(on Thurs, I will be done with grad night-school for a month or so. reason to party. help me find some reasonable watering holes) My favorite drink is a Rusty Nail. I’ve ordered it everywhere, been served all sorts of scotch/drambouie ratios, and I’ve paid all kinds of prices. It’s been a fun experiment (ongoing, actually), but I’d really rather just buy that drink from the few places that offer a generous pour for the least irksome price.
Here are my findings thus far (as best I can recall):
- Avalon: $7.25 (average sized, but liquors in proportion)
- Bogarts: $5.25 (medium sized for a small price)
- Bacchus: $7.75 (not quite big enough for that price)
- The White Dog: $6.50 – $8.25 (I’ve ordered several here, so the price might be going down as I teeter on ‘regular’ status)
- Can Can: $9-10 (it’s at least a double serving)
- !Caliente!: $7 (a disappointing thimble-full that still packed a punch)
- Mezzanine: $8-10.50 (first time, it was $8 and second time it was $10.50 – neither time very generous)
- Verbena: $7 (not small. no complaints, except they served it to me as a martini the first time).
That Bogarts price may have been a slip up. The bartender seemed a little new. Can Can seems like the big winner, due to quantity (although a little too much emphasis on client appearance – prefer dark holes in the wall). Most Richmond restaurant bars don’t have Drambouie and therefore can’t make a Rusty Nail (probably because they serve mostly 20-something PBR fiends). But I love it when a bartender agrees to try and approximate the drink (an experiment that I enjoy at home, since the liqueur is really steep at the ABC store). So, if you know of a place in Richmond that’s worth adding to my search, or maybe even a bartender to ask for by name, please speak up. JGF shout-outs are permitted. His place has FREE chips’n’salsa, which puts it on my list of eventual destinations (although I don’t prefer to jump through hoops for a $7-10 drink). How about favorite scotches to go in a Rusty Nail? Whatever you’ve got to say, it’s sure to add to my rebound from academia.
Looking forward to that bev. Oh, and please be nice in the comments. Drama doesn’t make a drink taste better, in my opinion.
No advice here – with two little kids there’s not a lot of bar hopping going on around here. But I feel ya on two fronts: 1) Yay for Thursday and a month off from grad school! (Hubby’s in the same boat.) 2) The VA ABC system can bite me. Their prices are so high and at many locations their variety sucks! We try to buy our hooch in MD when we visit family. (We need it after visiting that crew!)
This is a fun experiment, thanks!
Got an email from the prof tonight extending the due date of my paper until Sunday. Eff that. I’m handing the prof his/my walking papers on Thursday, as planned. Stayed up late finishing my work. Too late to make last call at Bamboo (aren’t they the latest to close the bar?). I’ll just have a sip of brandy before bed. Rusty Nail research begins in 19 hours. Who’s buyin?
I would love to buy you one!! Congrats on finishing the semester. You are one of the few people I know that#1 has heard of a rusty nail, and #2 has tried them. I haven’t had them in ages (don’t know why they used to be a standard). I got them at Penny Lane, but that was like 10 years ago. They used to be how my father would initiate potential daughter/son in-laws into the family. Sadly some did not fair too well.