we would have the bar to ourselves that early.  Nate told us order from Paul, the fine Craftsman of Cocktails at Sound Table (pictured below).  We wanted to taste a couple of Paul’s creations so he suggested The Golden Ticket and the Fourth and Sand.  Paul is also a handsome lad and he was in full swing most of the evening creating new and exciting drinks for his fall menu.  I must tell you we were extremely impressed by the flavors he brought together.

We decided to also try one of Nate’s creations here – the Summer Home in Milledgeville.   This was a toss up for which one was best.  Since I am writing it this week, I’d say The Golden Ticket and the Summer Home in Milledgeville were both delightful.  I’d only drink one Golden Ticket though as it was slightly frothy and sweet.  The Fourth and Sand was lovely and bursting with flavors, but alas, we are going to rate only the Golden Ticket and Summer Home in Milledgeville.

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

I’ll start with The Golden Ticket ($10). Taking more time than usual to make, this very beautiful drink is created slowly and meticulously with Karlson’s Gold Vodka, sugar, vanilla, egg white, and nutmeg.  Can I get a “whop whop?”

Presentation: 3.5 olives – wonderfully presented with nutmeg on top – this white and frothy drink was very pretty.

Creativity: 3 olives -  the ingredients tend to go together on their own without vodka – but the true creativity was in the way it was precisely made.

Taste: 4 olives – absolutely divine and I could have taken it down in one massive sip.

Overall: 3.5 olives – great drink.  I’d probably have it at the end of the night next time as a dessert drink!

The Summer Home in Milledgeville (pictured above being lit) was a potent drink consisting of (are you ready?) Swedish Punch, St. Germain elderflower, Green Chartreuse, Absinthe, lemon, and Peychauds Bitters. ($10)  I mean, really people.  This lovely summer home may haunt you if you drink too many of these things. Alison’s review is below:

Presentation: 3.5 olives – Up with a burnt orange rim…yum yum.

Creativity:  5 olives – Do you know what Swedish Punch even is?  We didn’t until now.  Plus, St. Germain makes me happy.

Taste: 4.5 olives – very different and strange yet not off-putting.  Smooth and complex with all sorts of flavors playing off of each other.  Maybe even good enough to make me want to take a trip to Milledgeville, GA.

Overall: 4 olives – YUMMY Goodness.

Oh, and by the way, the food rocked and the staff were all knowledgeable.  We shall be back even if we don’t feel like we are cool enough to go too often.

Indeed, Top Flr is interesting…  black and white colors inside, very sparse and yet, really really cool.   I will say, though, that the first time I went in it, I did not think it was the cleanest joint.  But, it is certainly very clean and very very good – I just must have been put off by the lack of “fancy decor or something like that.”  Chef Shane Devereux serves up some amazing and inexpensive dishes.  But, we are not here to talk about the food – everyone blogs about food.

We are here to talk about the cocktails at TopFlr.  They have a wide selection of interesting and off the wall cocktails which will delight most palettes.  The bartender, Nate, is actually the “Craft Bartender” (he does not like the word – “mixologist”) for Top Flr and Sound Table-which we will be reviewing soon.  Nate proved to be an excellent bartender since they were out of many things he was going to try on us.  In fact, he made up a concoction that is not even on the drink list at Top Flr and we friggin loved it.

Alison, Chelsea, and I sat at the bar and asked Nate to order for us. We got three drinks, but will be reviewing two of them:  the Silver Dagger and one made up on the spot (not really) – the Pimm’s Flip.   Chelsea rated the Silver Dagger and it follows!

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

The Silver Dagger consisted of Luna Azul Blanco, basil, pineapple puree, and rhubarb bitters.  It was gorgeous.

Presentation: 3 olives – Fairly straightforward.  Classic muddled look with nice frothy top.  Maybe a sugared rim next time…

Creativity: 3.5 olives -Rhubarb, pineapple and basil…nice thinking Nate.

Taste: 4 olives – Scrumptious!  Flavors hit in waves of a finely choreographed attack.  The pineapple tied all the tastes together nicely. Yummy.

Overall: 4 olives – Very refreshing and fairly complex drink.  Super enjoyable with everything we ate from tuna tartar to the pizza.

Our other drink – the one Nate called the Pimm’s Flip – was his “egg version” of a Pimm’s Cup served up.  But really, it was nothing like what I know to be a Pimm’s Cup.  It was 100 times better.  The problem here is that I wrote down what was in this drink on a napkin (you can see how seriously we take this) and I cannot find that said napkin.  So, unless Nate decides to comment below on what was in it, I’ll just say it was one of my top five drinks thus far.

Presentation: 5 olives – the bitters on the top with the frothiness of the egg white was almost heavenly.

Creativity: 5 olives – even though I do not remember what was in it.  I do know he shook the crap out of it TWICE.

Taste: 4.5 olives – lovely, delightful, sinful.  I drank almost the entire thing by myself.  Screw leaving some for Alison and Chelsea.

Overall: 4.8 olives – I am telling you, I will make Nate create this drink again.

We cannot wait to go back to Top Flr.  Too bad it took us so long to get back there.

I am sorry I am behind almost an entire week.  I have been obsessed with my Luna Moth and keep forgetting to write this post.  Alas, I digress.

This past week, we headed to the new restaurant in Decatur (where The Depeaux used to be) that is owned by Teri Rogers. Teri is the lovely proprietor of two restaurants in Decatur – Feast and now Farmstead 303.  *On a quick side note about the food at Farmstead… we liked our meals – found that the appetizers were much better than the larger main courses and the southern food on the menu was very salty. We indeed like Feast much better, but I am sure Farmstead will find its footing with Ryan Stewart as the chef.*

We kinda sorta did our 52 Weeks of Drinks at the last minute here but they do have a small list of specialty drinks. We chose two cocktails to taste this evening – the Garden Of Eden and the Honeydew Cooler.  Both good names for cocktails and both are original it seems even though there is another Garden of Eden liquor drink on line…nothing like this one!

Alison got the Garden of Eden which included an unknown gin, hibiscus juice, fresh lemon juice, and St Germain.  Simply put, this was one sweet drink. Alison’s ratings are below.

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

Presentation: 1 olive.  Served up, this drink looked like what is put in a hummingbird feeder.  There was no garnish in this cocktai.

Creativity: 2.5 olives.  Nice ingredients and maybe on a different night with a different bartender – it would be a less sweet drink.

Taste: 2 olives.  Had I been that hummingbird going to its feeder, I would have enjoyed this concoction.

Overall: 2 olives.

Alley, on the other hand, decided to get the Honeydew Cooler – which sounds really good in this 150 degree heat wave we are having. We all enjoyed this very summery cocktail consisting of cucumber vodka, nice pieces of honeydew shaken together with the vodka and fresh mint and poured in a tall glass full of ice.  Topped with a splash of soda, this drink was yummy.

Presentation: 4 olives.  Cool pieces of honeydew and fresh mint floating around in the tall glass.  Was fun to eat the cucumber vodka soaked honeydew.

Creativity: 3 olives.  Good solid drink with not too many fluffy things.

Taste: 4 olives.  Perfect on a hot Atlanta day.

Overall: 3.5 olives – enjoy!

I am sure we will be back to Farmstead.  The bar has a friendly atmosphere to it and they have a great selection of beer (unless they are out of some of them

I feel like I should be saying WASABIIIIIIIII in some weird, low raspy voice every time I say that word.  Alison and I headed to  Wasabi to get sushi this weekend and decided to write about some drinks while we were there.  We remembered that they had some nice cocktails at this small, eclectic, and very good sushi restaurant.  After looking over the (drink) menu, we opted for the Ginger Cosmo and the Snake Nation.

We have decided that we are officially over Cosmos after this.  We think they are just boring.  We should have gone for something else on the menu (like the Pink Polka Dot) but opted instead for the Ginger Cosmo with vodka, lime and cranberry juice, triple sec – shaken with ginger strips and served up with an orange twist. ($9.00)  Alison rates the Ginger Cosmo below:

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

Presentation: 2 olives – “Floating ginger muck in the glass.  Boring.”

Creativity: 1.5 Olives – “The Cosmo is so 2001. I was all about them then, but it is time to move on.  Adding ginger to this one was not enough to make this drink unique or worthy of revisiting the Cosmo-era.  It was fine but too many drinks to taste out there. ”

Taste: 2.5 Olives – “Bor-Ing.”

Overall – 2 Olives.  “Time to move on.”

I, on the other hand, got the Snake Nation.  This drink, served in a tall glass with ice, consisted of organic cucumber vodka and sake.  It is served with a splash of tonic and a bit of cucumber and lemon zest. ($9.00)  I took a sip and immediately did not really like it.  I mean, VERY strong and not much else going on with it.   Thank goodness for our server who came along about that time and asked if she could make it better. I told her to go for it.  Alas, she came back with a completely different drink – only by adding St. Germaine to it.  This elderflower addition was a huge success and one that turned the drink from a 1 olive to a 3.5 olive.  Hooray for Jessica (pictured above with our immense amount of sushi!)

Presentation: 2 olives – tall glass – nice summery drink.

Creativity: 4 olives – once Jessica put the St. Germain in it – the drink rocked.  That plus vodka plus sake. Ka-Pow!

Taste: 3.5 olives – still VERY strong let me tell you – but a nice refreshing drink especially with spicy sushi!

Overall: 3.5 olives – I’d get it again, but would need help drinking it the next time.

As a side note to our drinking at Wasabi, we love the sushi.  Go on over to Castleberry Hill and get you some!

Ah, a little rest and relaxation in Atlanta – I mean, St. John,Virgin Islands.  We are breaking our rules for [tag]Week 30 of our 52 weeks of Drinks[/tag] because we can.  We headed down to St. John for a nice long weekend with our friends Erika and Jules and enjoyed far too many cocktails in the sun and rain (there was actually a tropical depression that hung out with us for some of our trip.)  But, a little rain, wind, thunder and lightning can’t screw up a trip to paradise.

Mostly, we hung out and made our own concoctions -one we have named The Glen because a gentleman by the name of Glen made us “his drink” last time we were there.  It consists of Cruzan Coconut Rum, (and it really should be Cruzan Rum,) a little Sprite, and fresh lime juice.  ( I seriously squeeze about a half of a lime in one drink – but this varies depending on how much lime you like.)

But, we will rate drinks from places we went while there.  Our first night out we headed to Morgan’s Mango and all got very tasty drinks (notice the colorful drinks in the photo above.)  Our favorite was something Jules ordered – our second frozen drink in our tastings.  It was called the Candela and tasted like a mojito on crack.  It consisted of vodka (not rum), fresh passion fruit, and mint all blended together.

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

Presentation: 4 olives – None of us had never seen a frozen drink bright green before and it had a nice mint leaf sticking out of it.

Creativity: 4 olives – For the creativity alone – and Jules would never had ordered it had the bartender not just been so enthusiastic about the taste.

Taste:  4 olives – Delicious and refreshing and we all enjoyed it.

Overall: “Solid 4 olives – damn good drink,” says Jules.

Another evening, we headed to the Waterfront Bistro where we met M.J., the extremely cute bartender.  She created some fabulous drinks (one being a twist on a vodka dirty martini but with baby pickles and pickle juice instead of olives. Wow.)

We will rate mine though because I want to.  It was a gorgeous drink called the Strawberry Basil - not very unique name I must admit – that consisted of Kettle One Citroen vodka, served up with fresh strawberry puree – and crushed right in front of us-basil for the simple syrup. (Pictured in the middle)   Oh my.  Alas, my heart stopped a beat as I sipped it in the open air bar staring at the gorgeous mango trees (I may be making up the kind of tree here) and the ocean just a few steps in front of us.  Heaven on Earth.

Presentation: 3.5 olives – nothing too special – flecks of basil and nice strawberry hue.

Creativity: 4 olives – Loved the Citroen vodka with strawberry puree and basil.  Who knew?

Taste: 4.5 olives. Deliciousness in my tastebuds.

Overall: 4 olives.  Yum yum

Alas, St. John, we will be back and maybe we will actually rate a rum drink next time…

The Vortex is known for its wide-ranging beer list, but these days Michael Benoit wants to make sure that there are some fun and different cocktails at the Vortex for liquor lovers.  Well, he (and his staff) have done some serious testing to come up with a drink list  worthy of the Vortex’s eclectic clientele (where else do lawyers, bikers, and college kids mix and mingle daily?)

The featured drink is of-course skull-themed and potent.  It is the new SKULL CRUSHER. (This word must be in serious capital letters as I picture myself saying it with a deep movie voice.)   The list is summer-y and fun and on the fruity and sweet side of the spectrum.  No lavender, ginger, or London Dry Gin featured on this puppy.  That crap is for boring old people.

Alison and I met Michael and Kristen for some tasting this past week at the Vortex Midtown.  We sat down and observed that many people around us were already enjoying the fun cocktails (in various colors of pink, orange, lime green…)  Michael had already ordered the Tangy Tini – a mixture of Three Olives Rang Tang vodka with orange and lime juice.   It tasted exactly like Tang – gross – unless you like Tang, of course  – which it seems many people do.

The four of us ordered the SKULL CRUSHER and the Frozen Bikini (our first frozen drink!)  Quite frankly, we did not know what to expect.  Michael has said that his intention was not to create serious drinks for serious drinkers, but fun drinks for fun drinkers.  Indeed, they were both damn tasty and fun – even if you really should not have more than two sips of each.

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

The SKULL CRUSHER consists (are you ready?) of premium tequila, vodka, rum, bourbon, various other cordials and is topped with a sparkling peach wine (to keep it classy)  - NOTE: two drink maximum per visit….

Presentation : 1 Olive – This is just a big old glass of booze on ice with a fat straw.  Nothing pretty about it.  But it will soon come in a collectible skull glass so be sure to check that one out. But let’s face it – no one ordering this drink cares what it looks like.

Taste: 3 Olives -This tastes better than you could possibly expect a drink full of nothing but booze in it.  It is the liquor equivalent of the “suicide” soda drink you made as a kid with all of the available flavors at the soda machine at the skating rink.  Or was that just me?  This really tastes dangerously good and smooth.  But you should only order this if you goal is to get hammered.  I felt this after 2 sips.  I liked that it didn’t taste too boozy.  Not one of the liquors stood out – they all hit you in tiny millisecond increments.  Good thing they didn’t sell these is college at Waldo’s. (Notice Michael’s face as he sips this drink above.)

Creativity: 5 Olives-  Don’t try this one at home.  Trying to mix this many liquors in one drink that actually tastes decent – no small feat.

Overall: 3.5 Olives.    Be careful. Be very very careful.

The Frozen Bikini is our first frozen drink made with Stoli vodka, Orange juice, lime juice, mango, and champagne.

Presentation: 4.5 Olives – lovely mango frozen joy with garnish!

Taste: 3.5 Olives – A fancy daiquiri – yummy and fit for these hot summer days.  Smooth and not too sweet.

Creativity: 4 Olives   – Try counting on one hand the number of bars selling frozen cocktails in Atlanta.

Overall: 4 Olives – We completely enjoyed this one but again, one was plenty!

Michael and his staff have brought a whole new level to the Vortex.  Nothing goes better with that double burger with egg, cheese, bacon, mayonnaise and whatever else it may have on it – than the SKULL CRUSHER.