When In Salem, Do As Witches Brew: Bourbon
I am a firm believer that the best travel days are the unplanned ones. I prefer the barest of provisioning, a skeleton of an agenda, and hopes for happy stumbles to plane tickets, scheduled dinners and fuss.
Last weekend I went to see my college roommate in Boston. She’d been working too hard and needed an excuse to play outside the city. We went apple picking in Ipswich and stumbled upon a chowder festival, then went lobster-roll hunting and fell upon a party in Salem, Massachusetts.
Turns out that for the entire month of October, Salem is a Halloween festival for adults. The cobblestone streets running the length of downtown are filled with vendors selling witches’ hats, reading tarot, and yes, offering the ubiquitous street-fair kettle korn (I cannot resist it’s power). There are bats in the trees, men in capes, and the ghosts of the women who were killed for sorcery in the late 1600s. Don't believe me? Go feel the vibe for yourself.
I love Halloween, but as it turns out, I'm a bit too prim to dress up the way so many women do. Gone are the days of my Tattinger Girl and Sex Cat costumes. The last time I tried to hedge my bets with cute (Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz), my boyfriend's ex showed up as Rollergirl and I won the frump award. No thanks.
To put ourselves in the mood, we signed up for a dungeon tour led by an enthusiastic Australian in a top hat. Spoooooky. With time to kill, we hopped on our brooms and flew over to the Salem's central hotel, to get our Octoberfest on.
After wading our way through the weddings thick with coastal Mass accents (no, they’re not joking), we relaxed at the bar. Within minutes, two witches sat on the stools next to us. They had long black and green hair, hats with blinking lights, and long black dresses. They carried small cauldrons of something, and my drinking partner couldn’t help but inquire, “Whatcha got in that cauldron?”
“Eye of newt. Would you like one?” Witch 1 asked.
“Yes, please,” said my friend.
We unwrapped and sucked on our crisp chocolate balls, not sure where this conversation would lead. They began:
“We Halloween in Salem every year,” said Witch 2. Some summer, others winter. They Halloween; these women were living my dream.
“We’re up from Philadelphia for the weekend. We’re old high school pals," added Witch 1.
Soon we were talking about jobs, kids, and where one could get a good deal on a witches hat in Salem. They ordered 2 bourbons on the rocks.
And then Witch 1 removed a packet from her frock, added something to her drink and mashed it down with a spoon. “You never know if a bar will have good mint, so I bring my own,” she explained.
If you want a Halloween potion done right, best to make it yourself.
Bourbon Drinks
from Cocktaildb.com:
Mint Julep
Boston Sour
Manhattan
Hot Brick Toddy
American Grogg
Last weekend I went to see my college roommate in Boston. She’d been working too hard and needed an excuse to play outside the city. We went apple picking in Ipswich and stumbled upon a chowder festival, then went lobster-roll hunting and fell upon a party in Salem, Massachusetts.
Turns out that for the entire month of October, Salem is a Halloween festival for adults. The cobblestone streets running the length of downtown are filled with vendors selling witches’ hats, reading tarot, and yes, offering the ubiquitous street-fair kettle korn (I cannot resist it’s power). There are bats in the trees, men in capes, and the ghosts of the women who were killed for sorcery in the late 1600s. Don't believe me? Go feel the vibe for yourself.
I love Halloween, but as it turns out, I'm a bit too prim to dress up the way so many women do. Gone are the days of my Tattinger Girl and Sex Cat costumes. The last time I tried to hedge my bets with cute (Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz), my boyfriend's ex showed up as Rollergirl and I won the frump award. No thanks.
To put ourselves in the mood, we signed up for a dungeon tour led by an enthusiastic Australian in a top hat. Spoooooky. With time to kill, we hopped on our brooms and flew over to the Salem's central hotel, to get our Octoberfest on.
After wading our way through the weddings thick with coastal Mass accents (no, they’re not joking), we relaxed at the bar. Within minutes, two witches sat on the stools next to us. They had long black and green hair, hats with blinking lights, and long black dresses. They carried small cauldrons of something, and my drinking partner couldn’t help but inquire, “Whatcha got in that cauldron?”
“Eye of newt. Would you like one?” Witch 1 asked.
“Yes, please,” said my friend.
We unwrapped and sucked on our crisp chocolate balls, not sure where this conversation would lead. They began:
“We Halloween in Salem every year,” said Witch 2. Some summer, others winter. They Halloween; these women were living my dream.
“We’re up from Philadelphia for the weekend. We’re old high school pals," added Witch 1.
Soon we were talking about jobs, kids, and where one could get a good deal on a witches hat in Salem. They ordered 2 bourbons on the rocks.
And then Witch 1 removed a packet from her frock, added something to her drink and mashed it down with a spoon. “You never know if a bar will have good mint, so I bring my own,” she explained.
If you want a Halloween potion done right, best to make it yourself.
Bourbon Drinks
from Cocktaildb.com:
Mint Julep
Boston Sour
Manhattan
Hot Brick Toddy
American Grogg
posted by Allison Fishman Task at 12:21 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home