Easy Listening (and Drinking)
Vinyl’s back in a big way. New record stores, listening cafes and bars are popping up in neighborhoods across the country. If you’re looking for an album education, a trip down memory lane or simply a fun entry point into the world of vinyl, pick up Tenaya and André Darlington’s new book Booze and Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks (Running Press, 2018). The Philly-based brother-sister writing partners pair 70 great albums with “Side A” and “Side B” cocktails, including liner notes and recipes.
The book features albums released from the 1950s through the 2000s, organized by mood: Rock, Dance, Chill, and Seduce. “We like the idea of using cocktails to engage people with a culture,” Tenaya says. The drink recipes often tell a story or provide a glimpse of a musician’s lifestyle.
Booze and Vinyl is also an ode to the listening parties of another era, when people held home gatherings for newly released records. The Darlingtons’ dad was a classical musician, so they grew up watching their parents’ friends scoot their chairs into the center of the living room (for the best acoustics), gin-and-tonics in hand, to sit and appreciate a record from startto finish.
We suspect the book will nudge along a resurgence of listening parties, complete with just the right cocktails to set the mood.
Available April 17; visit boozeandvinyl.com for launch party details.
An operation this size has an impact on our local food economy. “We have a lot of buying power,” chef Eric Schlicht says. Each week, the kitchen uses two whole hogs from the Razorbacks and Barbed Wire farm in Lancaster County and about 100 pounds of Castle Valley’s Bloody Butcher Cornmeal, a lavender-tinged heirloom variety, which you can taste in the housemade scrapple (it’s a good use for the pork scraps, too).
As for the expansive shelf of jars near the entrance, they aren’t just part of the décor. They hold overflow from peak season: pickled carrots and asparagus for your brunch Bloody Mary, berry jams and preserved peaches to be served on buttermilk pancakes.
—K.R.
Urban Farmer
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