Ohio River Water Fizz

by J.S. Holland

In these times when the Ohio River is flooding right up against the back of Butchertown, and is increasingly laced with radioactive rainwater from the orient, it seemed like a good idea to order this river-water themed bev'age at my latest bar to obsess over, the Blind Pig.

And it sure does look like river water - it's dark, murky, cloudy, with a brown-gray hue not far off from the color of raw industrial sewage. The gigantic sprig of lovely fresh mint sticking out of it is almost perverse by contrast, like putting lipstick on a pig. But it's good. Real good.

It sounds as bad as it looks when you roll your grapes over the ingredients - it's Tanqueray and root beer, with coffee bitters and egg whites thrown in the witch's brew for kicks. I wonder how many of these they would sell if they simply called it a Tanqueray and Root Beer? But it is good.


I reckon at this point I'm just going to plow my way through the entire repertoire of house-specialty cocktails at the B-Pig. As much as I kvetch about places that have no specialty drinks at all, it's the least I can do. Their Bacon Manhattan is really yummy, but I have to wonder if anything can ever match the greatness of their Smokey and the Bandit cocktail.