J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale (Lagavulin Casks)

Well it was a bit of a cold and dreary morning, so I thought I would have something good for breakfast. Didn't really feel like cooking, how about J.W. Lee's Harvest Ale aged in Lagavulin Casks? If you're not familiar, Lagavulin 16 is one of the quintessential Islay single malt scotches - smokey, sweet, complex. I tasted this beer at Brouwer's in Seattle and was very happy to find it at John's Marketplace here in Portland. If you haven't been to John's Marketplace, you should. Hands down the biggest beer selection in Portland and an extensive wine selection was well.

Why yes, that does mean I was sitting in my front yard drinking a English style barleywine at 8 in the morning. Kids walked by excited for their first few days of school, but little did they know about the tasty ale I was about to swill.

This 2005 beer pours a cloudy amber with pinkish highlights when held up to the light. Lots of suspended yeast floating about. No foam, but the beer sticks to the glass like a full bodied chardonnay. An extremely sweet, malty nose, mainly molasses and honey. The flavor is similar, sweet, almost buttery, warming alcohol (at 11.5% ABV) and finally notes of wood and peat smoke on the finish.

Euphoric Drunk: Dutch Kills, Milk & Honey

The last day of the conference wrapped up around noon and I had one thing on my mind, and that was getting to Dutch Kills and Milk & Honey, two bars held in the highest regards in the cocktail world. I was staying at the Brooklyn Bridge Marriot, so the subway to Queens would be a little bit of a ride. Since I would be passing by Union Square, I thought I would follow through with a promise to myself and sit down for a meal at Union Square Café. A good half pound bacon cheeseburger on a poppyseed bun, fries, three oysters on the half shell – Raspberry Point, Pebble Cove, Hood Canal, a beer, and a coffee. This meal would be the last solids consumed for the rest of the day.

30 minutes on the subway later I found myself in Queens for the first time. Big, a little deserted, and industrial, with a few tall office towers on the horizon, this was quite a different scene from both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Once again I found myself lost in New York looking for an incredible bar I had heard about, only to realize I had walked right by it. At 27-24 Jackson Ave there is a non-descript brick building with a metal door and small lit BAR sign. Inside, there is a row of dimly lit booths on a pathway to the bar. Behind the bar there is a big block of ice with a knife in it. I warmed up with a refreshing Prescription Julep, a classic with rye and cognac, and a cognac French 75. Then I asked bartender Giuseppe Gonzales for something I could only get at Dutch Kills and I was brought a delicious original cocktail with tequila, lime, house orgeat, fresh ground nutmeg and big ice. I was about to leave, but was convinced by a new friend, writer Robert Haynes-Peterson, to have one more round, a Pisco Sour variation with a little Angostura art on the foam. Ah…

Dusk now, I hopped on the subway back to Manhattan to look for Milk & Honey in East Village. I really thought I would have figured out the New York speakeasy/hidden bar thing, but Milk & Honey is just about as hidden as it gets. Actually a private club now based in London, Milk & Honey’s New York clientele is only members and by invitation. I wanted to get a few drinks from Sam Ross, the world-class bartender I had met last year at Little Branch. I will refrain from disclosing excessive details about my experience out of respect for the establishment, but also not to ruin the mystique of Milk & Honey if you ever find yourself there. I will say that I found it, the door is somewhere in this photo, waited a good two hours, and got a seat at the bar where Sam made me three fantastic cocktails: 1) Bourbon, Aperol, lemon, Amaro Nonino 2) Gin, Carpano Antica, Bonded Applejack, Chartreuse 3) Bermuda rum, coffee liqueur, egg, cream, nutmeg. Milk & Honey has no cocktail menu, so if you do find yourself there, have a favorite spirit or flavor profile in mind. Yeah, this night couldn’t have gone any better.