I'm still missing Memphis at the Santora, the pioneering downtown SanTana restaurant that was my neighborhood locale for about a decade and tragically closed down earlier this year. I still haven't made the transition over to the original Memphis Cafe, even though it's just down the street from Weekly world headquarters. Call me a beast of habit: this generation of Weeklings only goes there en masse to bid one of us farewell, or to meet sources in order to scare our enemies…HA!
Nevertheless, Memphis Cafe is stronger than it has been in years. Breakfast is now daily, our own Dave Mau is back to managing the bar, and they're changing up the cocktail list for the better. Consider the Memphis Stare-Down.
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Mau is a sucker for old times, so I'm not surprised he's put a brandy cocktail on the menu. Brandy is the drink of classy septuagenarians, as is Luxardo, amaretto, and dry curaçao, all of which make up the Stare-Down–it's like Trader Vic's meets Henry Hill's bar in Goodfellas. The sweet and the bitter get cut with a slash of lime juice, making this a drink that women can sip on, men can pound–and your faithful reporter can use to toast the past and get drunk in the present and future. Get to it!
Email: ga*******@oc******.com. Twitter: @gustavoarellano.
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