GUD BLOG: SINGLE POST
Breaking News: Elitism Runs Rampant in Cocktail Bars!
We’re under siege, folks. Less than a year after the first dedicated cocktail bar opened in the metro Detroit area, elitism and ego-maniacal bartenders are ruining the spirit of the bar. Gone are the good old days of showing up to a bar, having a nice chat, and paying for whiskey with that lone dollar bill you had crammed into your pack of smokes.
Or at least, that’s what Christine Sismondo of Huffington Post is claiming.
I recognize that linking back to their post is exactly what they’re after with these types of trolls, but (a) our tiny ass website isn’t going to make much a difference one way or the other and (b) I hate the obnoxious practice of requiring a login from Facebook or Twitter in order to respond, so I’m going to write up my response (some uneducated folks might call it a “rant” or something) right here instead.
In comparison with cork-sniffing and vintage-cataloguing, quaffing cocktails seemed a lot more fun — and a whole lot less like work. That was 10 years ago, an era when cranberry juice reigned behind the bar, insisting on fresh citrus was considered crazy and the shaken martini was still de rigeur.
I find claims of sweeping elitism from those who, unlike those of us in and around Detroit, have had seemingly regular access to craft cocktails for a decade to be more than a little disingenuous. I wonder if the author went back to drinking nothing but Jack with sour mix and G&Ts for 5 years if she’d feel the same way.
After she gives us quick history of the resurgence of craft cocktails, we get this gem:
As bartenders are downright fetishized for their ability to combine specific spirits, I feel we’re losing some of the spirit of the bar. People are there to have a good time and meet people, not to pray at the altar of the cocktail.
OK, actually, I agree. After all, every moment of every day is all about ME, and the last thing I should do is go out to enjoy something interesting that someone else worked hard to make. Deriving pleasure from eating and drinking the result of someone else’s time and effort is so yesterday. Who cares if it’s a unique drink that I can’t make it at home? Pass the Blueberry Stoli.
Also, I find that I dine out just to fill up and chat with my friends, not to derive any real satisfaction from what I’m eating. I’m not there “to pray at the altar” of the chef, so I’m just going to patronize McDonald’s from now on. Why deal with pretentious servers talking about farmers and shit when I can just have a seat in an uncomfortable plastic booth and shovel food in my face while eking out a little conversation betwixt huge bites?
There are other aspects of fine drinking (as opposed to fine dining) that are less than democratic. Craft cocktail bars aren’t your drop-by-after-work-and-chat-with-Norm kind of places.
Uh, really? In every city I’ve ever been, I’ve made decent pals with the bartenders at the cocktail bars I’ve gone to. And here in Detroit, anyone who thinks Dave, Chuck, Yani, Lucy, John, and Rick at the Sugar House and Sandy, Adrianne, and Jackie from the Oakland aren’t friendly are crazy.
Also, while it is true that I do not in fact know anyone named Norm with whom I can chat at either of those bars (or any of the other bars in Michigan for that matter), I do see someone I know every time I go to them. Granted, most of my friends are lushes, and this isn’t New York with its 800 million people, but whatever.
Why are we trying to de-socialize the emblem of sociability? And then there’s the price. It’s not unusual for a cocktail to run between $12 and $16 these days.
Sounds like she lives in a crappy place with crappy bars. Move to another city, crazy lady. Par example, as the French would say, Detroit’s tres cool, as the French would also say.
Then after you move to Detroit, if you don’t want an elitist bowl of sea urchin foam layered atop gold-infused gin, just order an Old Fashioned at the Sugar House, which is made well and will cost you five whole dollars. Come to think of it, is there a bar in your city where they are forcibly dumping cinnamon bitters and egg whites down customers’ throats and charging 20 bucks? Because that actually would be a problem worth writing about in HuffPo.
But just in case elitism is even a small component, I’m doing my part to fight it — I’m switching back to wine. And the occasional vodka.
Thank goodness! Because first growth Bordeaux and Grey Goose have absolutely no problem with snobbery or exclusivity among those who serve or drink it. Keep on fighting the good fight!
Meanwhile, I’m going to thank my lucky stars that we’re no longer part of the era where our choices were basically a vodka and cran or a Bud Light. If that’s our alternative, I’ll relish a little elitism in my life.
2012.06.05 Evan Hansen at 5:55 pm
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6 Responses to Breaking News: Elitism Runs Rampant in Cocktail Bars!
Thank you… That author is not blogging. She’s whining.
I lol’d like 10 times reading this.
I’d have to read her entire post to judge her fairly, but I can’t help wondering if she has ever been to any large city in her entire life. Because last time I visited places like New York, Chicago, San Francisco, London, Montreal, etc., a *glass of wine* was twenty bucks.
My husband and I escaped our children and went to Sugar House for the first time last weekend, on the advice of friends who go regularly. The decor is gorgeous and my fancified whiskey sour (“Corktown Sour”) was exquisite and fairly priced. My first time in New York, in the late 1990s, I went to a Detroit-themed bar that served Stroh’s in a can. I’m sorry, but as far as gentrification goes, I’ll take the art and craft of Sugar House over faux down-and-out any day.
http://housewiferiot.wordpress.com/
I went to Sugar House for the first time last weekend, and it was fabulous! I’ll have to check out The Oakland. I am so with you, and I love the ways you write. If you want a dive bar, they’re a dime a dozen. Just because some of us want a more unusual experience and are willing to pay for it doesn’t mean we’re tying others up and dragging them along.
I know I’m a little late to the party on this, but loved your post/rant. I read the HuffPo article last week just before a trip to NYC and got nervous. Luckily I found a couple of solid cocktail joints that lacked the “qualities” cited by Ms. Sismondo. While they were no Sugar House or Oakland, I was pretty pleased with the friendly service and drink quality (even if I was paying NY prices for them).
LMAO, I’ve stumbled into the foofy, first-world, well-to-do-twentysomethings part of the blogosphere again. This particular specimen comes complete with elitist, banal yammering and ranting about stuff nobody cares about in the first place.