Fridays in January Part Two

The following Friday was near the end of a long day, incredibly long day. I had my first accounting exam, pre-work, and had set my alarm for 1:30AM for a last minute cramming session, but work up pre-midnight and was awake ever since. I left the office with no real plans for an Meiji stop, when my co-worker Sondra texted me, asked me if I wanted a Scrabble re-match and that she was free until 6 when another co-worker would be joining her down at Meiji. I gathered my things, unfortunately could not locate my Scrabble board, so the rematch will have to wait.

Brief history, Sondra and I have had only one game of Scrabble in which I was winning through out until the very last move. At this point, I cannot remember what the winning word was, but after she laid it down and subtracting my tile, I lost by one point. So there will be a re-match, and I hope to blog about it and have photos of our board to show, but not this time.

It was a good thing, I didn't have the board, because Jenabe showed up about the same time I did and we all ordered drinks and I passed on my Rittenhouse recommendation to him that I had received from another LS&Co employ Sean (see earlier entry). Had a shitake skewer from the happy hour menu and a 4 Roses, the new bourbon of the week, with my single cube of ice. Found out they are no longer stocking the Angel's Envy -- so I will have to try this on my own somewhere else. 4 Roses seems like the perfect Kentucky bourbon to have at Izakaya Meiji Company since it is owned by the Japanense Kirin Brewing Company. Like most American whiskeys, 4 Roses was sweet, somewhat of a mix of caramel and honey, but what struck me was the subtleties of spice in the whiskey. I think, more than most, I captured a sense of cinnamon on the 4 Roses. Nice $4 pour as a the bourbon of the week.

We talked about work. The history of LS&Co in Eugene. About school. About music. Great history of concerts by Jenabe when he grew up in the bay area. Most impressed by D.R.I. Made me miss the good old hard core days. Food and then I wrapped it up with the first whiskey I am not going to recommend, sadly, a Scotch. The Balvenie gets its name from being aged in first oak then sherry barrels. It had a definite lingering sting that it left, which spoiled anything else I drank (even water) and ruined my food. I would be willing to have  another go at the Balvenie Double, but it would probably need to be on the rocks, with no other food or beverage on the horizon, not even another Scotch or a bourbon. The Balvenie is meant to be drunk alone, from my best estimation, so purely, my least favorite pour of the new year.

Fridays in January Part One

I made two Friday visits to the Izakaya Meiji company in January, both great visits, both in and of themselves unique, both in the company, the atmosphere, and the food and conversation. The first was with my younger brother, Alex. His original plan was to go to Mapleton to visit a friend, but it got rained out by the terrible weather we were having that was flooding parts of the state in mid-January. I had missed Dick Dale in Corvallis earlier that week because I was not sure I wanted to test the weather.

We showed up a bit late and the place was jumping, well, as much as a Japanese Restaurant Whiskey Bar in the middle of the Whiteaker would be jumping on a Friday night. Actually, I can only imagine how this will grow as it still seems to be one of Eugene's best kept secrets. But, when we arrived, we were looking at a 30 to 40 minute wait for a table, but we were able to sneak in and get a seat at the bar within only a couple minutes, which offered a different vantage point -- I was thrilled as this was only second time sitting at the bar & I was afraid we might have to go somewhere else to pick up a late dinner.

We both ordered the burger and fries, to get things going, and I Had the Old Charter 8 year, which was their bourbon of the week on the rocks. Not a bad offering, it did get better, once the ice began melting into it. We did the typical family catching up. Talked about our jobs, the holidays, etc. Friends, women, just the general Mejia boy chit chat while waiting for our food. I also sampled the 17 year, based on recommendation from a friend, and also a choice that made my bartender very excited as it is one of his personal favorite spirits. It is bottled by Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, Ltd. Bardstown,KY. Started off smooth. Nice hint of caramel, possibly some vanilla, then moved to a bitter leather, some burn. As I continued to sip, less subtle hints of the oak flavor from the barrel. This is a true whiskey. Not as smooth as some, definitely lingers more than most. A great sip on its own. Not sure, how I would recommend with food.

It may have been the bourbon, but my brother seconded the emotion, the burgers are amongst the best within Eugene city limits. 1/3 pound grass fed beef patty seared to medium rare and served on English muffin. Garnished with Izakaya's house-made teriyaki coleslaw (the best) lettuce and onion and side of french fries. The fries come with the Wasabi mayo, which I am not a big fan of mayo with my friends, but the Wasabi gives it just enough kick, and with the whiskey, I do not mind the mayo whatsoever. We added cheese and avocado for a little extra. Next time, I will take a picture of the tiny beast. I was too hungry and maybe a little inebriated when it came, but the presentation is as wonderful as the food. Photo promised soon, I swear.

Finished the night with my brother with a Highland Park 12 year, my first Scotch of the year. It was a nice mix of fruit with the smoked flavor of Peat. This is the youngest Highland Park has to offer, but a very nice Scotch. I think I might have to order a rusty nail with it somewhere -- as I will not allow myself mixed drinks in my whiskey Izakaya venture, but I think it definitely has nice Nail potential.

Day Two -- Visit with Sean -- Part two

I finished the last of my mushrooms while talking to Sean. As you can see, the butter is more of a paste being mixed with the butter. It is very savory and rich and salty enough to cleanse the palette and free it to my next whiskey, which I was prepared to default to a recommendatin to Sean's discretionary palette.

Our conversation began with Sean giving me a breakdown of American Whiskeys, mainly Bourbon. To be legally called bourbon, it must be made of a grain mixture that is at least 51 percent corn. The flavored grains are going to be wheat or rye. Bourbon must be aged in new charred-oak barrels. It must be aged a minimum of 4 years and if not, that must be labeled on the bottle. He did this breakdown for me as he is pointing things out on the drink menu.

In the process, he echoed his distaste which he shares with me, over Canadian whiskeys (luckily a short list on the Izakaya Meiji menu), and his love of rye over wheat whiskeys. He ordered the Early Times 354, a whiskey he had never tried, but had been recommended to him. Over his first glass, he shared with me the whiskey tasting technique he learned in Vegas, when partaking in a $100 shot of Rittenhouse 21 year. It goes as follows. Take in the aroma. Take a small sip. Hold in the front of your mouth for a few minutes. Your tongue may start to burn, get prickly. Your eyes may water. Little by little let a bit of the whiskey draw back to your throat and swallow. A tiny bit at time. Also over the course of a couple of minutes, until all the whiskey is gone. Then take the next sip, no longer sniffing the whiskey. This will open up all sorts of new flavors and sensation. I watched him demonstrate and then tried it was well with the ET354.

The main thing I noticed how much my tongue began stinging. I took the whiskey back a little bit of a time. As I took the second sip and swallowed could sense the cinnamon and the caramel tones mixed with the oak as I swallowed. A great taste and a nice lesson learned. For my second true whiskey of the night, I tried the Rittenhouse 100, recommended by Sean and ordered one last skewer before happy hour ended.

The Rittenhouse was incredibly smooth, and had a much greater viscosity than most whiskey's I have tried. Reading about it, it says it is a Pennsylvania styled Rye. It was truly amazing. Spicy. Not even a hint bitter. Sweet. More sweet than most Americans, I have had, which completely separates it from European whiskeys altogether. Truly a splendid recommendations and a highlight so far in 2012. I tried the tasting technique again. The Rittenhouse, truly, truly phenomenal.

I moved onto the Dry Fly Wheat. The Dryfly distellery is from Spokane, WA, and is probably better known for its Vodka and Gin. Having recently visited the Puget sound to visit my best friend and see Brian Setzer in concert, I saw Dry Fly spirits sprinkled through out one of the liquor stores. I decided to leave the state of Kentucky and come home for my next selection and I was very pleasantly surprised. I ordered the Dry Fly over a cube of ice, to hopefully draw some of the flavors from the whiskey and it was amazingly smooth, some hints of cinnamon, citrus, I believe orange. Just a very nice new whiskey. I think would be great for an old-fashioned, which is kind of ironic.

We continued to talk life, whiskey, work and music over our drinks. Sean also tried the snapper. He ordered his second drink, the Henry McKenna Single Batch. He took a sip as I was finishing my dry wheat and continued talking. Being responsible, he stopped after one sip and I finished it off over ice. Nice, but nothing compared to the Rittenhouse. We talked, I got a ride home away from the cold and he left me with a CD by Lydia Loveless, which will be my last recommendation from this Blog. Country music with rock-infused guitars. Lydia's voice is reminiscent of Mia Zapata's. Honest, slightly dark country music with a rock edge. Great CD.

Day Two -- Waiting for Sean -- Part One

I am excited that ECRG is using my Sephra photos for the new program for their 2012 season -- I was waiting around after work for Bullet Brains to come up and pick up a disk of the photos of the referee hand signals (which mistakenly were Sick Town bout photos -- total embarrassment, but oh well) and after I decided to walk down to Dairy Mart to use the ATM to get cash to give my nephew for my ticket to go see Dick Dale, the fastest pick in the west. My only thing that might top this whiskey journey is going to be witnessing Dick Dale, Duane Eddy and the Ventures all in one year -- but that would make for an entirely different blog, but back to my walk from Dairy Mart to Izakaya Meiji company. I walked down 1st to Van Buren with the housemate where he veered towards home and I turned left toward the warm amber glow of Meiji and bourbon. 

Right before the railroad tracks, "Hey buddy, do you got the time?" I checked my cellphone and I had company from the tracks to the front door. Two blocks of a hard luck story with a very strong scent of marijuana before I made the door and was on my own again. 

I sat near the back corner, one table down from the table I had sat during my first two visits when it was food and beer only. The waiter came, ran through the list of special including the whiskey of the week, Elijah Craig, 12 years, and the food specials all kinda fell by the wayside. I let the waiter know my resolution, which got him excited. "No one has ever said they wanted to try all the whiskeys here." Most people don't have the time or the money...I don't really know if I have the money, but I am trying to remain resolute. I had him hit me with the EC12 -- I figure $5 is worth the price and crosses one more whiskey off my list. Let him know I had company still coming and I would be good with water and whiskey for starters. 

I posed the EC12 neat for the photo, started taking notes on my Eeyore waiting for Sean Campbell to stop by. The couple at the table next to me started talking to me -- I guess they were waiting on a larger party, which never showed up. They asked about the blog, about the menu. I let them know Meiji was in the midst of their new happy hour from 5 to 6pm. I recommend anyone reading this check it out. The IMC, is very affordable, in and of itself, but if you hit the happy hours special, you can really get a nice sampling of food for a very reasonable price. The Elijah Craig was incredibly smooth for a $5 shot of whiskey, but I decided to order one of the Shitake Skewer interested in the Miso Butter. 

The skewers were amazing. $2 well-spent. Perfect food to cleanse the pallet. Not only cooked in Miso butter. Still coated in it when they serve them. The butter pooled and sticking to the mushroom, 4 to a skewer. Sean showed up right as I was finishing my the Elijah Craig and sat down across from me. 

Day One

My first day for my resolution was Wednesday, Jaunary 11th. I was to meet a couple of coworkers at Izakaya at roughly 5:30 so I set my alarm to stir me from my nap so I could make the walk to the bar in the crisp Eugene winter's night. I showed up after Jinger called me to let me know that she and Julia were on their way. I walked inside and decided to sit at the bar for the first time. I looked over the whiskey list and settled for one of the mid-range bourbon selections, the Angel's Envy. The bartender told me, they were unfortunately out...strike one. Not to be deterred, I ordered a $32 shop of Black Maple Hill which I asked the bartender if he could just keep the bottle in front of me as this was the start of my whiskey quest. Ordered it neat -- as I have never paid $32 for whiskey -- I did not want this watered down whatsoever.

Black Maple Hill is a product of the Heaven Hill distillery in Bardston, KY. This was the 16 year edition -- they do have an 8 year which I hope to sample later in 2012. Side note: Black Maple Hill bottles a bourbon that comes from Lawrenceburg, Kentucky which is not a Heaven Hill product, and from the little bit I have read, you are best suited sticking to Heaven Hill which is Kentucky's largest family-owned independent distillery in the state.

I sat at the end of the bar, sipping and taking notes, which I unfortunately left with the check, listening to the bartender talk to the attractive brunette next to me who was visiting Eugene and I believe with some friends at the Whiteaker, which for whatever reason, did not decide to accompany her to the bar. The Black Maple Hill was amazing. Smooth, but very woody in flavor. I sipped my drink, while the girls, phone three times -- completely lost, trying to find the restaurant. God knows why, but they started off at 5th Street Public Market.

The calls they made were erratic, constantly breaking up. I don't know if it was Verizon, T-Mobile, or the wonderfully lit interior of the bar inside Meiji that kept making it impossible to hear where they were, but once I took my last full sip of Black Maple Hill, I stepped outside and was pleasantly surprised to feel warm when I had been freezing during my walk over to the bar -- another wonderful, albeit temporary effect of good whiskey.

We stepped inside, got a table, looked at the menu. The women ordered hot water and I decided to explore the opposite end of the spectrum and ordered a shot of Ancient Age (which is Izakaya Meiji's well bourbon) with a single cube of ice. It is distilled in Frankfort Kentucky by the Buffalo Trace Distillery. 

For the well, Ancient Age is not a bad selection, but definitely lacks the body and the bouquet of the Black Maple. The food ordered was a nice variety. Both Julia & I ordered the Pork Tonkatsu, breaded in panko with their homemade Tonkatsu sauce and hot mustard and cabbage; Jinger ordered the Sumo Hotpot, chicken-pork meatballs in chicken stock with seasonal mushrooms, fingerling potatoes, napa cabbage, green onions, ginger, and carrots (something I will be trying their in the near future); and I also ordered Mushroom Cya-Han just to round out the menu.

 It was nice to have good company to go with the great food and the Ancient Age (ironically, a very young Bourbon) was a good enough companion for the food. It was such a great night, when our server came by to offer a dessert menu, I was unable to resist trying their special, which was Key Lime Pie. It was, in a word, phenomenal. I made both Jinger & Julia try it. It was just the right consistency and wonderful tartness to cleanse the palette and fill me up for the walk back home.

Great way to kick off the resolution -- looking forward to the rest of 2012.

New Year Resolution

When I was looking up Happy Hour at the Izakaya Meiji Company, a Japanese Restaurant & Bar in the Whiteaker in Eugene, I was happy to see they considered themselves a whiskey bar. I must admit, my cynicism, especially after two decades living in this town, I thought, maybe 30 to 40 varieties of whiskey would be a good thing, but I was shocked, pleasantly so, to discover they serve over 100 varieties of whiskey, mostly bourbons.

With some thought, especially after sampling the food, both with my friend Jinger and later with my friend Louis, I decided to give myself a new year's resolution worth pursuing and enhancing my life in 2012. My goal, to sample all of the whiskeys at Izakaya Meiji Company in 2012.

I set up ground rules for my resolution. In order to fund this venture, I have decided not to bring alcohol into my home. I am not limiting myself to whiskey for 2012, but if I do have beer or wine, it will be with friends, either with dinner or when I go to visit them. Next ground rule: I cannot order a double. No mixed drinks. When I go to Izakaya Meiji, I will either have whiskey or water. My whiskey can be neat or on the rocks. And the final ground rule I have, in order to hopefully make this venture a successful one, I cannot repeat a whiskey until my resolution is complete.

This amounts to an average of 2 to 3 drinks per week -- very much in moderation. And very much worth aspiring too. I hope to share this with friends, old & new, and I am really looking forward to warmth, good food, great conversation, and lovely spirits in 2012.