In a recent HearSay column (“The Usual,” July 2), we told you about The Usual, a new lounge of sorts opening soon on West Magnolia Avenue a couple of blocks away from the Chat Room Pub, whose co-owner, Brad Hensarling, also is behind The Usual.
Focusing on old-school, Rat Pack-ish libations such as the Cablegram and the Manhattan, the new, 1,900-square-foot space is, like the Cuban-themed Embargo in SoDo, on the cusp of a mega-trend. On Thurs., July 3, a day after the always prescient HearSay’s column on The Usual came out, the Associated Press ran a story with the headline “Bourbon producers see amber-colored future.” Evidently, 14.7 million 9-liter cases of “straight whiskey” sold in the United States last year – according to the Beverage Information Group, a market-research firm dedicated to the liquor industry – a small jump from 2006.
But remember: Small jumps in these harsh economic times are like 50 percent increases. Several big-name brands – Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey, and Wild Turkey – have seen sales skyrocket over the past year. Young consumers, said Max L. Shapira, president of a family-owned liquor company in Bardstown, Ky., called Heaven Hill Distilleries Inc., are going for “their grandfathers’ drinks,” including, no doubt, Cablegrams and Manhattans.
Another probable explanation for the uptick in U.S. whiskey sales is profit. American whiskeys, said F. Paul Pacult, editor of the trade publication Spirit Journal, are still “the best bargain in spirits,” meaning that they’re easy to produce and also give the consumer the most, uh, bang for his buck.
Vodka and rum are still the best-selling kinds of hooch here in the States and aren’t in any danger of seeing their position being usurped by bourbon, either in overall sales or percentages of growth. But sales of Scotch whisky, according to the AP, are now lagging behind those of the American-made stuff for the first time in a long time.
There have always been and will always be joints, here, Big D, or Timbuktu, where you can be served, say, an (appropriately named) Old-Fashioned (3 oz. bourbon, three dashes bitters, half-teaspoon sugar syrup, splash water, half orange peel, maraschino cherry) or some Kentucky Champagne (1 oz. 100-proof bourbon, half-oz. peach liqueur, several dashes bitters, champagne, peach slice). But most bartenders, congenial lads and lasses though they may be, neither know how to nor have time to do all of the stuff necessary to whip up one of your dear old grand-dad’s faves. The Usual’s barkeeps, Hensarling promises, will. – Anthony Mariani
A Texas Classic
Down in Houston-town there’s a place where you might not be able to get a Cablegram or Old-Fashioned lickity split but where you won’t feel like a complete jackass for ordering one. Warren’s Inn is sort of like our J&J’s Hideaway:
If you go in and look closely enough at the dark-brown wooden furniture and fixtures and through the dim candlelight, you might actually spy relatives you thought had died of old age in 1977 looking back at you from inside the dark brown wooden walls. And like JJ’s, Warren’s is where you go with one thing and one thing only in mind: drinkin’. “You don’t watch the game, you don’t pick up chicks,” writes the Houston Press, H-town’s alt-weekly. “You have [the ‘tenders] pour you a stiff cocktail and you put John Lee Hooker on the juke and you smoke a cigarette.”
I had the good fortune of dropping in on Warren’s a couple of weekends ago, and the place in the heart of downtown hasn’t changed at all since last I was there, lo, these many years ago. I had heard or thought I’d heard that, since the downtown explosion in nightclubs, Warren’s had been overrun with douchebags and gold-diggers. Oh, so not true. You’ll find all different types there, just like at JJ’s: lawyers sharing drinks with rockers and mechanics sharing drinks with sorority sisters and everyone having a good time in general.
But as far as there being any chink in Warren’s mighty wooden armor, no way. So what keeps the riffraff out? The kitschy décor? The lack of bottle service? The preponderance of classic C&W and jazz on the juke? Perhaps. But I bet the clientele itself does the job – Warren’s regulars and regular-appreciators aren’t gonna stand for any riffraffery.
A loyal following, I say, is the best bouncer there is. – A.M.
Contact Last Call at lastcall@fwweekly.com.
