Welcome

Greetings, ladies!

Thank you to all who attended our inaugural meeting of the Brooklyn chapter of the Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails, held on October 19!

Recap:

We had 13 attendees, three featured drinks, a whole bunch of spur-of-the-moment “aw, heck, why the hell not?” cocktails, some delicious Italian rice balls, a visitor hailing from the streets of San Francisco, a late-arrival interloping male participant, and a generally lovely time. Jessica P. won the costume contest (wow, what a dress!), but we forgot to give her the prize. We’ll make sure to do that at the next meeting!

Thank you to our hostesses Megan and Laura, but especially to Megan for opening her apartment to the raucous crowd (us).

Theme:

Librarians

Minutes:

Between the absinthe and the vodka, memory is fleeting.

Here is an approxi—hic—mation:

1. Election of Officers:

Megan O as webmaster

Laura R as secretary

?? as treasurer (was anyone paying attention at this point?)

2. Review and acceptance of the Constitution and Bylaws

Following our highly official formalized procedure, Megan delivered an approximate outline of both—borrowed from our lovely mothership, LUPEC Pittsburgh—between sips of her creative concoctions. No vote taken, but general consensus to “what she said.”

3. Presentation of the Lady of the Hour:

Belle da Costa Greene, Librarienne Extraordinaire to J.P. Morgan

(pictured above)

In keeping with our usual go-getter personalities, we’ve provided a link to wikipedia (the scourge of librarians the world-over):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Da_Costa_Greene

4. Featured drinks:

Absinthe drip

1½ oz absinthe

Sugar cubes

Water

Pour absinthe. Dissolve one lump of sugar over the liquid, using the French drip spoon, and fill glass with cold water. Imbibe. Shake head. Notice you are not hallucinating. Pour in more than 1.5 ounces of absinthe next time.

Earthquake Cocktail
1 oz gin

1 oz. bourbon

¾ oz absinthe

Shake and serve in a 3 oz. cocktail glass. Decide this doesn’t look like enough alcohol. Quadruple recipe.

Ballet Rousse Cocktail

2 oz. vodka

½ oz. crème de cassis

4 dashes lime juice

Shake and serve in a 3 oz. cocktail glass. Wonder why this silly recipe book only calls for 3 oz. drinks. Suspect Carrie Nation was somehow involved. Lick the cassis you spilled off of your fingers. Mmmm.

(Sarcastically annotated) recipes taken from the following books:

--Beebe, Lucius. 2003. The Stork Club Bar Book. U.S.: New Day Publishing

--Haigh, Ted, Aka Dr. Cocktail. 2004. Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails. Gloucester, MA: Quarry Books

5. Outstanding Business & Q&A:

Q. Who will host the next soiree?

A. Funny you should ask. Jessica P (of the lovely dress) will be our nextest loveliest hostess during the dark and bleary month of January. We are billing the event as "Cocktails in the Country." Come, join us in Hastings-on-Hudson on a Sunday afternoon for some warm (but still alcoholic!) drinks. Stay tuned for updates and transportation info.

Q. What of members who wish to host, but—this being NYC—do not have the space?

A. Various options were discussed, including hosting at a public forum (bar), contributing funds to other hostesses (thank you to those who contributed to help defray the costs of the evening!), and pairing with hostesses fortunate to inhabit larger spaces. Ultimately, however, it was agreed that all who wish to attend are welcome, whether they have hosted or not.

Q. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all had LUPEC names?

A. Okay, this wasn’t discussed and voted upon; I just decided it on the spur of the moment. Names to be assigned by general consensus, as need arises, or at our monthly meetings. Whoever protested this isn’t democratic hasn’t spent much time talking to Laura. Next question.

Q. What to do about all of those male friends who moped over not being invited?

A. Possibility discussed of creating a male auxiliary, to be invited to join on occasion. Suggestion floated to borrow from our esteemed mothership and name them “The Screwdrivers.”

Meeting adjourned around 1 a.m., with one hostess passed out on the bed, and the impossibility of consuming all alcohol finally accepted by all.

Up In Ya!

--Minutes posted by Laura R. (rather belatedly, I know, I know) 13 Nov. 2007.