Wednesday Weekend Wind-Up: Absinthe Makes the Heart Grow Fonder

My buddy Todd came down to visit last weekend; it's hard to believe it's been over 4 years since I've seen him! We'd both done a spot of research to see what all we wanted to do, and we decided to just spend the afternoon bar-hopping.  We started with The Video Archive, a video store inspired by Quentin Tarantino...it's actually a speakeasy/bar obscured by a 'hidden' door.

This was my first visit to a speakeasy, and the entrance wasn't as secretive as I thought it might be. It was kind of just right in the middle of the "video store". I guess it was kind of effective though in that we pulled up and Todd thought we were at the wrong place because he thought it was a bookstore or something, haha.

We decided to just share a drink, so we had the Jacob's Hanzo Steel.

It was fine but definitely heavy on the ginger beer if you're a fan of that.  Overall, it was a neat place with a fun theme - perfect if you're a Quentin Tarantino fan!

Next, we headed across the river to The Party Source because Todd was looking for some specialty tequila. What better place to look than the largest alcohol store in America?!

Lucky for us, they were doing tastings for their Christmas in July Sampler, so we definitely made use of that!

Next, we went to Myrtle's Punch House.

I had Emma's Punch, which definitely tasted of Sparkling Wine. Todd had the Mango Tango, which he said definitely tasted of bourbon [I am not a bourbon fan at all, so I'm glad I didn't end up choosing this one]. It was ~$5 for each cup of punch or you can buy a bowl of punch for the table.

Finally, we went to what I thought was the best place, Sundry and Vice.  This place had many cocktails that I would like to try; however, I didn't see Foxglove, the drink I had spotted on the menu back at home and planned to order.

Todd was nice enough to go up and inquire about it at the bar, and it turns out they had all the ingredients to make it. He came back with it and said it would be pretty minty. I took one sip, and all I could taste was licorice! Turns out that's the absinthe. I wasn't 100% sure that this was my first time trying absinthe, and it looks like I have had it before at Red Feather.

Todd was starving by this point, and he'd had his heart set on J. Gumbo's since they had long since closed down the Lafayette location of this Cajun-Creole chain, so we swung by there on the way home.

Here's hoping I don't have to wait another 4 years to see my Lafayette buddy again!