diptych # 59 / civilized ku # 2643-48 ~ paying the piper
Thursday, January 2, 2014 at 11:52AM 
Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Xmas dinner / Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Xmas dinner check/ Lake Placid Lodge ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Tuthilltown Spirits / in my kitchen ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenIn addition to all of the usual holiday comings and goings, the wife and I have been treated to life in sub-zero temperatures without a furnace. With 5 electric oil-filled radiators and a continuous raging fire in the fireplace we have manged to keep the house at a semi-tolerable 2-pair-wool-socks-thermal-underwear-turtleneck-wool-sweater-2-comforters+wool-blanket-on-the-bed temperature. The real challenge we face is finding a heating contractor that isn't booked solid with fix the furnace - as opposed to replace the furnace - emergencies.
In any event, the furnace failure (cracked boiler) was a post Xmas event, so the wife and I were able to enjoy our annual Xmas dinner at the
Lake Placid Lodge. The Lodge offers a 3-course prix fixe menu with only 3 choices for each course. The food at the Lodge is beyond excellent and the ambiance is warm and intimate rustic which makes for a very relaxing and enjoyable experience / meal. Especially so when one is blissfully unaware of the about to unfold furnace debacle.
That written, the Lodge is a rather pricey joint in which to dine what with a $102.00US bottle of wine (low cost on their wine list) and all. But what caught my attention - albeit not until day or two later when I actually looked at the check - was the fact that we had paid $24.00US for a pour of one of my favorite bourbons - Hudson Baby Bourbon from Tuthilltown Spirits , a downstate distillery. Tuthilltown Spirits is distilling whiskeys, the first to do so (legally) in New York State since Prohibition.
I really like the distillery's bourbons / whiskeys as is made evident by the picture of 4 of their 5 varieties sitting on my kitchen table. The 5th variety - a single malt whiskey - is on its way to my local liquor store. Each of the products offer forth, to the nose and the palette, a distinctly different take on their respective genres - rye, whiskey, bourbon, and unaged corn whiskey, aka: good ol' American high proof moonshine / white lightnin'.
For the uninitiated, bourbon / whiskey wise, a really great / interesting learning experience is to acquire the Corn Whiskey and the Baby Bourbon Whiskey and compare the 2 side-by-side. They are both made from the exact same mash. The difference in the end products is that, after distillation, one is aged in oak barrels while the other goes straight into the bottle without any aging. With this comparison, the color and taste of the barrel - which in a good whiskey / bourbon is a combination of different colors and many flavors - in the aged product is immediately apparent.
All of that written, back to the $24.00US pour of Hudson Baby Bourbon at the Lake Placid Lodge - most Tuthilltown whiskeys are priced at $40.00US for the 375ml bottles pictured above. Not cheap by any means, putting it in the upper reaches, cost wise, of excellent (but not rare) bourbons / whiskeys. However, one pour at the Lake Placid Lodge is more than half the cost of a bottle of Hudson Baby Bourbon. If I had had a second pour, for the same cost I could have purchased a bottle of the stuff and left the change from a $50.00 bill on the counter.
I guess all the nice Lake Placid Lodge warmth and rustic ambiance has a price.
Reader Comments (1)
Well, remember someone has to wash that glass.
Happy New Year.