Snow Day, Cheers!
I’m not quite sure what it is about the snow that makes you want to drink, but it really does. When I was a kid, it was hot chocolate with marshmallows to warm you up from a day of sledding down giant hills. Now, it’s hot chocolate spiked with liquor, or a hearty glass of red wine, or a stout beer, or, all of the above and no sledding excuse needed. I realized this on Saturday when we got pounded here in Philly with over two feet of snow. Although I travel often and many times on the weekend, I wasn’t lucky enough to be away to miss this giant blizzard.
After an attempt to hit the gym at 3:50pm, which was open believe it or not, but had decided to close early at 4pm, an executive decision was made. Forget working out, let’s just get the fireplace going and break out the vino, and cheese!
Come 7pm, Eric and I decided to pull some non-home-bound friends together and get some good ethnic eats at Vietnam Restaurant in Chinatown. Now I don’t remember ever craving Vietnamese food on snow days before, but Saturday it just sounded good, and hey Vietnam was open unlike many other places, and it is in relative walking distance (well kind of) from us. After a filling bite of their best sharing dish- the bbq platter and a few suffering bastard cocktails, round two was complete.
On to round three; Jones- but what a big disappointment! I was hoping for one of their spiked hot chocolates to warm me up after the walk over there, but they turned us away saying they were closing at 9:30. 9:30pm on a Saturday night? And the place was busy! Not sure Starr would’ve been happy about that either!
Okay so round four, a re-tool to Varga bar which was packed and open! Well they don’t make a great Irish coffee (where’s the whipped cream?), but the Left Hand “Milk Stout” draft was pretty good.
On to round five and up the street to Tria WSW. Snow specials- yeah! Got to love a place that has drink specials on a Saturday night just because it’s snowing: $5 St. Joseph Syrah, and $5 Dogfish Head World Wide Stout. I wanted a glass of the St. Joseph- it’s a killer region in the Northern Rhone of France well-known for Syrah, but they were out of it and it was replaced by a Napa valley Syrah that tasted like feet. But the Dogfish Head was a world-class knockout! At 18% alcohol, this baby drank like a port, and had a crazy addictive nose and flavors of chocolate, coffee, and warm spices in a creamy texture. It was so good we stayed for another.
Heading up Spruce Street a little further, we landed at Valanni for our sixth and final (so we thought) round. So I have to admit at this point I was drinking water, but my drinking companions were still going- and sticking with beer at least. Not sure what kind, I’m really not much of a beer drinker, although that Dogfish Head at Tria was amazing.
The real deal
On the way home we stopped for one more, a real Irish coffee for (you guessed it) round seven, at the Irish Pub of course. A perfectly warm, boozy ending to a cold snowy night. Not something I do often, but it sure was fun hopping arouncdto all of the open neighborhood Philly bars. And do you know the best part? We didn’t even feel the cold on our shuffle through the snowy walk home….hmmmm, I wonder why? ; )
This past weekend bought a bountiful pleasure of food and drink experiences. If you have never attended Frank’s Golden Wine Event in Delaware, you have no idea what you are missing. In it’s 13th year, this event, hosted by Frank’s Union Wine Mart on Union St in DE is a golden gala of great food and exciting wines all offered for your taste buds’ pleasure in the Grand Ballroom of the well established, ornately decorated, The Hotel DuPont. This year the owner of the wine store, Frank Pagliaro, displayed the wine and food in pairing “pods” to better help those to understand the important role that wine plays when it comes to food of various cuisines.
