MySideOfTheBar

And what a great weekend it was here at MySideOfTheBar. The weekend started off great at the M & S Grill on the Plaza. The food was excellent and prices moderate to expensive. I had the Bourbon Pecan Beurre Blanc Glazzed Idaho Rainbow Trout and the M & S Grill House Salad and both were excellent. The Manhattans here are the best I have yet to have in KC and I am not entirely sure about the prices as we were guests of others. (Thank you S. and K. D.) On Saturday afternoon we stopped in to the Baha 600 on the Plaza and found some excellent Mexican Entries. If you eat in the dinning room and order the Guacamole Dip they make it fresh at your table and the tacos, Espinaca Con Queso are all very good. I also recommend the Red Sangria. On Sun we went to a new comer to the Plaza (However they had previously been a main stay in West Port) The Blanc Burgers and Bottles. They have over 100 different varieties of bottled bear. We sampled the Grand Teton Au Naturale Organic and the Li...

First I would like to wish all of you a slightly belated Happy Valentines Day. I realize this holiday has been propagated by greeting card company’s, florist and candy stores, however I still like to celebrate the way I do most holidays. Simple and over the course of a couple of days. I also found it a little auspicious that a holiday about love was started with the execution of a priest. On February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed. To read the entire story you can go to This Day in History at History.com . As I said I/We usually celebrate all holidays over the course of many days. In fact I remember once celebrating someone’s birthday for an entire week. This St. Valentines Day would be no different. We started by going to our favorite restaurant on Saturday evening, Californos in Westport. The bartender Joel really knows how to make a great Manhattan (he is also a fan of Mad Men) and the food here is alw...

While sitting at my side of the bar there are using tunes playing, sometimes bad and sometimes good. If you hear a good song usually someone will comment (same with bad songs). One thing to keep in mind is that Good Music and Bad Music are relative terms. For years I had a group of drinking buddies that used to gather every Sunday evening at a one particular friends house. (Doc you know who you are). There were Four of us that formed the Moberly Rat Pack. Doc, Mr. Bill, Central Patti and myself (The Professor). The four of us were are regular at these gatherings. We had many others shuffle in and out of the gatherings over the years. We would discuss religion, politics, and sex as well as current events and history. Now while I realize to discuss religion, politics and sex is a taboo we discovered that intelligent individuals can discuss any topic as long as you leave emotion on the shelf. We coined our gatherings “Sunday Night Salon” from Louis the 14th’s gatherings at Versailles. On...

As I was sitting at My Side of the Bar this weekend I ordered a dry martini, straight up, olives and no twist. The bartender created my cocktail and it had three olives on a stick and I replied, "Happiness is finding 3 olives in your martini at dinner time". The bartender gave me a curious look and asked if I had just made that up? I replied, "No as a matter a fact it is a favoriate quote of mine from a book I have". Actually it is not a 100% accurate quote as you will see. Several years ago I started to collect books with Martini in the title. One of my favoriates was published around 1968 by Johnny Carson and illistrated by Whitney Darrow Jr.(a pure genious when it comes to drawings) Carson to me will always be the master of witisisms. His jokes were short and to the point and he like me never gave a damn about being politically correct. So from this book here are a few of my favoriate lines from this great book. Are they political correct? Not by today's stan...

1935 : First canned beer goes on sale Canned beer makes its debut on this day in 1935. In partnership with the American Can Company, the Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger's Finest Beer and Krueger's Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. Ninety-one percent of the drinkers approved of the canned beer, driving Krueger to give the green light to further production. By the late 19th century, cans were instrumental in the mass distribution of foodstuffs, but it wasn't until 1909 that the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin. The concept of canned beer proved to be a hard sell, but Kr...

Sitting at My Side of the Bar this past weekend in one of my favorite “Gin Joints”, Tomfooleries on the K.C. Plaza I always notice the many jars of infused Vodka. Now while infusing Vodka is not new to me I am always intrigued by the different ingredients for infusing Vodka used at many establishments and found on the internet. I first learned about infused Vodka when I used to frequent the Capital Grill (also on the K.C. Plaza) On both ends of the bar they had two gigantic glass jars filled with pineapple and Vodka. The result was their world famous Stoli-Doli a name contrived from Stolichnaya Vodka and Dole Pineapple which makes one fantastic drink. You let the pineapple infuse in the Vodka for about a week to ten days and then drain off and put in a container to keep refrigerated. You can them mix three parts of this infusion with one part triple-sec in a martini shaker and strain into a chilled martini glass and you have one very smooth martini. However on this day I am going to c...

Lately at my side of the bar I have been enjoying Manhattans. The only explanation I can think of is the I really enjoy the show Mad Men where they order Manhattans like water. As the weather was very cold last weekend and we had a friend visiting I decided to try my hand at making Manhattans. This is my recipe thus far and not far from perfection. 2 OZ Bourbon (Substitute Whiskey of Choice) 1 OZ Sweet Vermouth 5 Dashes of Angostura Bitters A Splash of 7 UP (diet for me) Garnish with a Maraschino cherry Muddle two Maraschino cherries in the shaker or pitcher. Combine all ingredients in a shaker or pitcher and stir (do not shake) Strain into a chilled martini glass or as I prefer a highball glass on the rocks. The one area I believe I can improve is the vermouth and if you have a favorite let me know. Cheers