SHATFEST - More William Shatner than you can stand

Tonight. Will Not. Be. Your Average Night. At. Forbidden. Island.

At all, actually. Tonight is off the hook! It's SHATFEST,Will the Thrill at Forbidden Thrills monthly movie night at Forbidden Island. We're showing disgustingly fabulous William Shatner movies tonight, and it will be a complete blast! Come and join us for great cocktails full of dramatic pauses!

(Also, I am painted green. Yes, yes, really. Come and see for yourself.)

I'll see YOU at the Island!

--Suzanne

Will the Thrill's SHATFEST

Forbidden Island's Flight to Japan: Humanitarian Aid Benefit

Just had to take a quick moment and tell everyone about the amazing evening Forbidden Island is shaping up to have tonight. We've just finished assembling all of the gift baskets and beautiful donations for our "Flight to Japan" a Humanitarian Aid benefit raising money for the Red Cross for relief efforts in Japan. We are deeply in dept to all of the businesses that stepped up to sponsor our event and donate: St. George Spirits/Hangar One Vodka, Mt. Gay Distilleries Barbados, Effen Vodka, Southern Wine and Spirits, Young's Market Company, The Alameda Cineplex, The Devil-Ettes and Baby Doe, Tiki Oasis and Otto Von Stroheim, Takara Sake, Barceluna, artist MP, Trader Vic's, The Fraternal Order of Moai, and many, many more.

I do have to say, with the silent auction and raffle table spilling over with donations, there isn't a single thing I wouldn't be pleased as punch to take home with me... such gorgeous stuff!

Effen Vodka has made a special event out of our fundrasier and is sending their Effen Flight Girls in 1960s stewardess costumes to mingle with the guests. We're serving Susan Eggett's award winning Sakura Daiquiri all evening long, and 100% of the proceeds are donated directly to Japan Disaster relief.

Well, time to put on my kimono and head back to it! Come over and raise a drink with us, dance to awesome 60s Japanese pop with DJ Sid Presley aka David Greenfield and the Pacific reverb sounds of the Japanese Surf Coasters cover band THE SURF FAUX-STERS, featuring Ferenc from Pollo del Mar, Danny from The TomorrowMen, and Zanti, Abraham and Jonathon from The Deadbeats playing the music of Japan's The Surf Coasters and Eleki (Japanese instrumental) style hits!

I'll see YOU there!

--Suzanne

The Queen's Flip for a rainy Monday

Frequently at The Pad (thepad.us), we drink to the health of the Queen. Actually, we drink to her health about hourly. Which lead us to send her a postcard, actually -- but that's a different story.

Tonight at Forbidden Island, I'm sharing a flip that has been a favorite at The Pad - a cocktail that I've come to call The Queen's Flip - I like them so much that I'd like to keep drinking them, and keep toasting to her health as often as possible. Even more than once an hour!

The flip is made with fresh egg and a premium bourbon. We alternate between the Black Maple Hill Small Batch Bourbon and George Dickel Barrel Select. The addition of fig and blackberry preserves, honey, St. George Absinthe and St. George Aqua Perfecta Raspberry Liqueur makes for one delight of a cocktail.

Join me and Lee Williams this evening at Forbidden Island, as we, Sirens of Mixology, offer up this rich new enchantment, as well as Lee's latest, the Chipotle Margaritayeyayeyaye - featuring the unapologetic St. George Spirits/Hangar One Chipoltle Vodka and their amazing Qi White liqueur.

We'll see YOU there! 5pm!

-- Suzanne

Historic Tuning Temperaments and Classic Cocktails

Interesting thought about cocktails today. Part of the reason that classic and historic cocktails call me is for their history - for the same reason that early music called me. Doing tiki tropicals properly and doing classic and prohibition-era cocktails properly is about taking them on their own terms - understanding them in context. Understanding what they ACTUALLY TASTED like and what the fuss was all about - and recreating them using those tools to recreate the experience. It is precisely the same thing as stringing with gut strings, playing a theorbo, or using a pre-equal temperament tuning. To hear Lully played on period instruments, at the correct pitch and temperament, and with period phrasing is a powerful time machine, as passionate as can be imagined. To taste an Aviation or (other historic classic) with just the perfect measure of violette and maraschino, and the correct sort of gin, will take an interesting and new-to-you cocktail to the WOW place. Lully played by a Wagnerian orchestra just is not the same experience.

It is also important to remember that these things, while taking their lead from understanding their beginnings, can also take on a life of their own. In order to fully understand how to create cocktails based on classics, one must first understand the classics themselves. We have people like Dale DeGroff and Jeff Beachbum Berry to thank for laying the groundwork of our understanding - many tedious long years of tasting questionable experiments have lent themselves to a publishable history - one that I personally am very thankful for! Cocktail innovation is everywhere, and there are many methods to approach such endeavors, but starting with understanding their history and construction, in my approach, is key. One can create a glorious thing by taking a good Aviation, adding a passionate amount of *this* or *that,* and a new cocktail is born. It won't be an Aviation, but some of your most treasured classics have begun this way.

Raise a glass! I'll see YOU there!

-- Suzanne