french riveria & parlez-vous
Now, I’m usually a Grain Belt gal, but Seen Your Video is coupled with a shot of bourbon and I wanted to remember my first experience to La Belle Vie. While Grain Belt goes down like water, I can’t say the same for bourbon. And, really, I can grab a Grain Belt any old time from my own fridge (and the shot of bourbon, for that matter, that is left over from Jen’s eggnog recipe…yu-um.) My second favorite drink is cava…bubbly, Spanish, fancy…la quiero un montón. Almost Last Call is a “glass of cava, served with a shot of whatever you want, with a far side bev-nap.” Again, with the shots. I just haven’t mastered the shot…except…for…tequila. I like tequila. It likes me. But I didn’t want to shoot it (as much as I would have liked to have read the far side bev-nap.) I wanted to relish in the entire La Belle Vie experience with a cocktail. I quickly scanned the menu for a tequila-based beverage…. “French Riviera….reposado margarita with a touch of green chartreuse”…intrigued…a margarita…from France? And not just France-France…French Riviera France!? Margaritas usually evoke images of guacamole and confetti-littered beds. Margaritas are for sipping pool-side in Mexico. Margaritas are so…not…French. So I thought. Well, I’ve had margaritas that are too limey..too sweet…too tart…and, well, too tequila-y. But this drink was smooth…like the bikini lines on the French Riviera. This is due in part to the reposado tequila…nice and mellow. No Cuervo here (I bet that doesn’t even exist at La Belle Vie). While I knew my reposado…I wasn’t real familiar with chartreuse other than the brilliant color it is. Well, I found out that chartreuse is distilled under the supervision of monks from the Grande Chartreuse monastery in France. How can those gentle men NOT produce a beautiful and gentle liqueur? I’ll be back for another french riviera before Cinco de Mayo rolls around. Yo te lo prometo.
I kept with the French theme and moved on to Parlez-vous…raspberry vodka, pineapple juice and cava topped with orange-passionfruit foam. I have studied Spanish for years and so the French language has always befuddled me. I want to pronounce every single *%$#@! letter. They seem to add “eaux” and “lles” just to make words look more beautiful, I swear. Do you hear all those letters? No. Are they necessary? Probably so. Does it make the word look pretty? Most definitely. (case in point: mille feuillles-looks AND tastes magnifique!) I watched Johnny spiral the most perfect curly-q orange peel garnish and lay it gingerly off the side of the glass…voilà, i whispered…Do you eat the garnish? No. Does it add flavor to the drink? Probably. Does it make it look pretty? Most definitely. The orange-passionfruit foam was tasty, but breaking through the foam to the vodka/pineapple juice/cava mixture was purely delightful. It danced across my tongue (most likely the cava) in the most refreshing mix of flavors. I saved the raspberry for one last explosion of flavors. With the last sip, I could feel myself shedding Spanish Raquel for French Rachelle…Parlez vous? A few more of these and I’ll parlez vous français all night long. Au revoir, mes cheris …
guest drinker Rachel