Drink 44: Peaseblossom

The Name: Peaseblossom                                                                           

The Bar: Angry Burger Gastropub (4460 Broadway, NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: Few things are as exciting as when friends who had been living in a different city move to your city. I was lucky enough to have this happen to me recently, when two of my closest friends from college, Jeff and Elizabeth, moved to New York City from Boston. And once they arrived, I knew we had to play What's That Drink, and I knew exactly what the drink name would be.

A quick word about Jeff. See, to me and my friends, he's not just known as Jeff. He is known as Jeff the Viking. Because he looks like a viking. Don't believe me? Here is a casual picture of Jeff.

Or, it was taken on Halloween, but it might as well just have been a random Tuesday.

Now, anyone who knows me (or has read this blog before) knows that I work in the theater, and in college, I had the chance to direct my favorite Shakespeare play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. If you don't know the play then you should absolutely check it out--it's one of the funniest and most literally magical things ever written. But for the purposes of this blog, the most important thing to know about the play is that part of it takes place in the land of fairies. Two of the prominent characters are Titania and Oberon, the queen and king of the fairies. Titania in particular goes everywhere with a train of fairies, Cobweb, Moth, Mustardseed, and Peaseblossom. These characters can be, and often are, major presences in the play, but in terms of lines they're definitely minor characters. Their shining moment arguably is when they are each introduced one by one to Titania's newest lover, a terrible actor whose head has been turned into the head of a donkey. I told you this play is weird. Each fairy in turn comes up and proudly announces their name.

For the production I directed, I cast Jeff. Jeff had never acted before or since, but I knew before auditions had even started that I wanted him to play Peaseblossom. I don't even remember when or why this idea came up, but I just thought it would be funny. Cobweb, Moth, and Mustardseed were women and moved about the stage with graceful and balletic movements. And then there was Peaseblossom, played by a large viking who carried an axe. He was essentially like a Bond villain's henchman, acting as the muscle in an incredibly incongruous setting and with the least badass name anyone could possibly think of. Here's a brief excerpt from the play, and I've used punctuation and capitalization to show Jeff's line delivery.

BOTTOM: I cry your worship's mercy, heartily: I beseech your worship's name.

COBWEB: Cobweb.

BOTTOM: I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master Cobweb: if I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your name, honest gentleman? 

PEASEBLOSSOM PEASEBLOSSOM!!!!!

From an artistic standpoint, I justified Jeff's casting by having Peaseblossom essentially act as Titania's bodyguard. But really, this casting choice was just because it was hilarious to have Jeff scream "PEASEBLOSSOM!!!!!" in a loud and booming voice. Because sometimes you don't have to justify a directorial choice with textual evidence. You can just go, "This is funny. We're doing it." Jeff, in turn, threw himself into the role with gusto, and really gave a fantastic performance. Frankly, I've never seen a better or more interesting Peaseblossom since. He really made this bizarre decision work so well, and will always be Peaseblossom, or Peasebee as the cast affectionately nicknamed him, in my eyes.

Peaseblossom, before the show

Ordering The Drink: Jeff and Elizabeth moved to the city in early August, and before they'd even finished unpacking, I insisted we go out for a drink. We went to Angry Burger Gastropub, which was right by their new apartment, and which they'd been intrigued by. And I think it's definitely going to be a new neighborhood favorite. As you'd expect from a place with "burger" and "pub" in the name, they had a good beer selection, and solid burgers. Luckily for me and my mission to order strange cocktails, they also had a full cocktail list which featured some really intriguing options. We were sitting at a table, and our waiter came over to ask if we wanted an extra drink. I explained how I wanted a weird custom cocktail, and he seemed to be amused by the idea. After I explained it, he asked me to repeat the order, because he wanted to make sure he'd explain it to the bartender exactly right. After my second explanation, he still seemed concerned that he might not convey the drink order exactly right (and also had never heard of a peaseblossom, which is fair since it's not exactly a word with everyday usage), so he called the bartender over to our table. The bartender was immediately on board, and also had heard the word "Peaseblossom" before, so he set off to make the drink in Jeff's honor.

The Drink:

Equal parts gin and vodka

Lavender Syrup

Lemon

Orange Bitters 

Lemon peel twist

Assessment of Drink: When the drink was first explained to me, I will admit I was a little bit skeptical. Elizabeth had ordered another lavender cocktail earlier in the evening, which was very similar to this one and which I had found to be a bit too sweet for my tastes. Not bad, but also not necessarily a drink I would order. But after trying the Peaseblossom, all three of us actually found this spontaneous drink to be far more balanced and composed than the one Elizabeth had gotten off the menu. The secret was the orange bitters I think, which along with the lemon, managed to temper the sweetness of the lavender nicely. You could still get the distinct floral flavor, but without it feeling overpowering. It still was certainly a sweeter drink, but it was incredibly refreshing and perfect for a hot summer day.

Does It Live Up To The Name: Absolutely! The name Peaseblossom is instantly light and flowery. That's the whole reason I had cast Jeff in the role, after all, was to play off of the image one gets when hearing this name. I almost expected a drink to show up to the table that would be bright pink. And while this drink wasn't pink, it was certainly playful and light. The lavender really was an inspired choice. He took a drink named after a flower, and added a flower to it. so the dominating flavor of the drink was floral, which works perfectly. I would totally buy that this drink would be called the Peaseblossom. And while you can't really see in the dimly lit picture, it did have a light purple tint, which I think fit the drink's name perfectly. It was a dreamy drink for a midsummer night.

Peaseblossom, about to try the peaseblossom

Drink 37: The Fancy Giraffe

The Name: The Fancy Giraffe                                                                                 

The Bar: Reunion Surf Bar (357 West 44th st., NYC)

The Story Behind The Name: This story is a tough one to write, because this drink name is hard to explain. Or, rather, it's easy to explain, but the explanation is kind of stupid. I'll give it my best shot, though!
 

I've mentioned before how I'm a toy salesman. The main product that I demonstrate is called the Marvin's Magic Drawing Board. It's a cool product where you can draw with, as I say in my pitch, "No paints, no markers, no crayons, and most importantly NO MESS!" Members of my generation will probably remember the infomercials that ran on Nickelodeon.

The drawing board comes with a little plastic stylus. As you can see in the video, it's a versatile tool and you can do lots of things with it. One of the most fun things to do is make bow ties. You can see it in the video, but here's the bow tie on a drawing of a penguin I made.

I'm so talented!

One of the main joys of my job is the people I have gotten to meet. One of the great people I've met through this job is my friend Nick, who used to work with me at the iconic (and now, sadly, closed) FAO Schwarz. During his spare time, Nick would often come over and we'd chat and sometimes draw on the board. Nick's favorite thing to draw was bow ties--and I can understand why. It's hard to explain, but for some reason drawing bow ties on the magic drawing board is very relaxing. It's the type of small action that can somehow feel very satisfying when you're stuck in the horror of working retail.

One fateful day, Nick came over and drew a single bow tie on my board. He looked at his drawing, then looked at me, and decisively declared, "It's a giraffe." Then he walked away.

A recreation of Nick's artistic accomplishments.

For some reason this struck both of us as being completely hilarious. I'm not sure why we found this so funny. I mean, sure, bow ties are a very distinct shape and are decidedly not the shape of a giraffe, but...on its own that's really not that funny (and, I just found out, is apparently a reference to Spongebob Squarepants). It's just weird. But it caught on. Ever since that day, we became fairly invested in the idea that bow ties are, in fact, giraffes. Day after day, Nick would come over and we would draw bow ties on the board. "Look, a herd of giraffes," we'd say. Soon, the words "bow tie" and "giraffe" became synonymous. If we saw a giraffe NOT wearing a bow tie (or, more accurately, a giraffe stuffed animal, considering we were in a toy store and not on the plains of Africa) we insisted to each other that the giraffe was not, in fact, a giraffe. Not until it was wearing a bow tie. We took this very seriously, and still do.

The aforementioned herd of giraffes.

I told you this one is hard to explain. But that's all there is to it--we for some reason decided that a bow tie shape was, in our mind, an abstract depiction of a giraffe. We've tried to explain this to other people. No one has ever really understood.

But ultimately, that's part of what makes our bow tie-giraffe joke so special. Like the best inside jokes, it doesn't really make sense. Each bow tie that we call a giraffe is a physical manifestation of our compatible weirdness. It doesn't have to make sense--we both accept that a bow tie and a giraffe are the same thing and that's it. 

And, in case you don't understand how seriously we take this joke, for his birthday, I bought Nick and myself matching giraffe-print bow ties.

I knew this drink name would be hard to explain--and I can't really objectively tell if I've explained it at all. So if you're thinking "Huh?" I'm sorry and you can just skip to the "ordering the drink" section and you can hopefully be amused by the image of a giraffe in a tuxedo with a monocle or something. But, Nick and I had been planning on getting a drink for a while, and when it came time to choose a cocktail name, we both agreed that the bow tie-giraffes simply had to be represented. And we settled on the name "The Fancy Giraffe" because bow ties are fancy. Although, the idea of a giraffe wearing a bow tie is mind-boggling because then it's a giraffe wearing ANOTHER giraffe.
 

I searched for images of a giraffe wearing a bow tie, fully expecting to find nothing, but then I found this picture and for some reason Russell Crowe is there and now I'm incredibly confused.

Ordering The Drink: A couple weeks ago, Nick and I were going to be meeting a couple of friends later in the day. We were meeting our friends in Queens, but Nick and I were together in Midtown and we still had a couple of hours before we had to leave, so we decided to kill some time. There was just one problem: this was in the middle of a huge rainstorm.

It was seriously a downpour. I had an umbrella with me, but I still got completely soaked thanks to the copious amounts of wind and rain. We wanted to get indoors and out of the rain, and it occurred to us that we could hop into a bar somewhere. We were walking along 9th avenue, desperately trying to find somewhere that didn't look too crowded. And, like an oasis in a desert (or, I guess a rainforest) we saw a giant surfboard sitting outside a building, announcing a bar inside called Reunion. "Good enough," Nick and I thought as we went towards the surfboard and ducked into the building. It turned out that Reunion was a surfing-themed bar hidden in the basement of an office building, very much secluded from the hustle and bustle of Times Square.

Reunion's surfboard sign beckoned us with a solid roof and many libations.

Before visiting Reunion, I would have thought that a surfing-themed bar would have been pretty cheesy. Especially in the heart of New York City, where surfing is very much not a commonplace activity, I would have thought the theme would have felt disingenuous. But Reunion actually was a very cool and classy place. The theme was certainly evident, but the decor was more fun and lively than tacky, and for a bar that we ducked into primarily to escape the rain, I was quite impressed. Nick and I both agreed that this place was very cool.

The main bar area is very fun and boisterous. Drink menus were written on surfboards, and there were fun phrases written on the walls like "Save a wave, ride a surfer." There were lots of elements that easily could have felt kitschy, but everyone inside seemed to be having such a great time, that they just ended up seeing delightful. And most importantly, it was happy hour! We did a specialty shot the bar offers called an Acid Drop that was made with grapefruit vodka and was quite refreshing.

Nick, about to drop acid.

After we dropped acid, I asked the bartender if he'd be willing to make me a drink based on a custom name. The bartender was exactly the type of person you'd think would be working at a surf bar. He had that California bro vibe, complete with the long hair and relaxed attitude. I thought surely someone who projects such a go-with-the-flow attitude would accept this challenge with relish, and sure enough, after I placed my order, he laughed and said "Okay!" But, while it was clear that he was very capable at tending bar, he seemed a little bit unsure of how to approach crafting The Fancy Giraffe. He looked a bit nervous and I started to think, "I hope this isn't too much of a challenge. After all giraffes don't exactly come to mind when one thinks of cocktails."

I turned away from the bar to talk to Nick, and after not too long, Nick started to laugh. "I think your drink is ready," he said, and I turned around. Our bartender had a huge grin on his face. In his hands he held a drink with an enormous straw sticking out of it--clearly the neck of the giraffe.

"Awesome," I said.

"YEAH!" our bartender replied.

The Drink:

I hold the Fancy Giraffe and its long, long neck.

Rum
Sherry
Orange Juice
Orange Bitters
Served with a really, really, really, really long straw

Assessment of Drink: This was really cool. The straw was absolutely ridiculous, but made this drink immediately fun to drink. It was wildly impractical--the drink was hard to hold and it was unwieldy, but it was so delightful. I already loved this drink before I'd even tried it.

And then I tried it, and I still loved it! The rum was unsurprising--most of their specialty cocktails are rum-based, which isn't surprising given its theme. And rum and orange is a nice and classic combination. A lesser bartender would have just made me a Screwdriver, stuck a giant straw in it, and called it a day. But our bartender took it a step further--by adding the orange bitters, the orange flavor felt far more complex than it otherwise would have been with just the juice--it gave the drink a full orange flavor as opposed to being overly sweet. The citrus was bright and had a nice tartness to it.

A blurry shot of our California bro bartender, who crafted this excellent drink.

But the secret here was the sherry. Sherry has a very rich and sweet flavor--and is often sipped on its own. But incorporating it into the cocktail added an extra dimension to it. It made the whole thing feel richer, and gave it more substance than it would have had with just the rum and orange. It gave the cocktail a feeling of dimension and balance and, yes, fanciness.

Does It Live Up To The Name: This isn't the first animal-themed drink I've had which utilized the presentation of the drink to its advantage--I previously had a Pink Elephant which was served in a giant jug. Honestly, if the straw was the only thing that implied giraffe, it would have been enough.

It was even tied up in a way that could have arguably been meant to represent a giraffe's head. Or that might have been how the straw already was, I'm not sure.

But there was even more to it than that. The color of the drink was great--it had the same hue as a giraffe's skin. And the fanciness was evident. The sherry was truly brilliant: it not only made the drink taste better, but it made it taste fancier. Looking around Reunion, I would never have expected a truly fancy drink, but The Fancy Giraffe 100% delivered. I found out afterwards that Reunion had a secret weapon: off to the side of the main bar area, there's a more secluded and quiet alcove that offers a more sophisticated approach, and even has a beautiful-looking wine cellar that is bizarrely incongruous with the rest of the bar's surf theme.

Dude, after a day of catching waves, I like to relax with a nice chardonnay.

The drink was fancy and, with the orange color and long-necked straw, it LOOKED like a giraffe. And since it tasted so good, I'd say the drink was an all-around success.

I'd never heard of Reunion before stepping in to get out of the rain. But, it's somewhere I'd definitely return to. For one thing, it's a lot cheaper and more casual than many of the bars in midtown, and it's a really cool place. It was a surprise find, and a hidden gem I'm glad to have discovered.