Glassaholic: Making a Spherical Ice Cube
April 11, 2015
We have a new toy at the Coal Stove Sink Bar. It melts ice cubes.
The collection (well, maybe 1/3 of it anyway)
New device
Doge says.
Wow. Such ice. So cold. Much tail wag.
From Monaco to Monaco: Alexandria Revisited
April 9, 2015
I’ve been to the Hotel Monaco in Alexandria a bunch. In fact, it is now one of the “home away from home” hotels. This time when I arrived (in the mosquito) I was greeted by the doorman who recognized me (and my car). And so did the people manning the front desk. And so did Matt Hurlburt the GM. Cool beans.
I was assigned a great suite, room 503, which seems to be my usual room now. NPS approves!
Room 508 at the Alexandria Monaco
The room has been spruced up a couple of notches since last visit.
503 sitting room
The non-plastic shower in 503 bathroom is very spacious
Sparkling water and a mini-amentity
As I was finishing up a call with California, an incredibly awesome amenity was delivered by Rae and company. Gotta love the “Shine and Swine.” Just awesome.
Holy cow, look at that, moonshine and charcuterie.
I had a few minutes to catch up with Matt for a cocktail after work (and before heading out for a business dinner at Vermillion). Dinner was workaday at Vermillion. The soup outshone the rockfish.
So implemented @KimptonInDC @Kimpton @LoveTequila pic.twitter.com/HAxHgj2xD8
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) April 8, 2015
Late night was spent at Jackson20 served by barman Andy Nelson. As has become our habit, we had a Sazarac with Sazarac 18 (wow) and some Eagle Rare 17. Great bourbon.
Fantastic visit, five showerheads and some shine.
The Brand New Monaco in Pittsburgh
April 6, 2015
Kimpton has a property in Pittsburgh! Hot damn. And what a property it is. This first visit is going to be way too short. Rob Mallinger and his team are spoiling NPS big time. We approve.
We are in 835, a gorgeous space with high ceilings and lots of room.
Here is a short and silent video tour.
About the only thing we can’t get to work in here is the bluetooth speaker. I guess we could put some music on the android device, but our old school ipod does not speak bluetooth. Oh well.
Birdcage light 835
Door, door, door
The tub is IN the shower in 835. That’s a new one.
While we were busy doing work on the interwebs, Marissa stopped in with a fantastic amentity from downstairs. Marissa was great. Based on her recommendation, we switched around the business dinner plan.
Fruit and cheese, artfully displayed
Of course, best of all was a make it yourself Stranahan’s whiskey-based beverage. The only question I have for barman Josh Holiday is what the bottle says??
Mixology
Rob stuck his nose in for a chat early evening. It’s always fun to talk to people who run hotels for a living. Rob seems to specialize in starting up new properties. This one is great.
What a fantastic welcome to a new Kimpton property. Thanks to the Kimpton team, especially Marissa and Rob.
We were hoping to make it to Butcher and the Rye, but it’s Monday and they are closed. So off to Meat and Potatoes it is. Meanwhile, it’s about time for that Stranahan’s Whiskey.
The report from Meat and Potatoes is that it is a buzzing nice little gastro-pub with good solid food. They are trying hard to make cocktails, but did not register on the “go there” scale. A much better bar is to be found at The Commoner right downstairs at the Monaco. We were served by Bryan Gastaldi who knows his way around the back bar. our experimental beverage was right down the center of the Bell curve (so no need to scribble it down).
Also, where do all the people in Pittsburgh go on Monday night?!
Hilton San Diego Bayfront Hotel
March 25, 2015
The Bayfront Hilton in San Diego has exceeded NPS expectations and set a new record for Hilton goodness. Lets see why.
One view from 2935
The other view from 2935
Getting here on Virgin was very good indeed and a huge step up over united. On time, relaxed, room to work, wifi. You go Virgin.
Seat 3C (the usual) on @VirginAmerica A320. Main cabin select is great. Hey @united, they have wifi. pic.twitter.com/tCryu8c15Y
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 24, 2015
Room 2935 is a hamster cage design, but it has two banks of windows with a gorgeous view of the city. A very nice room indeed.
Windows in 2935
From the door 2935
And the shower is glass. NPS approves.
Hilton has a glass shower.
One of Kimpton’s fun hacks is putting a fish (usually named Walter) in your room for your stay. Hilton is trying to go there by putting virtual fish on the TV. Not quite the same.
And now some good things and bad things about this Hilton.
Real hangers = good
iPod dock = good
Power by bed = good
Water for sale = bad
All in all we’ll give this hotel four showerheads, which is a definite step up for a major chain. Most excellent!
In other San Diego news, El Dorado bar has seriously great cocktails as well as a bunch of antique collection bourbon and rye on hand (real Stagg from multiple years for example). Brionnie Briem made a superb and masterful Sazarac (with Sazarac 18). The experimental cocktail she whipped up was only meh, but hey you can’t have everything!
Experiment
2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
t of fallernum (too sweet!! too sweet!!)
2 dashes Angostura
lemon zest
Lou and Mickey’s is still a great place for a steak. Amazingly, they can handle a group dinner of over 20 without a hitch (perfectly cooked everything). Well done chef!
The secret speakeasy Noble Experiment is an oasis of hip in San Diego. Superb entrance, great skull decor, and best of all seriously good cocktails. My spoiled cocktail geek friends and home brewers all loved it.
We were served by Jesse Ross who was happy to play. Though my friends started with a Nevada (nice to see that on the list), but I went straight for the fun.
Pine and Rye
2 oz sazarac 6 rye
.25 oz sapping (a piney French concoction)
.75 oz Dolin’s dry
heavy dashes of Pernod Absinthe
This drink was so similar to what I have been drinking at home lately (the old 48) that it was a shock! Serve on a big cube with a healthy slice of orange peel. Boozy deliciousness.
Non-cyn Thriller
1.5 oz Whistle pig rye
.75 oz Port
.75 oz Campari
dashes of Chocolate Mole Bitters
We ended the evening with some 2014 George T Stagg. Hotter than the last couple of years, but something unbalanced about it.
The evening was just super fantastic. Do not miss Noble Experiment if you find yourself in San Diego.
Snowed in on National Absinthe Day
March 7, 2015
No driving. No flying. Nine inches of fresh snow. And on top of that, it is national absinthe day. What is to be done?
Create a snow-based absinthe drink! Without further ado, the absinthe snowball
Ta da @LoveTequila @MyAmericanDram @foodiewino712 :
1.5 cups snow: not yellow
2 oz absinthe
1 oz milk
.5 oz vanilla rum
.5 oz s syrup
nutmeg— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) March 5, 2015
The rum is a one year old elixer made of fresh vanilla beans soaked in brown island rum. Like vanilla extract only stronger and rummier.
The absinthe is Swiss.
The milk is 2%.
The nutmeg is fresh ground organic nutmeg.
The snow is not yellow.
Fresh snow. Not yellow.
Shake other ingredients in shaker.
Pour over snow in fancy glass.
Sprinkle liberally with fresh ground nutmeg.
The Absinthe Snowball
Absinthe Snowball
The Umstead in Cary, NC no longer loves NPS to death
February 3, 2015
By now we all know that Cary remains an acronym for “containment area for relocated Yankees,” right? Well, some of the Yankees must be rich. The Umstead is a gem.
The balcony view from 312.
There’s a lake down there somewhere.
Last time I was here, they welcomed me with a nice amenity (chocolates! water! wine!). Why? Who knows. But I am apparently no longer on the list. This time I ordered my own (rather expensive) bottle of sparkling water. We’ll see if they get the memo before my April reservation.
Room 312 is very nice. In particular, the shower rocks.
It’s all about the bathroom in 312
Umstead cubicles. One for the shower. One for the toilet.
That shower. Yes!
Five stars minus an amenity to the Umstead.
The capstone of this visit to NCSU was an over-capacity sold out Cyber War talk. Afterwards, a visit to Fox Liquor bar was superb. What a find. Real cocktails and real expertise. Garrett Waddell exceeded expectations by blending a Manhattan derivative with a (verboten) Blood and Sand. For the record, Scotch is not my thing. But this cocktail was great!
Message in Blood
1.5 oz Aberlour highland scotch
1.5 oz Punt et Mes
bar spoon cherry heering
3 dashes Agostura
Stir down. Serve up. Garnish with an orange twist.
Dinner at Buku was very good. They could use a pass to update their winelist, but the food was very tasty and the service great.
After dinner, we returned to Fox Liquor to round out the night.
Glassaholic: Sexual Chocolate
January 30, 2015
This is a drink discovered in Denver, Colorado at the Williams and Graham bar (quite a fantastic place). This cocktail was invented by Chad Michael George one evening with a gaggle of geeks—a delicious beverage that runs hot and a little sweet with a bitters kicker.
Sexual Chocolate
2 oz Rye (barrel proof)
.75 oz Cocchi Torino vermouth
.5 oz Cynar
teaspoon of cherry liqueur (heering or luxardo)
7 drops chocolate bitters
stir. strain over big cube. add a luxardo cherry on skewer
Dirty Habit Outdoes Self: Cocktails to Travel For
January 16, 2015
The best part of the Palomar Hotel in San Francisco is the masterful bartending of Brian Means at Dirty Habit. Always learn something every time. Thanks Brian. (For you twitter people, see @myamericandram.)
Tonight it was a curry bourbon cocktail on the savory side that was just fantastic. Then a punch. We’ll call it On the Fly:
6 oz pierre ferrand 1840 cognac
6 oz citadelle gin
4 oz pierre ferrand dry curaçao
4 oz lemon juice
4 oz pomelo cordial (pomelo, sugar, jasmine tea)
12 oz prosecco
create. top with shaved cinnamon and black cardamon plus orange slices.
punch! @dirtyhabit by @myamericandram https://t.co/wJdget8t0e
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) January 16, 2015
And there was Hirsch 20. Holy cow.
Special thanks to Christopher Smith for finagling a table during a busy time.
Movin’ On Down: Hotel Palomar in San Francisco
January 15, 2015
Here at NPS we have a long and storied history with the Hotel Palomar. This is our annual base of operations during the RSA show (with thousands and thousands of computer security types). And every time we do a Silicon Valley swing we try to tack on a night in the city. We even fomented the “Battle of the Palomars” between DC, Chicago and San Francisco! Feels like home.
[If there were some fresh flowers, we would put a picture of that here.]
But as GM Christopher Smith points out, “Seems like you have a knack for swinging by mid renovation or mid conference shift :).” Yup! So sadly I am sequestered in 831 instead of in my more favorite room style (which when I walked by was in a state of disarray with furniture being moved around in circles.) In the beginning, I was assigned 904 which sounded about right, but that room had a plastic shower?! Horrors. The situation was quickly rectified by Justin.
The right kind of shower on 831.
Uh oh. This is not a glass shower?! @kimptoninsf hotel palomar forgot the only criteria! Soon 2b rectified @kimpton pic.twitter.com/On0E5PiUDU
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) January 15, 2015
Thanks justin for clearing that up! @KimptoninSF @Kimpton a close one! Shew. pic.twitter.com/yW2JROeKV2
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) January 15, 2015
Anyway, there will be no getting lost in this room! But the Internet works and my phone call filled day is going well. About the only other fly in the ointment is a sentence to have dinner in Pleasanton (or Dublin) at McNamara’s Steakhouse. Woe is us.
The room in all of its entirety. 831 Hotel Palomar.
831 Hotel Palomar. All hail the door!
About the only thing that will salvage tonight is a stop by for some cocktails with Brian Means at Dirty Habits. Looking forward to that!
Five showerheads with less water pressure than they need to properly operate for the Hotel Palomar this time. We’ll be back.
San Francisco Palomar Does it All Right
December 3, 2014
We arrived in San Francisco on a rainy day, delayed three hours so that rush hour was in full swing. 101 was a parking lot. Blerg!
Fresh flowers in room 902
But then we arrived at the Palomar. Palpable relief! Ah. The new lobby is done and it is gorgeous. The front staff had been briefed and greeted us by name. It was all like getting home out of the rain. Chris Smith is running a tight ship.
Sadly, it was all so exciting and rainy that my Bose headphone set never made it out of the back of the cab. But never fear, Bryan was all over it and fixed the problem by magic behind the scenes. Fantastic. Thanks Bryan.
Headphones found
Room 902 is great. Nice roomy space with no plastic in sight in the bathroom. We were greeted with a personal note, fresh flowers (!), and some cheese. Thank you Sara.
Welcome to 902
902 sitting room
902 bedroom
902 bathroom
This shower is not plastic
Not only were the fresh flowers special. The standard Kimpton special touches were also around.
Kimpton special touch (Walter and Not Walter)
Special touch 2: power stations on bedside table
In other SF news, the Crustacean restaurant is OK. Over-rated, but decent. On the other hand, hard water has one of the best “weaponized grain” storage facilities in all of SF. We had flights of Pappy, we had Hirsch 16, we had many antique collection bourbons. Just wow. Our server Erin Rose was knowledgeable and really fun.
Erin from hard water with a bottle of Hirsch 16 (1974)
bourbon at hard water. SF. https://t.co/EfkMGqgaEb
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 3, 2014
Not to be outdone, master barman Brian Means of Dirty Habit had a custom cocktail created and sent up to the room while we were out doing our job. Awesome way to wind down after a conference day.
My favorite part of @KimptoninSF palomar is @MyAmericanDram. Thanks brian. Delicious B-string. pic.twitter.com/wNPMxot3Ko
— noplasticshower (@noplasticshower) December 4, 2014
Without further ado, the B-String:
1.5 oz Pierre Ferronal Cognac
.75 oz East India Sherry
.5 oz Banana liqueur
2 dashes All Spice Bitters
Properly warmed up by the pre-game show, we headed downstairs for dinner and lots of great cocktails at Dirty Habit. Cool new space. Excellent cocktails as always. Mr. Means is still on the sherry roll. Good thing the room was only upstairs!
We even had some of this. Whatever it is!
Thursday night fun was spearheaded by Jacques Bezuidenhout and joined by a motley crew of affiliated pranksters. We started with a trip to the Anchor Steam brewery christmas party. The anchor steam people also have a distillery with an upstairs patio bar. Lots of great rums including the Blue Penny brand and No 3 gin. Cocktail people are really fun to party with.
Blue Penny rum (batch 1 and batch 2)
Jacques stepped into his natural element behind the bar and crafted a gin and tonic after the extensive rum tasting.
Jacques makes a G&T
Rosemary
Then it was off to Tommy’s for a late rendez-vous with the dinner crew. Tommy’s is just fantastic. Warm, friendly, tequia, what more do you want? We were briefly joined by AT from Partida.
Dinner a deserted Aziza was very good indeed. We had the place mostly to ourselves. Food was great.
Then a dive bar for Fernet and a bleary-eyed walk across the street to have a last Liberal. Somehow we misplaced an unused Friday completely.
Five showerheads and an alcohol-soaked cleaning rag for this trip to the SF Palomar. Fantastic.
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