Fit to Be Mai-Tai'ed

It's kind of a statement when you feel confident enough to give away your recipe on the back of the cup. But as you can see from the photo above, that's precisely what Bluewater Grill does with its spot-on Captain's Mai Tai. Of course part of that is they want to tout their new product, Catalina Rum Company. The name is a nod to the rum-running days of Prohibition (how easy it is now for us to romanticize that unfortunate era, no?); Bluewater teamed up with R6 Distillery in El Segundo to craft both a dark and a light rum from molasses and cane sugar. While I didn't taste them on their own, they do mix really well, and they clearly are meant to sell, at MSRPs of $34.50 for the dark, $24.50 for the light (750ml bottles).

Note even the conveyance for the Mai Tai isn't a fancy tiki mug but a more working class enameled tin cup, perfect for keeping the drink frosty even on a toastier summer day. (Of course you can buy the cups on their own or with some of the rum--Bluewater didn't build a chain of locations not pleasing its customers.) The straightforward Bluewater Mai Tai wisely includes the dark rum not just as a float but in the mix, so you never get to the spot of the drink where it's all the less vigorous light rum and lime juice. I've had too many a Maui poolside Mai Tai that is wonderful for those first eleven-and-a-half sips, and then the rest seems like something watered down and served to the pirate captain's least favorite matey. You can even write the drink off as a salad, with the fresh chunk of pineapple, the orange, and the cherry awaiting to be devoured.

If you prefer to devour more food, Bluewater's got you covered there too, of course. Try to stop by during Happy Hour, quite a deal for firecracker shrimp "tacos" in lettuce cups (once again, you get to indulge and feel a mite righteous with each salady bite) for 8 bucks or a classic white wine, garlic, lemon, parsley bowl of steamed clams, probably Manila based on their petite yet meaty size, for 12 bucks. You will wish for more bread.

Cheers to Bluewater for continually providing an experience of food and drink that matches their wonderful views at the foot of Stearns Wharf.

Home Is Where the Happy Hour Is

(Hey, please forgive our messy house in these photos--I mean, who should we be cleaning for?)

You miss your friends. We miss our friends. Heck, we even miss the people who aren't friends but just the regulars in your life, the woman who knows how many salsa cups to give you at El Zarape, the guy who never forgets that you work at UCSB, so you get that teacher-student-staff discount at Lazy Acres on Thursdays even without flashing your employee ID.* We miss 'em all.

But our friends the most, so like many of you we're doing Zoom happy hours. It's not perfect, but the faces and laughter are still the same. And now we can't even cross talk, so that focus on a single discussion is intriguing too.

I imagine many people who bother to read something called George Eats come more for word two than word one, which is why I like you all. And sure enough, that one circle of friends I'm writing about now, we're very food and drink centered--some of them even make their own very delicious garage wine. So we wanted to figure out how to share more senses than sight and sound for our Happy Hours.

To do that, Chryss and I opted to go first in this group of four couples (including us). I ordered with trusty Bob Wesley at Meritage--hooray he's got a spot to sell wine again! in the same spot as the last spot, too, if you haven't been. He had the bad fortune to open the weekend of March 7, which we might as well think of as Coronavirus Eve. Not great timing. But he's still open, and if you order and let him know you're on the way, he'll dash to the curb with your purchase. Lots of 15-minute green curb parking there on Anapamu that's not getting used with few reasons to wander downtown anymore. Easy peasy.

We got four bottles of Chapoutier 2017 Bila Haut Cotes de Roussillon, a steal at 14 bucks per. A blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan, it has surprising depth for the price, with dark blackberry fruit. As Jeb Dunnuck put it, "It's seamless, elegant, and balanced, with both acidity and richness. Put this in a blind lineup of Northern Rhônes and shock your friends." The lineup wasn't blind (we made sure each house knew we'd be leaving a bottle at their doorstep, which we did wearing gloves), but everyone was thoroughly pleased, and drinking the same thing.

We also got the idea that you need some cheese with that wine. C'est Cheese is still open, taking orders online and by phone in advance. Then, you call just before you show up and they meet you at the door with your goodies. Even better they're doing a special $5 chunk of mystery cheese, something that might not be selling fast enough, but it's one of their curated cheeses, so you know it will be delicious. We asked for four of the same mystery cheese orders that would go well with a syrah-blend from the Rhône, so, again, each house would have the same bites with the Bila Haut. Each came wrapped separately.

They wound up choosing Oma, so the hills were alive with the taste of slightly stinky soft cow cheese. It comes from Jasper Hill Farm in Vermont, and is owned by the Von Trapps. Yep, there are real ones who made it all the way across the Alps to New England. Rumor has it they were chased by Julie Andrews. They make one yummy cheese, though, one you can ruminate over, with its tart rind and creamy center.

Happy Hour, even distanced, just got a lot more delicious.

(Note: both Meritage and C'est Cheese even deliver locally, if you order enough, etc. Call Meritage [(805) 845-0777] or check out C'est Cheese's website.)

*And yes, both El Zarape and Lazy Acres are still open, but we're doing our best to isolate, so have only been once to each in the past 4 weeks.