Happinez by the Glass

The Victorian zeitgeist of my hometown lasted long into the twentieth century and is well characterized by the lengthy presence of the Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which still has some 5000 members worldwide. Even in the late sixties (1960s) and into the seventies, proper ladies did not enter a public drinking establishment, and the "ladies" who did (through their own special door with an escort!) were suspect. The "Swinging Sixties" and all that followed happened largely in a bubble of denial in terms of the city's self-view.

Harbourside, Saint John, NB

Fortunately, in the last ten to twenty years, the city has changed, leaving behind its brand of sternness and the ladies who did not drink.


How exciting now to see a downtown with many small restaurants and bars, some with small decks and patios where people can enjoy a drink outside. Nightly, there is music on the boardwalk beside the harbour - full with restaurants, bars, and people of all ages.

from the Happinez Bar website

My favourite discovery of this trip was The Happinez Wine Bar on Princess Street. In the lowest level of a late 19th C building, the bar has original exposed brick and stone, even an old bank vault that is now put to a much happier purpose as wine cellar.
The owner is personable and very knowledgable about his wine, of which there is a great selection. It really is "a little bar with lots of wine," as well as lots of atmosphere and service.

Saint John has changed its brand from the dutiful, stern city to one of fun and outdoor entertainment. The carpet stays out much later than it used to.

from the Happinez Bar website

And ladies may enter through the front door!

Coffee and Bordeaux? Neaux, Neaux!

According to a May 2010 article in the New York Times Style section by Eric Asimov, Bordeaux is no longer popular among younger wine drinkers, who perceive it as stodgy and fussy, a drink for rich older people, a wine with not much excitement to recommend it:

Bordeaux, some young wine enthusiasts say, is stodgy and unattractive. They see it as an expensive wine for wealthy collectors, investors and point-chasers, people who seek critically approved wines for the luxury and status they convey rather than for excitement in a glass...

''The perception of Bordeaux for my generation, it's very Rolex, very Rolls-Royce,'' said Cory Cartwright, 30, ... ''I don't know many people who like or drink Bordeaux.'' ...

To be fair, Asimov writes broadly of problems and perceptions of the Bordeaux brand. But according to the article: "For young Americans in particular, Bordeaux has become downright unfashionable."

Coffee is another product beginning to lose its lustre. An article in Mindfood (June 2010) - "Trendy Tea Consumers Revive Industry" by Miral Fahmy - suggests that tea is "attracting younger, more discerning fans."
Elsewhere on the web are instructions and suggestions for different kinds of tea parties (not the political kind!).

On a recent visit to the local mall, I was surprised to see a new tea store, selling prepared tea drinks and loose tea and bags to prepare at home. I was also surprised to pick up a package of Starbucks coffee and see the possible new branding Starbucks Coffee and Tea. Sounds like tea is a slam dunk already.

Trends are interesting things, based as they so often are on the tastes of one's peers and so often not on the actual objective attributes of any particular item, be it shoes, wine, or tea. We all succumb to it.

I have often wondered, though, with my own generation's trends and those of others, just what our preconceived notions keep us from experiencing. How much pleasure and knowledge do we let go by because it's not "in," because no self-respecting________(fill in your own blank here) would ever enjoy something so not in style, so old, so loud, so irresponsible? So passe.

Sometimes it is all about identity. I well remember a friend's then seventeen-year-old son having a near meltdown when his dad won the bet that the son's favourite band's so popular song was a cover of a song from a band of dad's era -  twenty years before.  It wasn't about the song, but about who was cool, who owned cool, who invented cool.

I'd like to have it all - the coffee and tea, the bordeaux and burgundy. Fashion also loses some of its lustre as I get older - but that's probably not so cool - and the word "cool" is probably s-o-o-o o old-fashioned!

Days of Wine and Yoga

A war has broken out in the American yoga community among the purists, the peckish, and the profit margin.

Julia Moskin writes about it in the NYTimes - "When Chocolate and Chakras Collide" - January26/10.

The traditionalists believe that the goal of yoga should be largely philosophic and spiritual, with  practice that leads to the purification of the body and mind, and hence to unity. Bacon, burgers, and Brie en croute are not on the purists list as acceptable ingredients for the good yogic life.

The peckish like their meat and their wine and argue that the traditionalists are judgemental. The peckish also, like all good interpreters of scripture, find justification for their choices in various texts from the Hindu, Buddhist, and Jainist canons.

For some, though, the profit margin is paramount, and they have seen an opportunity to offer innovative yoga with music, wine, and gourmet food - all from the convenience of one's yoga mat in a class of other like-minded yo-gourmets.

The tempest arising from these conflicting views about the proper approach and attitude to yoga seems to exist only in a tea pot, or wine glass, as the case may be.

Yoga has been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, and will likely suffer in no way from adoption by yet another group of practioners with a different perspective. Yoga has already survived, either because or in spite of, the different paths along which its adherents have taken it.

In North America, especially, yoga has a checkered history. In the seventies, anyone who practiced was suspect - flaky at least, subversive of good honest religion at worst. Religious groups were particularly vigilant in overseeing such an exotic practice from The East.

 I say, to each his own. It seems so odd to have such arguments over the choice to have cheese with the Downward Dog or not. (Would that be a cheese dog?) I guess our egos can make an argument about anything - rather counterproductive for the yogi, one would think.

The solution is easy. Purists will follow traditional practices and get what they want from that. The peckish will have their days of wine and yoga and heightened gustatory experience. The profit margin will blossom.

So everyone should take a deep Alternating Breath and just relax.

Brewing Up History

US archaeologist Patrick McGovern does archaeology that I could eagerly take to, quite unlike the archaeology I encountered as an undergraduate - parabolic dental arcades and detailed descriptions of molars not exactly being my cup or tea.

Frank Thadeusz, in an article in Spiegel Online (Dec 24/09), writes about McGovern:  "The expert on identifying traces of alcohol in prehistoric sites reckons the thirst for a brew was enough of an incentive to start growing crops."

That's right - beer (and wine and mead) not bread as the primary impetus for humans to learn how to plant and raise grains and other crops.  Has our understanding of human history been in the grip of some version of the Women's Christian Temperance Union?

Well no more!

Evidence suggests that "the craft of making alcohol spread rapidly to various locations around the world during the Neolithic period." McGovern

carried the theory much further, aiming at a complete reinterpretation of humanity's history. His bold thesis, which he lays out in his book "Uncorking the Past. The Quest for Wine, Beer and Other Alcoholic Beverage," states that agriculture -- and with it the entire Neolithic Revolution, which began about 11,000 years ago -- are ultimately results of the irrepressible impulse toward drinking and intoxication.

McGovern finds traces and sometimes whole preserved samples of different alcoholic concoctions from around the world:

"Available evidence suggests that our ancestors in Asia, Mexico, and Africa cultivated wheat, rice, corn, barley, and millet primarily for the purpose of producing alcoholic beverages," McGovern explains. While they were at it, he believes, drink-loving early civilizations managed to ensure their basic survival.

The "hybrid swill" our Neolithic ancestors produced was nutritious and much easier to make than bread, although one scenario for manufacture isn't so appealing:

Lacking any knowledge of chemistry, prehistoric humans eager for the intoxicating effects of alcohol apparently mixed clumps of rice with saliva in their mouths to break down the starches in the grain and convert them into malt sugar...These pioneering brewers would then spit the chewed up rice into their brew. Husks and yeasty foam floated on top of the liquid, so they used long straws to drink from narrow necked jugs.

Thank goodness for modern brewing techniques and for centuries of the winemaker's art. (Although anyone who has ever tried it can attest to the effects of drinking beer through a straw!)

Perhaps as we raise a glass to our Neolithic forebears, we can find a reason in this new understanding of human history to take ourselves less seriously.