Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Strange deals

In recent months, JK, the boss down at my local, 12 Square Metres, has been getting 'creative' in his attempts to induce me to drink even more.


Yes, he's been dreaming up quirky drink combinations with amusing names, and pimping them at an enticing discount.

For some time, these have been unofficial 'specials', off menu, only available to those in the know, the regulars.  (Well, I'm not sure that anyone other than me has ever ordered any of them so far!)  But now.... he's set to launch a new, greatly expanded menu which will advertise these liver-busting bargains to the world at large.


The first of these bizarre combos was the Boag's'n'Roses - a bottle of James Boag's, the fine Tasmanian lager, accompanied by a chaser of the cheap but extremely palatable Four Roses bourbon.  (I've indulged in quite a few of these.  With the discount, it does represent the best alcohol-per-kuai value in the bar.)  In fact, since I'm rather partial to both drinks, I think I had serendipitously created the combination before it was ordained as a 'special'.  JK was much taken with the verbal reminiscence of Guns'N'Roses, the fine rock band who often feature on the bar's playlist (well, not often enough...), and also of 'bogan' - which is Aussie slang for 'white trash' (something I hadn't previously known).

Then JK came up with his 'Czech yourself before you wreck yourself' (which is apparently inspired by a rap song by Ice Cube - but I'm not familiar with that genre), an inspiration which may require an update to this Urban Dictionary entry - a bottle of the strong Czech lager Budvar followed by a slug of absinthe (although he's been out of Czech absinthe for a while and has had to substitute a French brand).  This is one to be approached with extreme caution.... and then backed away from again.

And his latest brainwave has been inspired by the fact that 12SqM is one of the few bars in town to carry all five varieties of Johnnie Walker whisky.  The colours of the labels correspond, more or less, to those of the rings on the Olympic flag - red, black, green, gold (well, yellow), and blue.  Hence we have a 'Johnnie Walker Olympics' if you want to try all five back-to-back.  JK is thinking of calling this his 'Special Olympics', since, as he says, "You drink that, and you will be disabled by the end of it."   
[Actually, my mate The Choirboy claims the copyright on this one, since he has discussed the idea with me a number of times this year.  Indeed, I think the pair of us probably did complete the 'Special Olympics' at the late, lamented Tryst one blurry night back in February...  JK, however, insists that he came up with the concept independently.]

1 comment:

Froog said...

The Boags'n'Roses combo was soon torpedoed by the vagaries of supply in Beijing: first, Boag's lager was discontinued by its distributor, and very shortly afterwards Four Roses bourbon disappeared (although its replacement as the city's default budget bourbon, Fighting Cock, is arguably a bit nicer, and quite a bit stronger).

For a while, we were having to substitute another Tazzy lager, Cascade, for the James Boag's, and accompanying it with a slug of Fighting Cock. Then the Cascade was likewise dropped from the distributor's stock list.

Perhaps just as well, because even I was slightly embarrassed to ask for a Cascading Cock.