598 replies to this topic

[Wilfrid]

Is New York any different?

No.

Except that, as a stretch, you might make out some kind of continuity between the very old bars and restaurants still in existence and an arm-garter driven, bewhiskered cocktail culture.

But that would be a stretch, and given the 80+% African American demographic in Detroit, and the urban decay, you would stun me if even that stretch could be applied there.

[Daniel]

hmmm..

[Daniel]

I went to a cocktail bar the other day, Dick and Janes in Cliton HIll.. It was so refreshing to get a pretty decent cocktail without having my bartender having a handlebar mustache, wearing suspenders and trying to speak to me about the upcoming Civil War that Lincoln is getting us involved in.

It might have helped that all the bartenders were pretty hot, suicide looking girls.

[Wilfrid]

And they didn't give you any nonsense about reviving a long-lost hot suicide girl culture?

[oakapple]

Detroit is a company town. It will succeed or fail based on how the industry evolves. There isn't really much else there.

It's a bit more complicated than that. (I'm an ex-Detroiter and my mother still lives there.) The city of Detroit has lost half its population since the 1950s, with a good deal of it going to the suburbs. There are still plenty of highly affluent areas surrounding Detroit, but almost none in the city itself. It's like an apple with a rotten core. Now, Detroit is indeed a one-industry town that is heavily cyclical, but for the decline of the city itself over such a long period, that is not the sole explanation.

[Daniel]

And they didn't give you any nonsense about reviving a long-lost hot suicide girl culture?

No they did not. But my wife commented that they were hot suicide girls so I am allowed to repeat it.

[Wilfrid]

You probably didn't even notice until your wife pointed it out. Happens to me all the time.

[Sneakeater]

Actually the Lenape Indians looked just like this:

[Wilfrid]

They don't call you Deerslayer for nothing.

[Nathan]

of course, leaving aside some of the affectations (and the mingling of 1920's speakeasies with 1870's cocktail culture), the connection between SCB's today and the cocktail culture of the 1870's and 1880's isn't entirely tenuous. they really did call them mixologists then and Jerry Thomas was a real dude.

[joethefoodie]

Actually the Lenape Indians looked just like this:

I'll have that Negroni now.

[Lex]

I'll have that Negroni now.

I'll have two.

[Sneakeater]

If Oakapple still doubts that some people actively prefer restaurants without amenities, I invite him to check out the comments to the Eater post about the new Manhattan Mile End sandwich shop.

[oakapple]

If Oakapple still doubts that some people actively prefer restaurants without amenities, I invite him to check out the comments to the Eater post about the new Manhattan Mile End sandwich shop.

My "doubts" about that have probably been overstated. It was always obvious that some people preferred this. I just felt that we ought to be doing a better job of educating them.

[Sneakeater]

You can't educate people to like what they don't like.

It's not like these people don't know about coat checks, seats, etc. They know about them and don't want them.