Drink your way through history at The Imbible in NYC

Photo credit: Dixie Sheridan

Performed in a former Greenwich Village speakeasy, The Imbible: A Spirited History of Drinking is an entertaining performance piece that takes a crowd of eager-to-sip New Yorkers and savvy out-of-towners on a musical tour of the history of alcohol.

The brainchild of engaging, tuneful, and slightly hyperactive mixologist and barbershop quartet singer Anthony Caporale, The Imbible starts out in prehistoric times – where a pile of harvested wheat doused by rain is recovered soaked in a bubbly, happy-making brew – the first beer! Anthony takes a scientific approach and enlightens the crowd that alcohol had tremendous medicinal value before it was drunk for a good time, telling us that cavemen that drank beer were not only happier but just happened to live longer thanks to alcohol’s antiseptic qualities.

We go from the cave dwellers to Egyptians and beyond, and as the millennia turn, the quartet of actors (two boys, two girls) make numerous quick costume changes all while singing in four part harmony, and, on three occasions, handing out historically appropriate cocktails.

To celebrate the birth of beer, we enjoyed mighty tasty Shandies (Coney Island brewery's Overpass IPA mixed with gingerale).  Then when we traveled across the sea with the East India Company, we learned that Brits stationed in India mixed their malaria prevention (quinine-containing tonic) with their daily gin rations.  As we drank a very limey and refreshing gin and tonic we newly appreciated this summer standard for its medicinal qualities.

For me, I felt like I was back in class at the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET), when Anthony placed a ridiculously adorable miniature copper pot still on the bar and rasped lyrical about distillation and the heads and tails.  Sigh, good old WSET was never such fun.  And after learning how whiskey was made, we got to enjoy a Ginger-Orange Old Fashioned, which was a drink that became popular after Prohibition, because it was made the “old fashioned” way – in other words, not with nearly-toxic bathtub gin!

Anthony and his merry band sang, mugged, served, and cheerfully presented about 10,000 years of booze history in a breezy hour and a half.  For those who appreciate theater, barbershop quartet music, and the chance to think (a little) as they drink, The Imbible makes a great evening out. 

La Nuit en Rose sails on the Hornblower Infinity

This year La Nuit en Rose was aboard the beautiful Hornblower Infinity Yacht, which sailed from Pier 15 near South Street Seaport onto the Hudson and East Rivers.

This year’s sold out event, which bills itself as “The World’s First Rose Wine Festival,” was a wonderful showcase of what seems to be everyone’s go-to summer style of wine.  In fact, the Infinity was packed stern to bow with rose wines from all over the world – France, Spain, United States, South Africa and more.  There is not a more fun way to sample the many styles, colors, and flavors of rose wine than at this annual event.

The event included delicious food, including melt-in-your-mouth croque monsieurs, rich cheeses, an olive bar, and -- in the VIP area -- mountains of shrimp cocktail and tiered displays of petit fours. 

An informational booklet at the event explained some cool facts about rose, and included a world map that pinpointed where it is consumed the most. No surprise to anyone who’s been to the Hamptons that it’s the U.S.!  France is the largest producer of rose wine, followed by Italy and the U.S.

So, who comes out for a full-rose event?  There was an elegant crowd, many of whom got into the spirit by dressing in every shade of pink imaginable.   The event received major sponsorship from Wine Enthusiast, and copies of their latest issue were available to attendees.