I love when old friends come into town – not old like old old, but friends who I have known since I was a wee child of 19 years of age.  Okay, maybe they are old.  Anyway, I digress.  Two of my best friends from college, Melanie and Martha, came into town for the weekend. On Friday, we decided to go to [tag]Dogwood Restaurant in Midtown [/tag]for a lovely meal before going to see the band, [tag]My Morning Jacket[/tag].  (Yes, we are that cool…)

Anyway, we met Alison at Dogwood and tried out their cocktails.  They have a nice list – but only a few of them are concoctions of their own.  We were told to try the Bourbon Apple Pie and the Orange Vanilla Mojito.  We got one of each and all tasted it – but we asked Melanie and Martha to do the ratings of each.  AND Alison and I agree completely with what Martha and Mel came up with. (Don’t judge us on the amount of drinks in the photo 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

We will start with the Bourbon Apple Pie.  This drink consisted of apple and cinnamon infused Makers Mark, apple cider, caramel sweet vermouth, bitters, with cherries as the garnish.  Talk about sounding sweet!  Here is Melanie’s review below.

“If you’re in the mood for a sweet start or a sweet finish and you’re not afraid of dark liquor, this is the drink for you! There’s not much artistic or literary license here. This is a drink that tastes like its name…and that’s a good thing.

Presentation: 4 olives – The rocks glass suggested a “gentleman’s drink” but I doubt that’s who’s ordering it.  Notice Ashley and me enjoying the cherries in the photo…

Creativity: 3 olives – Flavor combination isn’t exactly new or unique.

Taste: 4 olives – If you can get past the Makers Mark, you’re in for a sweet treat.

Overall: 4 olives – This is a “sip by the fire” kind of drink. You’d look a lot cooler in that matching dog sweater photo if you were holding one of these. ”

Martha ordered the Orange Vanilla Mojito – which we all thought sounded pretty good and different.  It consisted of house infused Bacardi rum (infused with what?), orange, lime, and mint. Martha’s rating follows:

“Thanks to Alison and Ashley for a fantastic weekend in Atlanta!  We had a great time and enjoyed experiencing their 52 weeks of drinks.  I am not one who needs an excuse to drink, but it is nice to have one that seems so professional and with purpose.

First, you should know that vodka and I are friends – good friends. Specifically, vodka, water and a squeeze of lemon.  I am not really a fan of the fancy drink, however, I can appreciate 1 and in the most exceptional of cases 2 of an interesting cocktail.

Around 10 years ago my friend, [tag]Chef Steven Perrone[/tag], made me my very first mojito and I was blown away.  The muddled mint and sugar balanced with lime, soda water and rum was simply perfection!  Sadly, many are trying to make this cocktail and are failing miserably…so maybe I am doomed to never find another mojito as magical.

The Orange Vanilla Mint Mojito was at best blah.  Not undrinkable, but certainly didn’t knock my socks off (as you can tell from the photo.)  In defense of the drink I was focused on the “orange” part of the concoction and dismissed the vanilla part when ordering it.  Oops, I don’t really like vanilla.  Still, I am “professional” enough to objectively analyze a cocktail even if there is a component that is less than desirable to me.

Where was the pizzazz?  I could see everything floating around in there, but the flavors got lost when mixed together.  Sorry, but it was just plain boring and clearly I don’t need much (remember my friend VW – that’s vodka water in case you forgot).

Please don’t get frustrated and talk to me through your computer urging me to try a mojito at restaurant x, y or z.   Maybe one day I will stumble upon another mojito as worthy as Steven’s.  Until then, my faithful friend vodka will keep me good company.

Presentation:  1 Olive

Creativity:  2 Olives

Taste:  2 Olives

Overall: 2 Olives”

Wow, no she did-ent.…well, we enjoyed the food at least!  Especially their grits.  Yum.

How will we ever make it 52 Weeks?  I mean, don’t get me wrong, we enjoy this, but at some point, I want to walk into a bar / restaurant and I want people to know who we are, give us drinks for free and swoon over what we write about them later.  Okay, maybe not.  But it is a pretty good fantasy: “Oh, you are Ashley and Alison of Random Atlanta and you guys came here for your 52 Weeks?  We are so delighted and will give you two drinks and dinner on us tonight!”   It may never happen, but man, I’d be so excited if it did.

For [tag]Week 16 of 52 Drinks[/tag], we did an impromptu double date with Erika and Jules.  We chose [tag]4th and Swift.[/tag]  Alison and I had been once when it first opened and had not ventured back.  We looked over the drink menu and found that it was certainly unique – in fact it was one of the most expansive and creative we have seen.  All the special drinks had infused this or that, fresh ingredients, house made bitters, etc…

We thought this was going to be the best yet…but it wasn’t.  Even though the waiter told us that the specialty drinks were all fabulous and he could not find one he did not like…we did.   I must say that we all think they were just too much of something or another.  Our favorite was the Bay of Angels which the bartender was nice enough to light at the table.  We aren’t writing about that one, but get it! (*photo description at bottom of post)

Jules got the Early Riser – a cocktail full of a lot of stuff: house infused early gray gin, sage, grapefruit juice, orange flower water, lemon, and sage syrup all served up.  Wow.  This better be damn good.  Well, Jules did not like it and made Erika drink it so here is Erika’s rating of the Early Riser.

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: 3.5 olives- The color was a beautiful sunset orange with a simple small floating leaf of sage perched atop tiny flakes of ice. the martini glass in which it came seemed bulky like it was the spawn of late night rendezvous between a beer mug and a wine glass.

Creativity: 4 olives- There were things in it that sounded crazy! Reading the 4th & Swift cocktail list definitely produced lots of table conversation and excitement over their unique ingredients and infusions.

Taste: 1 olive – It was one of those moments when you see the most beautiful scene from far away and then you get up close…good from far, but far from good basically. You know, I love mango Gatorade. That stuff is delicious, refreshing, and only a $1.00! I was doing yard work once and I got a little grass and dirt in my mango Gatorade. I drank it anyhow because it was really hot outside but I could taste the grass and dirt. My $10 cocktail tasted like that mango Gatorade with grass and dirt in it- total bummer. Skip this one, you can make it easily in a backyard accident.

Overall:  2.5 olives because to me taste is more important than the look of it.”

Alison ordered the Blood Meridian – a tequila concoction consisting of blanco tequila, reposado tequila, blood orange juice, house made blood orange bitters, ginger beer, and was served on the rocks.  Now, if you know us, you know we love tequila.  Alison’s rating follows:

“Like most of the drinks we order, this one sounded way better than it tasted.  It was still pretty good – don’t get me wrong.  But I just can’t support tequila in a champagne glass sipped through a straw.  Just wrong.  This is consistent with the “trying too hard” theme I got from all the drinks we ordered.  This drink would have been better served in a short fat glass without a straw.  But it tasted nice.

Presentation: 1 olive -  too bad they went a step too far with a champagne looking glass and a big McDonald’s looking straw

Creativity: 4 olives – very creative but did I mention the fat straw?
Taste: 3 olives – a nice summer tequila drink -  worthy of consuming on vacation.  A balance of sweet and sour and not too much of either, but you better like blood orange.

Overall: 3 olives – Tasty. Refreshing.  Ask for it in short glass without the straw.”

Next time, we go, we may just get less interesting drinks.  Oh, get the cheese plate – it is the best I have had in the city I think.

(Photo: from bottom left to right: the Early Riser and the Blood Meridian. Top drinks are from left to right – the Pineapple Express and the Bay of Angels. )

Chef and Grateful Dead lover, [tag]Ron Eyester[/tag]created his own personal style restaurant last year.  Rosebud was once Food 101 Morningside, but now it is even a more superb restaurant named after Jerry Garcia’s guitar.  The restaurant is a beautiful, enjoyable, and relaxing space on North Highland that serves a lot of local and regional ingredients.  The food is fresh, lots of it is organic, and it is always pretty damn tasty.  Alison and I have gone there a few times and usually sit at the bar with Jeff the bartender and creator of all things magic - and eat and drink a cocktail or two.

We have of course tried some of their concoctions before – especially the Bathtub Gin – which literally tasted like a bath full of lavender.  (We could not drink it actually.) This past Saturday night, our friends, Scott and Jill joined us for our [tag]52 Weeks of Drinks.[/tag]  They are a very cute couple although I think Jill is a bit cuter than Scott but I am biased…Anyway, we went to Rosebud, because they are known for their housemade infusions in their booze (using those same organic and local ingredients.)

Scott got the Scent of a Mule which consisted of vodka, ginger beer, and fresh lime and his classic review is below:

Presentation: 2.5 Olives. A classic, no frills set up—it’s the Honda Civic of Rosebud’s drink menu.  If that were it, I’d slap two olives down and move on.  But this drink gets a bonus half-olive just for its name, Scent of a Mule, which adds the kind of equine mystery that I’ve come to expect from my beverages.

Taste: 3.5 Olives.  The combination of ginger beer and fresh lime makes for a refreshing beverage.

Creativity:  0 of 5 Olives.  I could be wrong, but I thought that the mission of this blog was to highlight, celebrate, and occasionally mock the original alcoholic concoctions served up at Atlanta restaurants.  Since that is the case, my drink does not qualify because it’s not an original creation.  I can only deduce that Rosebud—acutely aware of the arrival of a local celebrity blogger—changed the name of a Moscow Mule cocktail to ”Scent of a Mule.”  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_mule.  The booze jockeys at Rosebud were obviously trying to avoid the stinging criticism that Parish received about its lack of an inventive cocktail menu.

This scandalous revelation (which is true because it appears on the Internet) is going to have wide-ranging implications for this blog.  I suspect that Ashley and Alison are going to have to don disguises for their future bibulous adventures, just to keep the irreproachable integrity of [tag]Random Atlanta[/tag] intact.  (Helpful tip:  For those looking to change their look, I recommend a totally awesome beard.  In addition to being a great disguise, beards are a great topic of conversation at dinner.)

Overall:  ***DQ***  I would have given this drink a healthy rating of 3 of 5 Olives, but this isn’t ‘Nam.  There are rules here.

Jill, on the other hand, got what we all thought was the best drink of the table.  The Drunken Hearted Boy consisted of old grand dad whiskey, orange bitters, and fresh cranberry juice.  Her classy review is as follows:

Presentation: 3 olives.  Standard but nice. The Drunken Hearted Boy arrived in a low ball glass with not too much ice and an orange twist on top.

Taste: 4 olives. As a girl who enjoys her whiskey, I thought this drink was above the norm.  The orange bitters and cranberry juice made my tongue tingle (that’s what she said) and I appreciated that there was no syrupy aftertaste that you have to contend with after similar whiskey drinks.

Creativity: 4 olives.  Naming your drink after an Allman Brothers song?  That is a winner in my book.

Overall: 4 olives.  I’d order it again and you’d be well off to get you some on your next trip to Rosebud.

So, thanks to Jill and Scott for being our guest reviewers this week!  We enjoyed it!

We gave[tag] Parish[/tag] another chance.  We had been there before when they first opened and neither of us was that impressed.  We heard things had changed since getting a new chef and we certainly enjoyed the food more than we had the first time.  Located in [tag]Inman Park along Highland Avenue[/tag], the space is incredible and we enjoyed sitting outside on the porch this past Friday night. We went out with our friends, Sam and Scott who we had not seen in a while.  Sam is pretty darn pregnant (Sam=Samantha for those of you who may have thought Sam was a pregnant man) so she was unable to partake in the libations.  But, Scott had no problem drinking a little drink or two.

I asked Scott to write something about his drink and he wrote a very witty post indeed. So, instead of rating two drinks this week, we are going to give this one to Scott and just rate one.  (This is him sucking on the drink he ordered - The Bee’s Knees)

Scott’s post follows:

“With a name like “The Bees Knees” I was expecting the perfect spring cocktail, one that teases the tongue and makes you go weak in the knees… much like Sam in a blue denim sundress.  The Bees Knees lures you in with a distinct taste of honey and then stings you with a powerful dose of lemon juice.  I’m pretty sure it had gin too, or maybe vodka?  Who can tell with the sweetness and tartness acting like a one-two punch.  The combination of honey and lemon juice is to The Bees Knees what the shot of Tabasco is to the Prairie Fire.  I’m not sure what that means, but it sounds like a sophisticated and poetic comparison appropriate for Ashley and Alison’s blog.  Rating as 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/yummmmm

Presentation: 1 of 5 olives:  It was in a glass, it had ice, and it was yellow.

Taste: 3 of 5 olives:  unique and refreshing

Creativity: 4 of 5 olives: It was the cat’s pajama’s, the snake’s hips, the kipper’s knickers.

Overall: 3 of 5 olives: A solid spring/summer time drink”

God, we do love Scott and Sam’s humor!  I will say that Parish did not have many “made up by our own mixologist” drinks.  Alison did get one that was made up by the bartender and it was like a ramped up Mojito but we never got a name or really what was in it.  We would certainly go back though – the food, drink, and service was grand!

My God, we are like a week late writing this. I apologize – we have just been two busy bees and should have written this the night we got home from [tag]The Iberian Pig[/tag]. Now, if you are avid readers of our blog, you would know that we have written about The Iberian Pig before.   We love this place – and it seems as though everyone else does as well.

We had a triple date the other night with Alley, Jennifer, Elizabeth, and her husband (and our les-bro,) Frank.  Not only was it packed at an early 6:30pm, but the bar was hopping.  Now, if you don’t know, Iberian Pig’s drink menu is from a prohibition inspired bar.  You get fabulous drinks that were popular back in the 20′s and that means you get a lot of brown liquor drinks and a few gin drinks.  Vodka and tequila were not in style back in those days – but bitters and large ice blocks were….

Alas, their specialty drinks are grand…especially the one and only Iberian Old Fashioned.  Now, let me say I got a good cosmo and Alison got a very stiff drink and she says she is still trying to pluck chest hairs off of her after drinking it…but the cocktails we are going to rate here came from Frank and then Elizabeth and Alley (who got the same thing.)

Frank went for the Jack Rose (pictured above)… a cocktail served up that consisted of Laird’s Applejack, lemon juice, grenadine and bar syrup.  What the F^&* is bar syrup?  I should have asked….  Frank rates the Jack Rose as 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/yummmmm

Presentation: 2 of 5 olives:  The drink looked like a really pink (almost red) hot mess.

Taste: 3 0f 5 olives: Refreshing is the word I would give it.

Creativity: 3.5 of 5 olives.  Again, what the hell is bar syrup and anything with applejack added to it seems interesting….

Overall: 3 of 5 olives:  The Jack Rose tasted a bit more like a Smartees candy rather than what a serious drinking person’s cocktail should taste like.

There you have it, right from the Les-Bro’s mouth.

Now, Elizabeth and Alley both got the [tag]Iberian Old Fashion.[/tag] Consisting of bacon-infused rye whiskey, brown sugar, molasses, Angostura bitters, Peychaud’s bitters, orange and lemons wedges, how can you go wrong? (unless you are a vegetarian!!!)  I mean, seriously people….  really?  Yum, Yum.  Here are Elizabeth and Alley’s ratings….

Presentation: 4 of 5 olives:  The points are for the beauty of simplicity, oh and the huge ass ice cube that is taken from a massive block of ice at the bar….talk about old school.

Taste:5 of 5 olives: Who knew bacon and liquor even went together?  But, I’ll be damned- they do.

Creativity:5 of 5 olives: Again, bacon seriously?And the bitters….and the lemon, and the orange, and the brown sugar…you get our drift….

Overall: 4.5 of 5 olives: (although Ashley thinks it should be 5 of 5…)

Point being, go try this new place in Decatur – and get the bacon drink (pictured in all its glory below) – unless you of course don’t eat bacon, then get something else.  Happy drinking!