Our friend Joe seems to have had a particularly difficult month of June and requested that I do weekly cocktails for a while. If people dig this, I’ll keep it up; anyone who knows me knows that I’ll use any excuse to try a new cocktail. =)
The first time I heard of a Tom Collins was when my mother told me the story of how she and my dad met. They were in a bar (where I believe a lot of good couples meet) in San Jose, California and she said, “he wanted to buy me a drink and I remember he came to ask me what it was I would have. I was drinking Tom Collins back then.” I liked that she talked of a period of her life when she had a drink that she drank exclusively; I think it lends a strange romance to the story and somehow captures time — even crystallizes it. My mom has little or no idea of how good a story teller she is, and I often wonder if she learned the art from my dad, who was exceptional at regaling an audience with hilarious vignettes. The major difference between their styles, I would say, is that my mom includes little details that, on the surface, seem of little importance, but that add a richness to scenes that play out from her words.
