I love the idea of a Ladies’ Night, but too often it’s over-the-top fruity concoctions that give me more of a sugar hangover than the liquor does or it’s just full of ideas of what people think women like, and I end up mocking it the whole night. So I’m always on the lookout for happy hours that don’t make me feel like I’m beholden to giggling in a high pitch voice and revealing secrets from junior high.
That’s why Union at The Opposite House was such a treat. Now, I don’t get out much without the kids, and that definitely colors how high I rate anything beyond timing my beer with their attention span for their burger, but I feel confident saying that the Silk Road menu is one to be tried. We sat down to some delicious appetizers before starting our journey down the Silk Road, in both drink and delicious history.
Every drink has a story, and every sip offers a complex taste. Even sweet ones merged with fun spices and bitters, so that we wanted to take a minute and enjoy it, then parse out the ingredients.
I wouldn’t have chosen some of the sweeter drinks for myself, but Ami Tsou, Director of Communications for The Opposite House, had an amazing way of spreading the tastes throughout our table so that if one guest was tasting bitters the other had a sweet focus. I felt comfortable offering up my taste buds to her hands!
This anise concoction is meant to sip in small doses until the steam is steeped in its taste. This would be yummy by a fire after a snowstorm but was a tad too sweet to finish.
Another entrancing part of this experience was the cups they used to serve each drink and sometimes accompanying treat, like a sesame cracker in the Emperor’s Cup to wash down butter-washed bourbon whiskey, Chinato vermouth, coffee liqueur, and bitters.
How pretty is that design? Edible rice paper is almost too nice to remove for a sip.
Here was my favorite drink from those I tasted: the Siam-Old Fashioned (South and Southeast Asia – Thailand) is exactly to my taste. Its butter-washed bourbon whiskey, tawny port, stout reduction, pandon, taro, and mixed bitters gave me the perfectly deep, strong, and delicious ending to the new happy hour at Union.
I will return to you, my bitter friend.
KEEP READING: Where’s a Woman’s Rightful Place?
Images: Cindy Marie Jenkins
