Non alcoholic

 A friend of ours has had to stop drinking and he has bought an array of fancy mocktail ingredients. 

Old Pal

Old Pal -- equal parts Campari, dry vermouth, and rye. Tasty on a winter's night. 

 

Fig Manhattan

Linda had a sample of this delicious drink the other night at Peche--and it was much to her liking.

Shades of Red

My Manhattan is the standard 'sweet' variety so it has a 'rouge' Vermouth along with the rye whiskey and a dash of bitters. And, of course, a cherry. In this case a nice one, not an outlandishly red maraschino one. Anyway, when it's properly done, a Manhattan (especially 'sweet' not perfect, which has half and half red and dry (light-colored) vermouth) will have a pleasant red glow. Today is theme day at City Daily photo. The theme is red. Click here to see other interpretations of the theme.

I Don't Always Have a Manhattan

Sometimes, at Mexican Restaurants, I choose a Margarita, perhaps a specialty of the house. This shot was at a new place a few blocks from our condo called Comedor. It was very hip indeed. I usually get Margaritas up and Manhattans on the rocks. Bartenders lean the other way. Vive la différence. That's FFP's Rosé in the background. That's his standard cocktail.

Signs of the times

Hard to argue with alcohol sometimes! This sign was outside the bar downstairs the other day.

Old school drink

Yessir, that is a limeade and it was delicious. Had it at Dirty Martin's Hamburger Shop the other day.

Black Apple Manhattan

This is a Black Apple Manhattan -- Linda gave it a try at North Italia the other night. Not as good as the Fixe version of a straight-on drink. It did have an apple slice in it!

Election night

Linda and I decided to go check out the election night at some bars around town. Here she is at The Headliners Club. The only other table had already decamped for a victory party.

Hello, Old Pal!

This is a Campari-based drink that we discovered. It is indeed called Old Pal. Tasty after a hard night of enjoying entertainment. This one was served up at Le Politique.

Yes "me," well, OK, "us"!

When we sit down at our favorite bars, these are the drinks that we wind up with, 95% of the time. In fact, at Fixe, our version of the "Cheers" bar, they start pouring them as soon as we come in the door. Linda has a Manhattan and Forrest has a glass of still rose'. For the June Theme Day, we couldn't resist posting this photo. Oh and by the way, this was taken at the bar in Jeffrey's, a nice restaurant in West Austin where we recently celebrated our 42nd Anniversary dinner. Salud! To see how our fellow bloggers around the world illustrated the theme, click here.

Bloody Mary is a girl I know. . .

Our friends at Fixe have concocted a new Bloody Mary. Love that bacon and okra garnish!

A chilly drink for a summer afternoon

We tried out a new restaurant the other day. The woman by us at the bar was having a mint julep. Very nice looking in its frosty mug.

Gimme a break!

We took a break from posting on Austin Daily Photo the other night to have drinks and dinner with friends. I took this photo of Linda's Manhattan.

A Margarita of a Different Color

 

Keeping Ausitn weird -- one margarita at a time. 

Mixocology

All the hip places are offering interesting cocktails these days with infusions, fresh fruits, muddles of herbs, interesting liquors and liqueurs. Annie's (on Congress) is no exception and they were displaying some on the bar when we went in the other night. Fact is, I had a Moscow Mule which is an old school drink involving ginger beer, vodka and lime. Very refreshing.

International Refreshment

On a walk not long ago we were beginning to feel the emerging Texas heat after a couple of miles. We popped into Farm to Market grocery on South Congress, a little spot that features local produce and flowers and some local groceries. However, when we went for the bottled refreshment case, we pulled out tasty foreign products we like: Orangina (this bottled in Canada but, I think, a French invention) and a Topo-Chico Lime-Flavored Carbonated water from Mexico. When FFP went inside the Off the Wall store to try on a vintage shirt from their sidewalk sale, I set the drinks on a ledge to take a picture of something and, seeing a small irony, snapped this picture. One thing about the 'daily photo' thing: you finally turn the camera on minutia.

Dirty Martini

A friend had a couple of these last night. Personally I drank some perfect Manhattans. The location was III Forks and the reason was that a friend was singing there (while most everyone else in town watched UT trounce a hapless opponent in the school's football kickoff).

Not in Europe

Happily, in the 36 years since I first visited Europe, cafe life has been somewhat simulated here. Back in 1972 coming home from across the Atlantic for a Texan meant giving up a lovely coffee drink like this in the morning and a perfect little cup of black magic after dinner. There was very little sitting on sidewalks having food and drink. Now we pay homage to that a lot, at least in the large cities in Texas. This setting was Taverna on Second. I'm not sure who invented the Mimosa (or the one dollar one on Sunday morning served here!) but they also serve Bellinis (also a buck on Sunday) and that's Italian like Taverna.

Well, Not my Dinner

Actually, not entirely. Yesterday at dinner time I was very stressed and realized I'd only had half a blueberry scone and coffee (black) all day. We reheated steak and rabbit leftovers from Taste, made a Caesar salad and had a bottle of Chianti. I had a little sip of Sherry. Later, though, I was still hungry (not that many leftovers) and I made some nachos and had part of a Shiner Bock (a Central Texas brand). Little Woodrow's (and Star Bar in the backround) are on West Sixth Street.