brute nature
100 million Americans make New Year’s Resolutions every year. Me? I’m not big on resolutions. The cynic in me thinks there is no more sense in making a New Year’s Resolution than there is in making a third Thursday resolution. I know someone is trying to make money off those optimistic resolution makers — be it Snap Fitness, Lean Cuisine or Nicorette — and refusing to take part in the resolution game is my small way of sticking it to The Man.
But this year I joined the masses of other Americans and made a resolution of my own: In 2012 I resolve to have no more than one drink when I go out. When I told my friends of my goal they had a lot of questions and raised many potential loopholes and caveats. For example, what if I’m at a street fair all day? (Though I have never been to an all-day street fair, this was a big concern of Marie’s.) What if we go to dinner but our table isn’t ready so we have a drink at the bar first but then want a bottle of wine with dinner? What if it’s “just” beer? What if it’s 2-4-1 happy hour? I considered each “what if” scenario raised but finally decided the only way to do this was to have a hard and fast rule with no exceptions. Though I am generally a shades-of-grey kind of girl and not big on black-and-white, making this resolution black-and-white seemed the only way to make it work. No exceptions. No caveats. No excuses.
So when Marie and I set off to get our La Booze Vie band back together, I did so knowing I would have only one drink that night. The drink list had been recently updated with the Christmas-themed cocktails no longer on the menu, having been dragged to the curb like so many dried out balsam firs. I debated between the Poor Richard’s Cup and the Brute Nature, finally settling on the latter after deeming the former to be too similar to my own signature cocktail of late (the bourbon-with-apple-cider-topped-with-a-splash-of-ginger-ale-garnished-with-a-slice-of-clementine-since-I-never-have-oranges….I’m still working on the name).
When Johnny set TWO glasses in front of me — one of cognac and maraschino brandy and a separate glass of cava — I balked. “What is this?” I asked. Johnny explained that this is how the Brute Nature is served. True, the menu clearly sates that the cognac is “paired with” cava, yet somehow when I read the menu I interpreted that as “topped with” cava. I couldn’t decide what to do. It was only four days into 2012 and I wasn’t ready to throw my resolution to the wind just yet. I had to at least outlast the 55% of other Americans who can make it through the month of January with their resolutions intact. But Johnny assured me that though poured into two glasses, this is one drink.
I demurred, but was finally swayed by the reasoning that this was no different than if you were to pour one bottle of beer into two glasses (a “what if” scenario that none of my friends had thought of). Giving in proved to be a good decision, as the cognac and maraschino brandy was delicious; intense and fierce like a late-spring tornado, followed by the soothing rain of sparking cava.
So though I drank out of two glasses that night, I only had one drink. 2012 ain’t got nothing on me.
Lush Jen