If you mix an egg white and citrus in a drink, the acid sort of cooks the egg white and makes the drink creamy and yummy. I did not know that.

I suppose I knew meringue is a similar concept, but I’d never seen an egg white put into a cocktail.  I like surprises.  Not the jump out from behind the couch with noisemakers kind of surprises, but “wow, that was super cool!” surprises.

Lux is a coffee place.  I’ve talked about it before, but I will wax again.  I would honestly live there, move right in, if I could. Lux is like a dear grandmother’s kitchen meets…30 Seconds to Mars.  They serve great coffee, all their pastries are house made, they play opera in the morning and the sunlight streams in perfectly as if they have an arrangement with Mother Nature.  It’s never too cold or too hot, there are so many different kinds of people and they make the very best Mac and Cheese with Jalapeño Bacon.

It’s a float on a cloud kind of place.

Michael and I stopped for coffee a couple of Fridays ago.  We usually go for coffee, but we were a little later than usual. We sat at the counter and guess what?

Lux has a craft cocktail bar at night.  Well, I guess they are a regular bar too, but I’d never been to a craft cocktail bar.  They started setting up all of these interesting bottles and glasses and mixy things.

The guy behind the counter is a throw back to the 1920/30s and his name is…Blaze.  I’m thinking at this point things could not get much cooler.

Blaze, in his bow tie and leather string apron, starts making drinks.  I’m not exaggerating it is an art form, like watching any artist or musician hone and lovingly offer up their craft.  He has a tattoo of a bicycle (the ones with the big wheel in front and the little wheel in back) on his inner forearm.

After he makes me an apricot fizz (with the egg white), I ask him about the tattoo.  He tells us that it’s called a “ordinary bicycle” and it dates back to before bicycles were “chain powered”.  More history about the bicycle, and the time period in general, spill off his tongue, all while he’s shaking and stirring and slapping herbs into drinks.

I learned that Blaze rode one of these “ordinary bicycles” from Santa Barbara to San Francisco.  I also learned that a tincture is a single flavor or taste, while bitters is a combination of those tastes.  Blaze makes his own bitters and tinctures.  He makes one out of creosote.  I honestly could have sat there all night, actually we did sit there most of the night.

Blaze was a surprise and the very best kind of surprise, a people surprise.  I love when people amaze me, it restores my faith that I am sharing this planet with some utterly fascinating human beings, none of which make the news or the award shows.

My thoughts from the laundry room.  Stir.

Art drinking education fun life Spirit cocktails fun life Lux men people thoughts