The Gourmez

Lemontini The Oxford (My Review) Downtown Raleigh $9 The lemontini at the Oxford is made with Absolut citron, limoncello, champagne, and ­sour mix. It wants to be a sophisticated take on the lemon drop, but I must give the lemon drop the edge because this lemontini does not have enough sour citrus to give it [...]

Covington Sweet Potato Vodka Snow Hill, NC 40% ABV With a slogan like “the best yam vodka on Earth,” Covington gets out of my gate with a head start. If you are not a pun enthusiast, that may translate to a 10-second penalty. It’s made in North Carolina and thus qualifies as a local spirit [...]

I have blogged about Charlottesville’s downtown mall before, but the brunch that trip was not so memorable, and Charlottesville is a town that brunches, so I needed to fix that. Most places offer brunch until at least 3 pm on the weekend, and that’s a beautiful, beautiful practice for this late riser. I decided we [...]

Bangkok Fever @ Jujube Glen Lennox, Chapel Hill My Restaurant Review $10 Once again, Jujube proves to me that their cocktail list is second to none in the Triangle. Bangkok Fever’s ingredient list is Thai-chili-infused reposado tequila, passion fruit juice, and cinnamon salt. And it’s amazing. The essential cinnamon salt livens up every sip, playing [...]

Last year, Ben and I spent a weekend in Charlottesville, VA, which I blogged about previously here, here, and here. We happened to pick the weekend a derecho hit the East Coast, which is only relevant to this blog because we got a free hotel stay from that natural disaster. Yay? I use the question [...]

Kahlua Midnight Mexico 35% ABV Kahlua Midnight strikes me as the serious older brother of the regular Kahlua we know and love. It’s a mix of rum and black coffee liqueur, and that appeals to me because I don’t take cream or sugar with my coffee, never mind that it still has sugar in there [...]

Time for another installment of Triangle Foodie Happenings! These are events coming up in the next week that I wish I could make, but hopefully you can! We really do have a ridiculous amount of foodie fun options in this area. Spanish Wine Dinner with Laurence Vuelta at Jujube! 4/30, 7 pm, $47. Jujube’s wine [...]

Meadow of Love Absinthe Superieure Delaware Phoenix Distillery Walton, NY   Let’s be real — Meadow of Love is a very hippie name for a spirit. And let me be realer — hippie names speak my language. I went to college in Santa Cruz, people. I’m not an ideal hippie myself, but the culture is [...]

Double Black Diamond Martini Firebirds Southpoint, Durham $10 This martini doesn’t have a long list of ingredients, but classic martinis never do, subsisting on quality liquor with a personalized touch of what gets the drinker’s juices flowing whether vermouth, blue-cheese-stuffed olives, or cocktail onions. The Double Black Diamond martini is even simpler than that, just [...]

Bahama Breeze Late Night Appetizers & Drinks Bahama Breeze, a chain of island-resort-themed restaurants mainly located on the East Coast with a few Midwest outposts, invited me out to sample a few menu items to promote their new late night appetizer menu. From 9 pm until closing, most of their regular appetizers are now available [...]