Happy Hour At The Velvet Tango Room

Having started a new consulting position in Cleveland recently, I find myself on a very tight schedule with regard to when I leave in the morning. If I am running more than ten or fifteen minutes late, that can mean the difference from slowed, but continuous driving to the start-and-stop traffic that I personally find annoying. Additionally, if I grab something quick for lunch and take it back to my desk and eat it, I can leave early enough in the afternoon that I can enjoy a stress-free drive home.

Sadly, this gives me much fewer opportunities at lunchtime to explore the restaurant scene around my client. I decided that on one day per week, usually Friday, I would take a lunch break and go someplace local. However, in doing so, that means I would be leaving one hour later, and trust me when I tell you that trying to leave downtown Cleveland via the freeway at 5:00 PM on a Friday afternoon can be simply a horror story if you don't enjoy sitting in traffic.

My very first Friday working at my client, I decided to skip the aggravation of the fully packed freeway and instead of trying to head away from downtown Cleveland, I would go to the very belly of the beast and embrace the Happy Hour at the Velvet Tango Room. I have written about the Velvet Tango Room twice before and now that I am employed again, it seemed like a wonderful way to welcome the weekend as well as wait out the traffic. As a bonus, I had the opportunity to sample two new drinks that will be showing up on the official VTR menus come early June, so consider part of this review to actually be a preview, if you will.

Besides giving you the scoop on several of the drinks on the new menu, I was also happy because I was meeting up with some friends, both old and new. And as it turned out, we not only got to sample some of VTR's delicious beverages, but also their food. I arrived shortly after 5:00 PM and even though the bar was still pretty empty, I was warmly greeted as I took my seat at the expansive mahogany bar opposite the front door. As I sat down, the bartender, Hillary, recognized me from my previous visit two weeks ago. She asked me if I wanted to see a menu and I indicated that I was interested in something from the upcoming menu. Having discovered that I actually do like gin-based drinks when poured and mixed properly, I was feeling no fear when asking her to make a selection for me. The only restriction, I told her, was that I prefer my drinks to be on the drier (i.e. less sweet) side.

"How about a bourbon drink?"
"Absolutely."

My bartender proceeded to mix a combination of Bulleit Bourbon, St. Germain Elderberry Liqueur, fresh lime juice, Falernum, and a few dashes of bitters into the stainless steel shaker along with some cubed ice. The Falernum, as Paulius put it, gives this cocktail it's characteristic "Creole spiciness." A quick shake back and forth and the now chilled liquid was strained into a martini glass. Here was The Ninth Ward:


This was a delicious and refreshing way to begin my evening tonight. Each of the ingredients could be tasted on their own and yet as a sum total, they mixed together so nicely. As with all of the drinks I've had at VTR, this one was superbly balanced. My first friend arrived just after having been served The Ninth Ward, and after I let him taste mine, he insisted on having the exact same thing.

Next up was a cocktail that I have had a few times before, but never written about, The Last Word:


I thought that the Aviation had been my all-time favorite cocktail at VTR until I tried this remarkable concoction. Where the Aviation had been a combination of gin, fresh lemon juice, and Maraschino liqueur, The Last Word was a slight variation consisting of gin, fresh lime juice, and Chartreuse. As with the Aviation, the taste was crisp and clean, but The Last Word brought an extra level of sophistication to the party. It's as if the Aviation were simply a gateway drink to something more grandiose. It was during this cocktail that our third party member showed up. When the fourth finally showed, we moved from the bar to a four-top table just across the room.

As we sat down, we cool feel the gentle cooling breeze blowing in from the open front door. At this point, all introductions had been made, the four of us were enjoying the end of another work week as well as some fine cocktails when someone spoke up about ordering some food. The only other food I had ever had at VTR was during the special Bar DeVille visit in October 2009. I knew that some of the food that VTR sold was of a pre-cooked / pre-prepped variety, but since everyone else seemed to be hungry, I went along for the ride.

We decided to order two plates of food. The first of which was a fruit, cheese, and cracker plate:


The cheeses consisted of Tillemook Cheddar, Gouda, and what one of the bartenders, Rick, described as a Amish yogurt cheese. There were both water and rice crackers available as well as fresh grapes, dried apricots and cranberries, and toasted almonds. We greedily devoured the entire plate and were even supplied with additional crackers when our supply ran low.

The other plate we ordered was speck on bread:


Speck is a cured pork product that unlike prosciutto, is de-boned before curing. After being cured in salt and various spices, it is then cold-smoked. What you end up with is what we were served today on the plate: luscious slices of cool pork served atop whole wheat bread and adorned with a slightly sweet, slightly piquant mustard. For just a bit of acid to help balance out the fattiness from the pork, a small dish of cornichon was also served.

Having finished both plates of food in what seemed like only a matter of minutes, I decided to finish out my evening tonight at VTR with an old favorite, a Tango Negroni:


What differentiated a Tango Negroni from the conventional was that in place of the sweet vermouth, VTR's own wine reduction was used. I find that the Tango Negroni balances out the bitterness of the Campari much better than standard vermouth. Instead of an overwhelming bitter orange flavor, you get a slight sweetness to the drink as well. And while the Tango Negroni was not new for the summer like The Ninth Ward and The Last Word were, sometimes it is nice to come back to an old friend now and again just to rediscover how good it always was.

Fully relaxed and sated from food, drink, and great conversation, we paid the check and disbanded into the cool Cleveland night. I had not only successfully managed to avoid the Friday afternoon traffic, but also had the opportunity to try out some wonderful new cocktails at the Velvet Tango Room. To make a great time even better, because we had gone for Happy Hour (which ended at 7 PM), all of the drinks were 1/3 off. I knew that whatever stressors my previous week had brought me, I could at least start the weekend off on the right foot.

Julie and Julia: The Road Not Taken

My only real exposure to Julia Child growing up was on PBS. It wasn't the groundbreaking television show produced in the early 1960's entitled, The French Chef. It was her later work, after she had firmly entrenched herself into the consciousness of the American culinary psyche. While I knew that she had written many books, I didn't even know that she wasn't the only author of her seminal work, Mastering the Art of French Cooking.

So it was with great enthusiasm that I learned that a movie was to be made about Julia Child. Well, sort of. The movie would also feature the real-life story of Julie Powell, a post 9/11 government worker who was convinced that she lacked direction in her life. The hype amongst my foodie friends and colleagues had been strong for quite some time. Even before going to see the movie, I had already been invited to a dinner party where all the guests were asked to bring a version of their favorite Julia Child recipe from one of her cookbooks. I was reluctant to admit that I don't even own a single Julia Child cookbook. I had to go down to the public library in order to conduct my research on the recipe I would be using.

Deciding that it would serve my best interest to inspire me for the dinner party, I chose to catch a matinee of Julie & Julia the other day. At a little over two hours, the film wasn't short by any stretch of the imagination. But once the story got moving, I never once had the need to look at my watch again. In fact, when the movie ended, I was almost disappointed that it was over. I had connected with the movie so powerfully and enjoyed the ride so thoroughly that I entertained the idea of returning to the ticket booth and buying another ticket for the next showing just to relive the experience.

Having had a couple of days to sit on my feelings, I began to realize that what connected me so completely to both the Julia and Julie characters was the sense of a kindred spirit. While I've spent nearly a decade and a half in my current career, I began growing apart from my love of working as a computer programmers over the last couple of years. I also have known for some time now what makes me happy. Food. Talking about it, making it, creating it, sharing it, writing about it, and of course most importantly, eating it. But I've not found a way to transform one career into another. As I stated in another blog entry I wrote prior to leaving for the Kansas City trip I took several weeks ago, the process of writing, creating something from nothing, has allowed me to tap into parts of my brain that I wasn't entirely sure were still functioning all that well.

When I saw Julia and Julie succeed, I was re-energized to succeed even more. I wanted what they now had, the security of knowing you could pay the bills while at the same time pursuing their respective endeavors. Part of me realized that perhaps the reason I haven't decided to jump in with both feet and change careers so completely was that I am not ready to choose what that next career will be. Do I want to be a cook? Do I want to be a writer? Do I want to run a restaurant? Ironically, these are all questions that others have asked me over the years and quite frankly, I've asked myself repeatedly. I just don't know that I have a good answer yet.

Along the way I've met some remarkable people who have recognized merit in my work. While I know that these individuals don't dole out gold stars to just anyone, I still feel cautious when accepting their compliments. Not because I doubt their sincerity or credibility, but because I doubt my own sense of growth and accomplishment. Whether I'm making a loaf of fresh bread or writing about it, how do I know that what I am producing is laudable?

As Julia said so many years ago in one of her television broadcasts, one must have "courage of conviction." I suppose that part of that courage is knowing that you aren't going to please everyone. No matter what your life's endeavor is, there will always be lovers and haters. To me, conviction seems to truly be the heart of the issue. Being self-aware that what you decide to do is true to who you are and that it can always be improved upon. The courage to not be afraid of waiting for my next failure to happen; or worse, that the failure is such a catastrophic event that one can't recover from it. That fear has always paralyzed me to some degree. Successful people are primarily successful because they are able to keep this fear in check and not let it derail their efforts.

Unlike most Hollywood films with overly saccharin endings, Julie & Julia ended as it did in real life for both women: a successful start in a new career that they felt passionate about. To be honest, in the end that is really all I am after, too. While I am passionate about technology and how it can better our lives, I seem to have lost my passion for all of the little nitty gritty details on which I built my initial career.

I realize that everyone who goes to see Julie & Julia will come away with their own interpretation of the story and how it relates to the journey that they have taken so far, but for me it has only reinforced the notion that what I am doing here, writing, even if deemed unimportant by all others, is important to me. As I've come to discover, passion isn't something that you can will into existence. You either have it or you don't. So I think now is a good time for me to live up to my courage of conviction and be passionate about the very thing that makes me the happiest.