"lenell smothers" news and stories

I began bartending many moons ago when hardly anyone had heard of a cocktail competition. I've judged a few, but only ever competed in one, so I sometimes feel quite old when the young whipper snapper bartenders boast how many competitions they've won.

My initial training in Birmingham, Alabama came from a bartender who used to take me to T.G.I. Friday's so I could see how the "serious bartenders" worked. The flashy, bottle flingin' bartenders there competed to see who had the best flair -- and I'm not just talking about the number of decorative stick pins and message buttons on their suspenders. Friday's actually held the first ever "flair bartending competition" in the mid 1980's, inspired by one of their pourers who had a knack for juggling bottles. A few years later, they held the first world championship bartending competition. Fun fact: The winner trained Tom Cruise for the movie Cocktail.

Flair competitions now occur worldwide with large liquor company sponsorship. However, the cocktail competition world has also taken a turn towards actual mixing talent and not just showmanship. Perhaps the Japanese culinary show Iron Chef (with a cult US following) is partially to blame for the rise in competitive drink mixing.

For years whiskey lovers like me have begged the big bourbon distilleries to bottle their unaged whiskey. Sometimes when taking a tour, the distilleries will allow you to taste the spirit right off the still. This fiery, high-proof liquor destined to be bourbon cannot legally be called bourbon until it hits the new charred oak barrel. Up to that time, you'll hear it called a variety of things: white dog, new make spirit, bourbon distillate. You won't hear the distiller call it moonshine.

The term moonshine supposedly goes back to a time when folks avoiding liquor authorities made their booze by the light of the moon. This illicit spirit has also been called mountain dew (yes, now you understand the soda reference) and white lightning. For some reason, though, the term "moonshine" has a romantic, naughty ring to it that reminds you of two strappin', good lookin' country boys in a souped-up orange car called The General Lee helping out poor ole moonshinin' Uncle Jesse. I guess this sexy outlaw connotation is why so many in the press these days are using the term moonshine incorrectly to refer to legal unaged spirit made by licensed distilleries. Moonshine ain't legal and is often made from granulated sugar and not even grain.

If you drowned your sorrows at the local bar, should you bike home?

In court it all boils down to how a state defines a vehicle. Many states consider a bicycle a vehicle, so the argument follows that drinking and driving laws should apply to cyclists the same as drivers of motor vehicles. While most states require bikers to follow the same road rules as motor vehicle drivers, we have all seen cyclists riding without signaling for turns, riding against the flow of traffic, and riding through stop signs and red lights. Add several beers, a couple of glasses of wine, or a few martinis to that scenario, and danger potential increases.

The response from many people is, "Well, at least they're not driving." True, the impact of a heavy vehicle under the control of a drunken driver can be more severe than a mere bike -- but public safety for everyone on the road is still a main concern of all law enforcement agencies. The California Highway Patrol has had enough fatal bike collisions from BWI that they have begun cracking down on cycling under the influence. Drunken biking is significant enough an issue in Sacramento that the highway patrol was awarded a grant to enforce traffic laws for bicyclists. Recently cops charged seven riders with drinking and biking in one night.

No matter how "gourmet" you might consider yourself, at some point in your life you've probably filled your face from a can of commercial whipped cream. Now you can do it all adult-like (or not) with the world's first alcohol-infused whipped cream, Whipped Lightning.

Lightning is the most appropriate term for this grain-alcohol–infused product. A total of eight flavors (a natural and artificial combo) are offered to top your desserts, drinks and body parts. You can't expect real amaretto for $10 a 375ml can, but you will find amaretto flavor in addition to orange, spiced vanilla, white chocolate raspberry, cinnamon, tropical passion, coconut and macadamia.

Created by some wild and crazy guys from Atlanta, Ga., Whipahol (as they affectionately call it on the website) flavors weigh in at a hefty 36.5 proof. You might think alcohol, whipped cream and nitrous oxide is the perfect product for underage antics. However, the creators have opted for Whipped Lightning to be considered solely an alcohol product, not an FDA-regulated food product, so get your identification ready at the check out counter.

You'd think standard bar glass sizes exist to keep our lives simple. The reality is that every vessel from the wine glass to the shot glass ranges in capacity. You'd think a shot glass is a shot glass, but you might find a standard squat shot glass holding one and a half ounces and a tall skinny one holding more than two ounces. Apparently all shots are not equal unless you use a jigger to fill the glass.

The marketing of wine glasses by Austrian crystal company Riedel (pronounced to rhyme with needle) taught us that rolled edges on the lip of a glass make the liquid fall into the mouth in a clunky way. Taste tests show over and over that many folks prefer the flavor of a beverage from a smooth, polished edge. For some reason, this makes drinking anything a more pleasant experience from the softer feel on the lips to the better taste on the tongue.

Even with a fine wine glass company like Riedel, a red wine glass is not a red wine glass. You can purchase a stemless glass holding 20 ounces all the way up to the Sommeliers Burgundy Grand Cru stem, the world's largest wine glass, at 37 ounces capacity. In 1960 this fish bowl of a glass was placed in the permanent design collection of New York City's Museum of Modern Art.