Category: Drinking

The 300s Top 10 Blogs of 2020

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2020 was a weird year to say the least. Remember when we literally had no sports to watch except for Korean baseball at 5 AM? Thankfully the sports leagues figured it out as some simply removed fans and resumed play as normal like the PGA Tour whereas others created full on bubbles like the NBA and NHL. We also had some tasty pop culture blogs sprinkled in throughout the quarantine so buckle up you’re in for a treat. Without further ado, I present The 300s Top 10 Blogs of 2020.

10.) Must Watch SNL Skit: Pete Davidson Raps a “Stan” Remix for Santa Clause

9.) Blog Favorite Comedian Daniel Sloss is Doing a Live “Day Drink With Dan” This Saturday and It’s Exactly What It Sounds Like

8.) Billy Beane is Reportedly Finally Coming to Work at Fenway…to Build John Henry’s Soccer Empire

7.) The XFL is Recruiting a Massive Free Agent: Guy Fieri

6.) A List of the Top Tom Brady Documentaries, Cameos, and Skits to Watch While Self Quarantining

5.) Dale Arnold Just Got Bagged Dressing Like a Mannequin On Live TV

4.) The Bruins Drunken Zoom Call With the 2011 Team is the Quarantine Content We All Needed

3.) Celtics Top Pick Aaron Nesmith and His Vanderbilt Track Star Girlfriend Immediately Become Most Athletic Couple in Boston

2.) Joe Kelly Picked His Top 5 Teammates for a Fight Club. Who Ya Got?

1.) Celtics Fail to Close Out the Raptors and the Refs as They Force a Game 7

2020 In Review – Part III: We’re All Cam Girls Now

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*Me speaking to my grandchildren in 2060*: You know everybody, there was a time, believe it or not, when it was perfectly acceptable to sit in your living room BY YOURSELF and get hammered, so long as there was a web cam on.

I’m of course already dating/aging myself as I don’t think anyone says “web cam” anymore. The need, for the most part, of an external device that provides you with video capability for a meeting/chat is gone. But my point still stands. From the work place to social lives, 2020 was the year of the virtual meeting.

To start, the introduction of quarantine was a huge test of “how much does your company fucking suck?” If you’re like me and have friends whose job satisfaction ranges from apathetic to “I hope I get t-boned on the ride in,” it was fascinating to watch which companies did what. Most did the right thing and just shut down the offices, which for some was a gigantic 180 from their normal stance on working from home. Some tried to avoid that drastic of an action and went to a reduced office presence with different people in on different days. I had one friend whose company just happened to have a half-filled office lying around an hour away and they sent some folk to work there for awhile. No big deal, just that added gas money and commuting time with no kind of stipend for it. For those of us who got to go full remote however, it was mostly for the first time. Do you put on pants? Do you gel your hair? Can you listen to ESPN in the background? So many questions with so little to guide us. I was in a particularly odd position as I actually started my job the first day of Charlie Baker’s lockdown here in MA. Never met a coworker in person, never got to see the office. To make matters even stranger for folks like me, companies have different policies on whether or not to even turn on the damn webcam. So I ended working with a string of mystery men and women like I’m a Charlie’s fucking Angel or something. Bizarre man.

The social scene was a different monster entirely. What happens when such a well oiled machine completely breaks down? When you want to meet up with your friends you go to their house or a bar, if you just are looking for some companionship for the night, the latter of the two. Those simple mechanisms disappeared, literally overnight on March 22nd. Now what? Our generation is arguably the most social yet and suddenly we were barred from being just that. Then video chatting sprang up to save the day. It was always there, but it received little use outside of long distance relationships hell bent on failing or for that one friend that moved to Boulder because “they liked the energy more.” Now Zoom, Google chat, etc. were the only way to share a beverage and a chat with your pals. It was weird at first. I think everyone can admit that. And then it just kind of became normal. Hell, an entire app, House Party, emerged just to facilitate conversations and games between friends who were locked down. Even if we couldn’t be together, we still gonna have a few brewskis, shit talk each other, maybe gossip a little, and if you’re anything like my friends, have food delivered mid fucking conversation. It added such a bizarre layer of disconnect that has been at once sad and entertaining.

On the social end, the video chats dried up back when things started opening up again, only to reappear over the past month or so amid a surge in cases. Who knows if this will remain a thing moving forward when folks just straight up don’t want to leave their houses or when you gather with friends and want to call that one friend who moved to Oregon to “be more with nature” (they work at a coffee shop). Who knows. All I know is what once would have been viewed as halfway to being a page out of a virtual version of “Eyes Wide Shut” is now the way friends stay in touch. And that aint a bad thing.

-Joey B.

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Quarantine Edition

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It’s been a while since I wrote one of these. The main reason is that, as previously noted in Joey’s quarantine blog, I moved to Israel. If you had a balcony in a city bordering the Mediterranean, you’d be writing less too. Now, you may be thinking that because I haven’t been writing WDDN articles, I haven’t been drinking. Is this true?

no way GIF

Unfortunately, the beer scene here is not good. As a matter of fact, it’s bad. Growing, but still bad. Most Israeli brewers seemingly have yet to discover American hops, and almost every Israeli beer I’ve had is sweet to the point of being unbalanced. The best beers here are German pilsners and wheat beers, which get boring quick when you’re used to American craft beer. This isn’t a complaint, just an observation.

So what am I drinking?

Drinking Vodka GIFs | Tenor

With beer now an afterthought, I’ve since turned to vodka. And that, folks, is a sentence I never thought I’d write. It’s super easy to mix, can be added to pretty much anything, is low in calories, and is cheaper than almost any other liquor out there. If you are thinking that I wrote that sentence to somehow justify drinking an alcohol I’ve always looked down upon, then you are correct.

To further that justification, I’ve taken to infusing vodkas with all sorts of different flavors. I usually do my infusions in 500mL batches just because the biggest size they sell here are liter bottles and I like to try multiple flavors at a time.

When infusing, you generally want to wait 2-3 days before drinking, although you can taste along the way to check how the flavor is developing. I would also recommend shaking the bottles a few times a day so the ingredients don’t settle at the bottom and concentrate the flavor too much. Here are some flavors and cocktails I’ve found tasty so far:

Cucumber

What to add: Cut and peel half a cucumber and add to the vodka. Leaving on the peel isn’t the end of the world, but I wouldn’t recommend it because it can give the vodka a pickly flavor.

Recipe: I stole this recipe from a sushi restaurant we used to frequent in Arlington. Stir together 1 part cucumber vodka, 1/2 part lime juice, 3 parts Cava (sparkling wine). Sprinkle cracked black pepper over the top and garnish with a cucumber slice.

Blood Orange-Pomelo

What to add: 1/2 teaspoon of each fruit zest.

Recipe: This one is good neat, but also works well in a Bloody Mary or Screwdriver.

Ginger-Pomegranate

What to add: 1 teaspoon of ginger zest and add 1-2 dozen slightly crushed pomegranate arils. You want the juice from the arils to get into the vodka without making a mess. You can also substitute a lot of other red fruits instead of the pomegranate.

Recipe: Perfect for a Moscow Mule because of the ginger.

Orange-Honey-Cinnamon

What to add: 1 teaspoon of orange test, 1 teaspoon of honey, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon. If you feel like you want more cinnamon flavor after the first day, you can add more. Just be cautious because there is a fine line between subtly and overdoing it.

Recipe: This one is by far my favorite and is very easy to sip on it’s own. The orange flavor hits you right up front, the sweetness from the honey masks the alcohol burn, and the cinnamon on the finish ties everything together.

Leonardo Di Caprio Cheers GIF - LeonardoDiCaprio Cheers GreatGatsby GIFs
Time to drink up!

The best thing about vodka infusions is you can do them with pretty much anything you have around the house. Just get creative and remember that less is more. Cheers!

Blog Favorite Comedian Daniel Sloss is Doing a Live “Day Drink With Dan” This Saturday and It’s Exactly What It Sounds Like

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Well now, this is something fit for quarantine. Just perfect. Normally blog worthy? Well actually yes. Anytime a guy of Sloss’ ilk decides to publicly announce he is not only supporting but actively participating in and organizing an event centered around day drinking, that is what we call the “wheelhouse.” So quarantine or not this would be just wonderful.

I’ve written about our Scottish comrade-in-booze Daniel Sloss here before. His first two specials popped up on Netflix out of nowhere and knocked my fuckin socks off. Honestly up there with anything else stand up-wise on Netflix or beyond. His newest special “X” is on HBO and also exceptional but not everyone has HBO so didn’t think it’d be as worth noting.

What is he like? Well, onstage he is high-energy, befriends you in a tell-you-to-go-fuck-yourself sort of way, and isn’t afraid to touch on tough subjects not meant for laughs. In “X” he describes his show as (something like I’m paraphrasing) “50 minutes stand up and 10 minutes Ted Talk”. But it’s brilliant. Offstage (from what I’ve seen in podcasts) he relaxes a bit more but is just as hilarious and is normally hammering beers and talking shit about other people, himself, and his country.

Needless to say I’m stoked for this. Day drinking is one of quarantine’s few simple pleasures. What once you were made to feel guilty about and shamed by society for is basically now encouraged. And now you have a funny-accented dickhead of a drinking buddy to keep you amused through it. So head on over to Sloss’ IG this Saturday at 3:00pm EST and have some fun.

PS – Also check out FOTB Pat Dowling (@patdowlingmusic) on IG every Friday at 6:30pm EST. Kid crushes the tunes.

QUARANTINE BLOG: The Short, Definitive List of Male Interests That Were Never Intended to Get Them Laid

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So I’m sure the blog title comes as exactly zero surprise. Although I’m not sure how much it is discussed, it is well known that there are very few hobbies and interests that straight, white males pursue where the goal is not to “get them drawers.” It is just a simple fact of life that right around 3rd or 4th grade we abandon interest in things just because we find them entertaining or fulfilling and instead take up whatever is going to get us in the best graces of the fairer sex.

HOWEVER. There always remains a few things that a man just cannot leave behind, or picks up along the way, that in no way, shape, or form, is going to get them laid. Why we make these exceptions we don’t know, nor do we exactly notice. They just are/become part of our existence without any question as to why and life goes on – much to either the indifference or dismay of the ladies we pursue.

So without further ado, I, on behalf The 300s dot com, present you with the list of those things, past and present.

6.) Golf

Like a lot of post-college men stumbling through adulthood, a number of us here at The 300s have decided to become avid horrible golfers. Papa G bombs the ball with nary a clue of where it’s going. Red’s game is so cold he always wears pants. Me? Well I’ve never gotten within 100 yards of a green I could hit. But the ladies? Well actually they hate it. Why wouldn’t they? Their guys (or prospects) disappear for five hours on a weekend morning and come back not only shitfaced, but happy. I mean the audacity to be in good spirits after five hours away from them. But we know why we do it right, fellas? I mean whats not to love about playing a long, slow, impossible game that costs a shitload to participate in? Ya, I don’t know either.

5.) Quantity of Alcohol/Substances Consumed

Man I guess this is an inadvisable one in hindsight huh? But I am man of integrity so I must not exclude it. Because there was a time, friends, where we would boast o so braggadociously of the 10 beers (of Natty), 4 shots (of Sailor Jerry), and 5 blunt hits (of middiest mids) one ingested the night before. Did you puke and pee somewhere you shouldn’t have like in the hallway, a closet, or on your roommate? Sure you did. But legends never fucking die do they? What does die, on the contrary, are your chances with Jennifer, the cute girl from Art Survey that you invited to the party only to have her arrive and find you leglessly hitting on the fridge.

4.) Home Entertainment/Audio/Electronic Setups

I remember walking into one of my buddy’s rooms in college to find that he had a high-end Alienware laptop, three monitors, huge speakers, and like, a subwoofer. For what fucking reason pray-tell? I didn’t know. Neither did he. He was a D-student Phys Ed major who didn’t know much. Maybe God spoke to him and said it was written for him to shake the entire fucking hallway with whatever mixtape he had recently ripped off the internet. No matter which way you shake it though no girl was walking into that room and realizing with erotic elation she could bleed out through her eardrums playing “Umbrella” on full blast.

3.) Beirut Skills

There was no bigger dick-measuring contest in high school or college than determining who was the best ‘rut player. Thinking back on it I can almost hear a National Geographic narrator describing how pack power rankings were decided on Friday night, regardless of who was cooler when walking into the house, by who won the Beirut tournament. Know who didn’t give a fuck? The girls that were there. They played too, and giggled a whole bunch, and sometimes cried, and sometimes hugged dudes that were crying, and generally got hit on a whole lot. What they didn’t do was go total Niagara Falls for the guy who called “solo” last.

2.) Random Athletics Prowess

Yes, athletes get all kinds of poontang. By that I do mean players of the four major sports. However, that never stopped a group of guys from determining who was the best contestant in street/pond hockey, wiffle ball, horse or any other of the trillion ludicrous excuses for “sports” we’ve come up with over the years. Did chicks care? Fuck no. As a matter of fact we probably were only playing because they weren’t around at the time. Didn’t matter. I’d die before I let you hit my 12-6 sinker that dropped like Amy Schumer’s popularity after fourteen and a half minutes.

1.) Power Hour Playlists

BOOM. I’d be lying through my teeth if I didn’t say this relic of my past wasn’t the reason I came up with this list in the first place. I was talking to a buddy about doing a power hour over Google video as a fun quarantine activity. His response? He could never figure out how to get the music to work. It took me a solid 30 seconds to figure out what the fuck he was even talking about. Then it dawned on me he was worried sick he didn’t have the requisite time or resources to get the hallowed playlist together before doing the power hour. It was indeed considered an art form back in the day. The song selection itself was a delicate thread to weave, but getting them in the perfect order? Now that is where the true artistry was found. You know who was never impressed? Or even fucking noticed beyond a “hey, I like this song”? The girls. And I don’t blame them. Because they didn’t like doing fucking power hours like idiots like we did.

And thus concludes the list. That’s it. Maybe I’ll think of more/a part two later on in quarantine. Or maybe if it lasts long enough we’ll come up with new ones.

-Joey B.

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Oktoberfest!

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Fall seasonals are my favorite when it comes to beer. As you may have read in my last post, that’s not because of pumpkin beer. I know this style is unwaveringly popular, but I have issues with any pumpkin beers that are released before mid-September. Rather than start this blog with a rant though, I’ll take a more positive view and talk about what I do like: Oktoberfest.

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This is my dream vacation right here.

Oktoberfest is the king when it comes to seasonal beers, and if you ask me (I’ll assume you are because you’re reading this post), it is a great barometer for whether or not you like real, traditional beer and not just the hops (not that there is anything wrong with the latter). True German Marzen/Oktoberfest should have everything classic beer lovers crave: a perfect harmony of smooth and toasty caramel malt, a crisp, snappy hop bite, and a modest alcohol level that allows you to fill up a stein and smash it against a friends again and again.

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It doesn’t appear like much has changed since the days of black of white.

Although many people have surely had Oktoberfest before, one thing I commonly encountered working at a beer shop was confusion about the labeling of different Oktoberfests. Traditionally, this style of beer was brewed in March (Marzen), and then stored over the summer. This was back before refrigeration, when brewing in hotter months could lead to spoilage and wasted time. Due to the old-fashioned kilning techniques, beer used to be much darker. Over time, the fest-style gradually lightened, from dunkels (early to mid 1800s), to amber and copper-colored Marzens (invented by Spaten in 1841), to the golden-colored festbiers introduced by Paulaner in the early 1970s.

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These are the 6 official beers of Munich Oktoberfest.

So which ones am I drinking?

The short answer: anything German. There are 6 breweries that serve their beer at the Oktoberfest in Munich: Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten, Paulaner, Lowenbrau, Augustiner and Hofbrau. If you want to know what this style should truly taste like, any of them will do. I also like Warsteiner (a touch on the sweet side) Weihenstephaner, and Andechs (draft only) for other German offerings.

Image result for ayinger oktoberfest marzen

However, my personal favorite isn’t even on the list, and that’s Ayinger Oktober Fest-Marzen, which is probably my favorite beer in the world. It’s the perfect balance of everything I want in a beer. Flavorful, but crushable at the same time.

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IMO, Copper Legend is the best of the style from Massachusetts.
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Two Roads (Connecticut) Ok2berfest makes a great, albeit lighter style, Marzen lager.

American Oktoberfest beers tend to be either on the sweeter side or with a little too much hop influence. There’s plenty of good ones, but like most things American they tend to be a little much. However, a few local New England brands I like are Jacks Abby Copper Legend, Zero Gravity and Two Roads.

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This year, Sierra Nevada got together with Bitburger for their fall seasonal.
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Left Hand Brewing out of Colorado makes a solid homage to traditional Marzens.

For outside New England, look to Sierra Nevada, who puts out a different Oktoberfest every year in which they collaborate with a German brewery. Left Hand, Victory and Firestone Walker also do a good job. I have yet to find anything truly impressive for the style down here in DC, which is part of the reason why I’ve waited until a little later in the fest-season to write this blog.

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**A final word on pumpkin beer:

Pumpkins are harvested in September and October. Generally speaking, an average batch of beer from a microbrewery takes 4-8 weeks to brew from start to finish. That would mean even if you used pumpkins picked a couple weeks early, the earliest you could get a beer brewed with fresh pumpkins from this years harvest would be mid-September.

So how does a company like Shipyard have theirs ready to go by the end of July? They cut corners. They are using one or a combination of the following not-pumpkins: butternut squash, yams, artificial pumpkin flavoring, or a mixture of spices (nutmeg, vanilla, clove, etc) to mimic pumpkin pie. This irritates me. At the end of the day, I don’t want to hate on people for drinking what they like, but as someone who worked retail, I find label transparency is important when trying to sell products.

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Fall Edition

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I can tell you what I’m not drinking. Pumpkin beer. I’ll leave that to all the basic bitches and whatever their male equivalent is. For me, fall is all about Oktoberfest and cocktails. I’ll write about my favorite Oktoberfest beers in a later post. Right now I’m drinking a classic cocktail with a seasonal twist.

Image result for cranberry cinnamon moscow mule

THE MASSHOLE MULE

As I’ve said in the past, I’m no mixologist, so this drink may very well be called something else. I came up with the name because I’m using ingredient made in Massachusetts, specifically Triple Eight Cranberry Vodka from Nantucket and a Mass-made hard cider, in this Moscow Mule spinoff. As many people know, a typical Moscow Mule is 3 parts ginger beer to one part vodka with a splash of lime juice and a lime wedge served in a copper mug. My recipe tinkers with that due to the addition of hard cider, but it’s not all that different in the end.

THE RECIPE

2oz dry cider
2oz ginger beer
1 1/2oz cranberry vodka
2 dashes of cinnamon
lime wedge

Pour vodka over ice into a copper mug. Add ginger beer and dry cider, then stir in cinnamon. Serve with a stirring rod and garnish with a lime wedge.

THE INGREDIENTS

Image result for triple eight cranberry vodka
Triple Eight is the distillery side of the Cisco Brewing operation, and they make great fruit-flavored vodkas.

As I mentioned before, I’m using Triple Eight Cranberry Vodka. For those not familiar with Triple Eight, they are the distillery side of the Cisco Brewing operation located on Nantucket. They make really delicious flavored vodkas that typically come in under $30 a bottle. I would absolutely recommend this over any name brand flavored product.

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Lookout Farm is located in Natick, MA and has recently started brewing beer.
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Bantam is located in Somerville, MA and uses a sparkling wine yeast for a beautifully dry, bubbly cider.

For cider, you can go with any dry cider, but a few I recommend from Massachusetts are Lookout Farm Farmhouse Original and Bantam Wunderkind. Downeast Original would work too, but it will be a little sweeter.

Old Favorite Ginger Beers
A good ginger beer can be the difference between a good cocktail and a great cocktail.

The last ingredient, the ginger beer, is the least important in my opinion. That being said, a high quality ginger beer can be the difference between a good drink and a great drink. I prefer Barritt’s to Gosling’s, and a spicier option, such as Maine Root or Fever Tree, to either of those.

That’s it for this edition of WDDN, I hope you enjoy the drink! Check back in next time to see which Oktoberfest beers top my list!

What’s Dom Drinking Now?

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There’s been one brewery on my mind ever since I checked out their new taproom two weeks ago: Aslin Beer Company. Many people in the Boston area may not be familiar with these guys; I certainly wasn’t when I first moved to the DC area. Once I did move, I kept hearing the name Aslin again and again when trying to find the best brewery around.

Image result for aslin brewing logo
Aslin Beer Co. houses their original location in Herndon, VA. Recently they opened up a second, much larger facility in Alexandria, VA that will house the bulk of production one it’s fully functioning.

Lucky for me, they just opened up a new taproom 15 minutes away from my apartment not even a month ago, and I was quite impressed. They make NEIPA’s as good as anyone actually in New England, mouth-puckering sours that leave you making faces well into the fourth and fifth sips (a sign of a great sour in my opinion) and some downright killer stouts. When it comes to what grabs your attention in the beer world these days, those three boxes are all you really need to check to stand out.

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Although the new location doesn’t have a ton of can stock, I do like their labels.

The top rated beers from Aslin are almost exclusively IPA’s and stouts, no surprise there. If you can get your hands on them, Single, Double and Triple Orange Starfish, Master of Oranges, Master of Karate and Mind the Hop are some of their highest rated beers on Untappd, but it seems like every IPA they make has above a 4 rating on the app. For stouts, they have a bunch of amazing styles featuring all sorts of flavor additives, while their line of sours beers does the same.

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So what do I actually recommend? Here’s a quick run down:

–Glamping Imperial Stout– Probably the best stout I’ve ever had. Made to mimic a s’more, this beer features marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, and the added bonus of…peanut butter! This is the first beer with peanut butter I had where I could really smell and taste the PB. Incredible. Oh yeah, it’s 15% alcohol and drinks like it’s less than half that, so watch out.
–Pisghetti Western Stout– Another 15% imperial stout that doesn’t taste like it, this is conditioned on chocolate, hazelnuts, coffee, vanilla and cinnamon. I thought this had a touch too much cinnamon, which accentuated the heat from the alcohol just a bit more than I preferred. However, all the other flavors are delicious, and it’s still a great beer.
–Master of Oranges DIPA– It’s pretty hard for me to be impressed by IPA’s these days. NEIPA’s can easily disguise off-flavors or a weak malt base by adding more dry-hops, more citrusy hops, more more more. On top of that, most people use the same four or five hops, so the difference from beer to beer is minute. That being said, this beer was fantastic, easily the best IPA I’ve had in DC. This beer is a combo of Double Orange Starfish and Master of Karate, and it blew me away.
–El Frutero Sour Ale- A light, easy going sour at first taste, every sip seems to pack more flavor. Brewed with watermelon, lime, habanero peppers and salt, this beer is a perfect pairing for fish tacos. As a matter of fact, I would actually prefer this beer with food because the habaneros really punch you in the tongue.

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I don’t play the games, but anyone who is a fan of Elder Scrolls will be excited to see Aslin came out with an entire line of beers to celebrate 25 years of Elder Scrolls games.

I really only have one beef with Aslin to this point, and it has nothing to do with the beer. The new spot is tinkering with the food menu, and we found out the hard way that it is overpriced. Much to our chagrin, the $8 deviled eggs we ordered was actually one egg, cut in half, with a sliver of jalapeno and a fried oyster on top. Considering all over Boston you can find $1 oysters and I can go to the grocery store and buy an 18-pack of Nellie’s Free Range Eggs for $5.69, that price is a rip off. I was assured they would be changing that, so I now have nothing more to complain about.

Although they don’t make it up to Boston, I highly recommend anyone traveling down to DC or Virginia stop by their locations and drink up. You won’t be disappointed.

The 300s Celebrates National Chicken Wing Day

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Image result for national chicken wing day

It’s National Chicken Wing Day and we’re celebrating the holiday here at The 300s. If you’re celebrating the holiday today, too, here are some topics of debate that may come up at your get together, and my take on each one:

Hooters vs. Buffalo Wild Wings It’s Hooters and it’s not even close. Buffalo Wild Wings continually promises an experience it never delivers on. When you actually want to watch a game at B-Dubs it’s a madhouse. When it’s busy the service is slow. When it’s dead at lunch the service is slow. What keeps me coming back is a pretty good draft selection and some pretty good deals on drafts, not the wings or the service.

Hooters on the other hand doesn’t pretend to be something it’s not. Unapologetically campy,  Hooters consistently delivers great wings and ice-cold beers. Their breaded wings are the best in the business.

Bone-in vs. Boneless Unless I’m at Hooters, I’m going with boneless. If wings are the main course, sure, I’ll go with bone-in. But if they’re an appetizer, or if I have other plans that evening, boneless it is.  You’ll never catch me eating bone-in wings at a ballpark. Bone-in wings are so messy I borderline feel like I need a shower after eating them. I don’t wanna look like Costanza out there.

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Blue Cheese vs. Ranch Gotta go with blue cheese dressing. The tangier dressing better compliments most wing flavors, and the thick and chunky variety is just more satisfying than ranch dressing. Don’t get me wrong I’d eat ranch dressing on anything, but the added flavors and spices of ranch dressing don’t always pair well with wing flavors.

Best Wings From a Non-Wings Establishment Boneless habanero wings at TGI Friday’s. TGI Friday’s has its own issues delivering on the experience it promises, but its boneless habanero wings are better than anything offered a B-Dubs.

Best Non-Buffalo Wing Sauce The Gold Fever sauce at the Ninety Nine Restaurant & Pub. The Gold Fever Wings at the Ninety Nine are right up there with the Fridays’ habanero wings as some of the best at a non-wings restaurant. It’s a shame that this place doesn’t exist outside of New England / New York (yet). For those outside the region, think of a mustard/barbecue sauce.

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Coat those bad boys in some thick blue cheese dressing and your set. Wash ’em down with some $2 Bud Selects like your Vincent Chase and it’s 2009.

Yahoo! has more info on what wing deals are out there today. 

What other topics will you be debating today? Let me know on Twitter @The300sBigZ

 

What’s Dom Drinking Now? Wine, for a Change!

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Time to mix it up! I’ve come at you with beer from the place that pays my bills and three different cocktails. Now it’s time to break into a category that many my age don’t know much about, but often enjoy when presented with quality bottles: WINE. When I first started in the alcohol industry 8 years ago, I knew very little about wine. Basically just these four things:

  1. There are two types: red and white
  2. Bad wine is what my parents drink
  3. I’m not bougie enough to drink good wine
  4. SLAP THE BAG!
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Working in a small wine shop that only had 5 customers a shift and next to no stocking or other tasks to do, I started reading about it. I was enthralled; learning about wine enables you to learn all about different cultures, eating traditions and flavors, climate, geography, and so much more. As I took all this in I realized that when it comes to wine, the more you know, the less you know.

This can be exciting, but it can also be overwhelming and intimidating, especially when you’re not getting paid to know about the stuff. This is the mindset a lot of drinkers have when it comes to wine. They like some things they’ve had, hated others, and are not adventurous or wealthy enough to just take random stabs at bottles on the shelf and hope they work out. I wrote about this previously in one of my etiquette blogs, but this is why finding a retailer you can trust is a wonderful thing.

Here‘s an easy-to-understand wine tasting notepad to help you better describe what you’re tasting.

For starters, the above notepad offers some easy-to-use, common flavors to help you describe what you may or may not be tasting. The better you get at picking out flavors, the easier it will be to describe what you like. In addition to these, it’s also important to understand that dry and sweet have very specific meanings relating to the amount of fermentable sugar (referred to as residual sugar, or RS) still left in a bottle once fermentation is over. These terms are used incorrectly more than any other terms in the business, so it’s important to understand what they mean.

RS is completely up to the winemaker, which is why many grapes, such as Riesling, have both dry and sweet examples. To drive this point home, look no further than Sauvignon Blanc, a grape known for some of the greatest examples of white wine across the globe. On the dry side, you have Sancerre, as well as many other bottles from the Loire Valley in France. For sweeter offerings, you can find dessert wines made from Sauv Blanc the world over, most notably from Sauternes. Your perception can also be altered by things like acidity and tannin, which vary drastically across different grapes.

Below are two scales that will help you identify where certain wines fall on the dry-sweet spectrum, although you’ll probably have to zoom in to read the names of the grapes.

Red wine sweetness chart by Wine Folly
Wine Folly is an excellent resource when it comes to wine, offering everything from beginner guides like this to more advanced stuff like determining residual sugar.
White wine sweetness chart by Wine Folly

Now that we’ve covered some of the basics, I can tell you what I’m drinking: red wine from Italy! Specifically, I’m drinking Scala Ciro, which is made from the grape Gaglioppo. Never heard of it? Don’t feel bad, there are hundreds of indigenous grapes in Italy, and there’s no reason for the average person to know the vast majority of them. However, a lot of them are hidden gems, like this one.

I picked this bottle because I’m having ziti with meatballs for dinner. When picking out a bottle of wine to go with dinner, a good place to start is matching a regional wine with the cuisine of said region. In this case, I’m drinking Italian wine with an Italian meal. Next up, you’ll want to pick flavors that contrast and compliment the dishes being served. I chose this wine because the drying factor of the tannins contrasts the sweetness of the tomato sauce, while the spiciness of the wine compliments the herbal flavors in the sauce. It’s for this reason that chocolate and red wine don’t go together. Both have bitter tannins in them, so when consumed together they just taste overly bitter, even sour.

When pairing with pasta, it also helps to think simply: red wine with red sauce, white wine with white sauce. From there, you can get a little more nuanced with help from your local wine shop employees. This is a good place for aspiring winos to start. If you’d like more wine-related content, feel free to comment!