We have been meaning to visit our good friend, Mary Ann, at HobNob for some time.  She is a bartender there and we finally got off our lazy set in our ways butts and hopped over to HobNob the other night before Holly’s 40th birthday party.  Alison and I plopped ourselves at the bar and enjoyed hanging out with all the wait staff in their Halloween costumes.

The place is inviting and enjoyable and we had a great time with Mary Ann (pictured above) as she picked out beverages and food for us.  (By the way, the fried green tomatoes were to die for.)   HobNob has wonderful infused vodkas and nicely served drinks all around.  They are also known for their alcoholic (and non-alcoholic) milk shakes.  We decided to get Mary Ann’s creation- the Sparkling Lemonade.  This shake consists of vodka, lemon sorbet, champagne, and is garnished with a twist of lemon.  Before I rate this shake, let me first say that had it not been 45 degrees outside, we would have devoured it.  Yet, because it was cold outside, I had a hard time enjoying the coolness of the drink. But, that has nothing to do with the taste of it.  Yum.

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: 2.5 olives – Not much you can do to make this shake fancy, but the lemon wedge is a nice touch. I did not think about actually squeezing the lemon in the shake though.

Creativity: 3.5 olives – Mary Ann thought of a creative and very refreshing shake for HobNob.  A perfect sipping drink on a WARM day.

Taste: 4 olives – Alison and I both really liked it and had we not been bundled up in our leather coats, we would have enjoyed the sorbet and champagne even more!

Overall: 3.8 olives (to round up my scoring here)  – A great shake (and the others look fabulous as well)  Just get it when you are hanging out on their deck on a sunny and warm spring or summer day!

We enjoyed hanging at HobNob and I almost forgot to add that they have a fabulous beer selection on draft and in bottles so Cheers!  We will certainly be back.  And yes, my hair is now shaved as you can see in the photo above.  If you would like to know why, click here!

We rarely are this excited about a newer restaurant in town.  It is not that we are food snobs or aficionados.  We just find some places try to replicate another restaurant already in town or they just go way overboard to be different.  I must say that Bocado is not one of these kinds of restaurants.  It is in my humble opinion – damn damn good.

Alison and I had a date night there on Friday night and enjoyed every aspect of it – from the cheese plate to the chicken.  The food was delightful and tasty.  BUT, as we know, this is not a post about food.  It is about liquor.  Adam, the handsome bartender /craft cocktail maker/mixologist- whatever you want to call him has come up with a couple of drinks we downed rather too quickly.

We will start with my drink.  Rosemary Full of Grace is a simple cocktail but was blended with perfection.  Shaken together and served up in a small glass, this drink consisted of vodka, fresh grapefruit juice, and rosemary simple syrup.  I get a little scared about grapefruit juice because it can overpower any drink – but not this one.  The rosemary simple syrup leveled out the grapefruit and made me practically swoon.

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 – I did not take a photo and am mad at myself now – but the simplicity of this drink in such a great small glass worked well.  No rosemary twig or slice of anything was needed for this drink.

Creativity: 3.5 olives – Not many ingredients in this drink – and not many needed to make it delightful.

Taste: 5 olives -I don’t give many 5 olive ratings, but I could sip on this drink for a long time.  I will certainly be back to have it again.

Overall: 4 olives – If you like a vodka drink and if you don’t ever get grapefruit drinks because you are like me and think they will be too much – get this one anyway.  You will not be disappointed.

Alison opted for a more “Autumn” drink.  This delicious concoction, Elm Street, consisted of house infused Baker’s bourbon, pumpkin (not out of a can,) and Anise.

Her ratings are below:

Presentation: 4.5 olives  – Don’t be put off by the orange color.  It is a fall drink after-all.

Creativity: 4.5 olives – A perfect balance of mild bourbon cut by not too sweet barely-there pumpkin flavor with tasty flecks of something to give it a nice texture.

Taste: 5 olives – A seasonal hit.

Overall:  4.5 olives – Cheers!

Again, don’t be surprised at how surprised you will be at this restaurant.  A wonderful new addition to Atlanta and the West Side.

We are grateful that we didn’t name this adventure “52 Consecutive Weeks of Drinks” - considering our inability to stay on track.  But I guess we will just roll over into the first couple of weeks of 2011, if necessary.  Who’s really counting?

Week 42 brought us the official launch party for the [tag]Atlanta Food and Wine Festival[/tag].  Our dear friend Elizabeth is one of the brilliant minds behind Atlanta’s soon-to-be can’t miss annual festival - uniting barbecue pit masters, award-winning chefs and mixologists, Master Sommeliers, fry cooks and local growers in the spirit of celebrating the rich food and beverage traditions of the South in May of 2011.  

Ashley missed all the fun because she was off finalizing the details of her 20 Year Class Reunion.   Michael agreed to come as my man-date in Ashley’s place – which meant I got to stay out late! 

As soon as we entered the party, we were greeted by happy, attractive people serving the featured cocktail crafted by [tag]Greg of Holeman & Finch[/tag] – “A Taste of Things To Come.”  I assume this is a reference to the great things to come with this festival , but who knows, or cares, this was a great drink.  And our insider status earned us the actual recipe for this one!  You want to make a batch.

This southern-inspired cocktail was served in a mason jar and featured: Bonal Gentiane-Quina (Vin Aperitif),Lemon juice, Hayman’s Ole Tom Gin, Cointreau, Peychaud Bitters, and top with  Fever Tree Tonic.

Greg says you must use Fever Tree Tonic or it will be too cloying.  I have no idea what “cloying” means, but it sounds bad, so I would listen to Greg.  OK – so I looked it up – it is craft-bartender-speak for too sweet.  Which could be a risk for this arnold-palmer-esque style cocktail.  If you make this at home, don’t add tonic to a large batch; if you do large batch splash in mason jar at the end. 

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: 5 Olives.  Over ice in a mason jar garnished with a sprig of mint and orange peel plus a cool little Atlanta Food and Wine Festival logo thingy.  Casual classy and appropriate for the event. 

Creativity: 5 olives:  Can you say ”Bonal Gentiane-Quina”?  Of course not.  Not one of the members of the hip “in” crowd at this event had ever heard of this either so don’t feel bad. 

From the website I found when Googling – “Bonal Gentiane-Quina, once nicknamed ‘ouvre l’appetit”‘(the key to the appetite), is a delicious aperitif wine that has been in production since 1865.  It is made by infusing gentian root, herbs from the Grande Chartreuse mountains, and cinchona (quinine), in a Mistelle base, producing a wine that is known for its complexity. It is traditionally enjoyed neat, on ice with a twist, or in many classic mixed drinks.”

Who knew?  The French.

Taste: 4.5 olives: Not too sweet, crisp, cold, freshing and yum. 

Overall: 4.8 olives: Make a batch for your friends, even if you aren’t hosting a festival launch party.

Now go and buy tickets to this festival, because the libations were delightful.  Good drinks, good food, good idea. 

We can repeat a place.  You know why?  Because we are the writers and rule makers for our own blog.  That’s why.  We often go to the Bone Garden Cantina because we like the fabulous food and drinks there and we also like Kristen and Michael.  We decided to do a repeat performance here because they have an entire new drink list – and one that is based on one of our favorite things – tequila.  Not just any tequila: Bone Garden offers superb and rare tequilas that are quite frankly amazing.

Bone Garden now not only offers a (very serious) Tequila Club for those interested in tasting tequilas from all over Mexico, but they also offer tequila pairings on certain Saturdays. Either way, it rocks.  Yummy, yummy, yummy for your tummy.

This past week (remember we are a week behind and I promise to catch up this week) we headed over to Bone Garden for some grub and libations.   Alison ordered the new Instant Karma – a delicious drink served in a tall glass with Karma tequila, St. Germain, fresh lemon juice, an egg white and topped with cayenne pepper.  Wow.  I ordered the Roselle: an amazing cocktail that would be fabulous served either up or on the rocks. (I got it on the rocks.) It consisted of Gran Centenario’s Rosangel tequila, Cointreau, cranberry juice, Agave Nectar, and lime juice.  Holy Schmoly.  My favorite new drink. (That is Kristen fixing it behind the bar by the way…)

The problem here is that I did not get good photos because it was dark and we were quite enthralled with the LSU /Tennessee Game that was on.  With that said, I did get a photo of possibly the best sipping tequila straight up I have had in a long time.  The Corzo Anejo tasting is served with a slice of orange covered in cinnamon.  If you are to squeeze a bit of the orange in the tasting, it is divine.  Just don’t squeeze too much or you will lose the flavor the tequila itself. You can still throw that slice in the drink – but beware of over-squeezing.

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 have decided to rate only the Instant Karma because I would give the other two 5′s all the way around. 

Presentation: 3.5 Olives: The tall glass worked wonders for this drink and since you can’t see it because I did not take a photo of it, you will just have to trust me.  The cayenne pepper on top of the egg white made it look muy delisioso.

Creativity: 3.5 olives:  Everything has St. Germain in it these days – but with the tequila and egg white mixing in, it makes it pretty darn creative.

Taste: 4 olives: I am going by Alison’s rating here.  She would have given this a 4 olive rating.  I, on the other hand, would have given it a 2.5 only because I kept smelling the damn egg in the glass when I drank.  As Michael said, “Quit breathing in when you taste it.”  Should have listened to him.

Overall: 3.5 olives: For those who love tequila and St. Germain, this is the drink for you.  Not heavy at all and light on the egg white, it is a great drink to sip on.

Bone Garden is a must for tequila tasters everywhere – and of course, don’t forget about the food.

I’ll admit it.  We are two weeks behind.  We hit a major wall at Week 40 of 52 Weeks of Drinks.  Who knew it would be so difficult to drink your way through the year.  Seriously.  It ain’t easy finding new places to go to and then ordering different cocktails each week.  We do major research, we take on calories each week, and I am convinced I have gained like 5 pounds.

So, there you have it -two weeks behind-but I swear we will catch up this week.  Our Week 40 place ended up being Murphy’s AT LUNCH on Week 41 – because we had failed to try any new place on the real Week 40.

I met a high school friend and another friend at Murphy’s in the Virginia Highlands last week for lunch.  Murphy’s is a staple in-town and always has excellent food – and of course a great wine selection.  I decided to ask the cute bartender, Phillip, if he could make me a fabulous cocktail.   He made me one that will be coming out on their fall cocktail list – called the Pumpkin Tini. We are getting ready to taste it at 12:20pm in the photo below…

This Pumpkin Tini should really not be consumed at lunch.  There were three of us sipping on it for the sake of it and we still did not finish it.  I think Kristie and Jill liked it better than I did. It was a bit sweet and heavy for me.  Either way, the Pumpkin Tini consisted of Absolute vanilla vodka,  pumpkin pie filling, pumpkin spiced syrup, a little half and half, a dash of cinnamon, and some fancy homemade whipped cream on top.  (Notice Kristie enjoying the “Tini” a lot in this photo.)

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: Nice presentation – served up and with a bit of cinnamon on top as well as homemade whip cream made it look very “Autumny.”

Creativity: 3.0 Olives: I thought this was a pretty creative drink although I would love it if Murphy’s actually made their own pumpkin spice filling. I guess that is a bit much considering they specialize in awesome wines – not “cocktails.”

Taste: 2.5 Olives: Although Kristie said she would give it 3.5 olives, I am choosing to give it 2.5.  I thought the Absolute Vanilla made it way too sweet. I think a regular vodka would be fine since you they are using pumpkin pie filling, and pumpkin syrup in it as well.  I’d certainly think this is an after dinner drink.  Rather than having a dessert, drink up!

Overall: 3 olives: Again, a good after dinner drink instead of splurging for dessert.

Enjoy Murphy’s – I have never gone wrong there.