Original Article: http://dartreview.com/archives/2007/01/25/barretts_mixology.php
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Foot Falls
Enough Sangria to satiate a
garden party
Remove shoe, Fill, Enjoy,
Carry on
My annual summer garden party was in full swing. The band I had hired was earning its keep, churning out a delightfully toe-tapping version of Dave Brubeck’s ‘Take Five’, although it was barely audible above the buzz of my guests mingling and laughing on the west patio. The caterers were serving the most scrumptious miniature oyster puffs my palate had ever encountered and it was shaping up to be the social event of the season…per usual. I perused the crowd, grinning ear-to-ear as I reveled in my party-planning expertise, when a hush began to spread over the pack until the minglers stopped their mingling and the laughers stopped their laughing. The only sound that remained was a hesitant rendition of Oscar Peterson’s ‘These Foolish Things.’ I ran about the crowd in a panic, flailing my arms and screaming, “Why!? Why have you ceased your mingling? I demand you continue to mingle!” Just then, one of the foppishly dressed bartenders pulled me aside and whispered four words into my ear. I had found the source of my party’s interruption: the liquor had ceased to flow; we were out of cups! I looked around at a hundred deadpan-faced guests all wielding empty vessels. I had no words. I simply stared back; when my most trusted friend, Topper Side, informed the mob that all was well. And in a single motion he flipped off his loafer and thrust it onto the bar. The bartender sheepishly filled the shoe to the brim with my famous sangria that never failed to impress. Topper threw it back and everyone saw that it was good. Before long the garden party was back in full swing and I had a hundred happy, albeit one-shoed, guests on my patio once again.