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David Wondrich

@davidwondrich.bsky.social

2.9K followers 240 following 1.3K posts

Barroom historian. Author of Imbibe and Punch, Editor in Chief of the Oxford Companion to Spirits & Cocktails. Brooklynite and part-time Triestino. Ars gratia mercedis.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 14m

Czech railways really have train food nailed.

Sausages with rye bread, mustard and grated horseradish, with a mug of Pilsener Urquell to wash them down.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 2h

Cheerful little ladder guy, Bode Museum, Berlin.

Stylized early Medieval (Coptic? Byzantine?—can’t remember) carving of St Simeon Stylites climbing up to his pillar, with groceries, and then sitting on it.

Reposted by David Wondrich

Evan Rail @evanrail.bsky.social · 3h

Lufthansa has relaunched its in-flight cocktail at least 3 times since 2005. The original dates to the 1950s, or maybe earlier. That version has also been relaunched, though under a different name. Also: David Bowie.
The story, with help from @davidwondrich.bsky.social:
vinepair.com/articles/luf...

Flights of Fancy: The Long, Strange Backstory of Lufthansa’s Latest In-Flight Cocktail

Fans of interesting drinks at 35,000 feet got good news last year when German airline Lufthansa announced the arrival of Avionic, a custom in-flight aperitif. Developed with help from award-winning ba...

vinepair.com

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Reposted by David Wondrich

the babahuck @tylerhuckabee.bsky.social · 3d

In 2004, Parisian police were conducting a training exercise in the french catacombs and found, after moving past a desk and a tape playing audio of snarling dogs, a fully functional movie theater and bar. When they returned 3 days later, the equipment was gone, with a note: “Do not try to find us.”

Members of the force's sports squad, responsible
- among other tasks - for policing the 170 miles of tunnels, caves, galleries and catacombs that underlie large parts of Paris, stumbled on the complex while on a training exercise beneath the Palais de Chaillot, across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower.
After entering the network through a drain next to the Trocadero, the officers came across a tarpaulin marked: Building site, No access.
Behind that, a tunnel held a desk and a closed-circuit TV camera set to automatically record images of anyone passing. The mechanism also triggered a tape of dogs barking, "clearly designed to frighten people off," the spokesman said.
Further along, the tunnel opened into a vast 400 sq metre cave some 18m underground, "like an underground amphitheatre, with terraces cut into the rock and chairs".

There the police found a full-sized cinema screen, projection equipment, and tapes of a wide variety of films, including 1950s film noir classics and more recent thrillers. None of the films were banned or even offensive, the spokesman said.
A smaller cave next door had been turned into an informal restaurant and bar. "There were bottles of whisky and other spirits behind a bar, tables and chairs, a pressure-cooker for making couscous," the spokesman said.
"The whole thing ran off a professionally installed electricity system and there were at least three phone lines down there."
Three days later, when the police returned accompanied by experts from the French electricity board to see where the power was coming from, the phone and electricity lines had been cut and a note was lying in the middle of the floor: "Do not," it said, "try to find us."

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 2d

Clearly I must go!

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 2d

Nice. Lovely city.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 2d

Of course I went. Yes, bonkers.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 2d

Hamburg. Who knew?

A canal, between modern brick buildings.

Another canal, between old brick warehouses.

A very tall Gothi-style church spire (St. Nikolai).

A very pleasant city square with trees and an ornate old stone apartment building behind them.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 3d

I’m far gone. I just listen to the stuff; pretty much goes into the same earhole as, say, Pink Floyd or Sonny Rollins or whatever. I did write a book on the stuff, which involved a great deal of desensitization, by which I mean listening.

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Reposted by David Wondrich

Old White Nepo Hat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 4d

Should the New York Times be sold to Pennysaver and its editors sent to work in Amazon warehouses? It depends on who you ask.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 4d

“Whiskey americano.” Ouch.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Have no idea what Nguyen is doing in that sentence—I sure as hell didn’t ask him in—but as long as he’s here he’d better have a Mai Tai, too.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

I strongly Nguyen suspect your mom was human, and in my experience humans really do like Mai Tais. There may be some circular reasoning here, but hey, let it fly high like a bird up in the sky.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Very glad you appreciate the book!

Reposted by David Wondrich

Frank Caiafa @handlebarsnyc.bsky.social · 5d

Check out the full review here:

handlebarsnyc.com/home-bar-hop...

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Yeah, Jelly Roll's at the end of a process that began long before, but at least "Old Plunk," as Vess was known, wasn't at the beginning of it. There's definitely some funk in his playing. (It probably helped that he was from the old Husdon River whorehouse-and-honky tonk town of Hudson.)

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

"St. Louis Tickle," Vess L. Ossman with the Ossman-Duddley Trio, 1906:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afec...

ST LOUIS TICKLE by the Ossman-Dudley Trio 1906

YouTube video by cdbpdx

www.youtube.com

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Present, sir.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

I am a ragmaniac, alas.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Heh.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

You’re working on it, I think.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Truth. In general, I disregard any recommendation of ‘70s-‘90s rock. There is the occasional exception.

David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

I hate being the oldest person in the bar, as happens at far too many new cocktail joints.

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Even if 95% of everything is crap that still gives you an extra 4 or 5 decades of that golden 5%. I mean, a life without Ellington’s 1928 “Misty Morning” would be a life diminished.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=pITr...

Duke Ellington - Misty Morning (1928)

YouTube video by Jazz Everyday!

m.youtube.com

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David Wondrich @davidwondrich.bsky.social · 5d

Love that with the playlists. So much more refreshing than the usual cramped, narrowband lists you usually hear. Mountains of amazing records, waiting for people just out of earshot. And yeah, baby steps with the uninitiated.

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