The Sound Table

Last night, we headed to The Sound Table for a drink. We really liked the cocktail that they made at the Killer Tomato Fest so I was excited to go. We ended up sitting at the bar right where Paul Calvert was mixing all night so we were able to chat with him for a good amount of time.

To start, I had a horse's neck which is bourbon (well), bitters, and Gosling's ginger beer. That ginger beer is a bit too much for me and it reminded me of a drink that Josh made for me the other night -- one I made the poopy face whenever I took a sip. Well, I got to drink it again, except with Evan Williams, which I don't think i like. Josh started off with a fourth and sand which is basically a blood and sand but with mezcal and grapefruit juice. It was not for me, but he really liked the mezcal's smokiness.

Foodwise, we started with the cece peas which come dusted with curry power along with saltiness. And we also got one of the starter specials, a potted smoked trout with toast points which was tasty, but really reminded me of liverwurst. Josh says I'm crazy.

It was around this time that we got to try stega, an Italian very floral liquer. Whew! That'll put hair on your chest! Just a lip-wetting was enough for me.

For my second drink, I got The Only William which is bourbon, sweet vermouth, angostura bitters, maraschino, and absinthe. I liked this a lot, even though I typically don't like anything with absinthe. It was lightly licoricey on the finish.

Josh's second drink was the penultimate: tequila, maraschino, lime, st germain. He liked it.

It was about this time that I started asking about bourbons and Paul is somewhat of a bourbon aficionado. And so we ended up talking about bourbons for a while. Paul said that Bulleit is really a rye drinker's bourbon, but gave us a taste of ... something. And when I liked it, he said that I am a true bourbon lover (!) and so he gave us the name of three other bourbons I would like (we have a picture). And we also got to try some high west. That is some potent alcohol.

At this point, we couldn't have left so we ordered dinner. I got the pho and Josh the chorizo burgers. He got a drink to go with his spicy lil burgers, a savage detective with mexcal, vodka, punt e mes, white cacao, maraschino, and lemon. The pho was pretty damn good. I had to ask for extra broth, but it was meaty and good. The noodles were of a good amount and it was topped with a healthy amount of sprouts. The herbs were mint and cilantro. Slurrrrrrp! I would get that again in a hot second (as they say at my office). Oh, the pork in this was pork shoulder, I am sure. I like that they embraced this and made it their own, with a nod to the original, but choosing to stray as appropriate instead of falling flat in a comparison with the Vietnamese original.

We ordered the scallops for the third course. They come in a limey 'sauce' which green papaya and peanuts. Delicious.

Drinkwise, we left ourselves in Paul's hands. I got a drink whose name I can't remember (you should be surprised that I can remember anything at all). It started with blended scotch (Famous Grouse), sweet vermouth, lemon peel... I'm not sure what else. It was okay, but I'm not that big a fan of the scotch when I can really taste it. Josh got a toronto which has old overholt bourbon, frenet branca, and carpano, plus a flaming lemon peel. And it flames! I liked his better. And I got to finish it too. That was a lot of alcohol.

To soak up more of the alcohol before we left, we got a truffle chocolate cake. I am not really a big dessert fan, but this was fantastic. Topped with a salty caramel ice cream with a berry-y sauce. Yum.

Definitely looking forward to going back.