Absinthe_1900

I remember going there when I was very young. (The Rice Village Location)
They had coffee with some kind of red coloring in it they called "Pirate's Blood" that my Mom ordered.

On 9/29/2022 at 11:07 PM, Clifford said:

I have 4 childhood favorites from the 60s. Very obscure. I wonder if anyone remembers them? I even have a hard time being sure of their names and locations. 

 

Another was the best Italian I've ever had called Leonardo's. There were flip-card movie machines and other antiques. Best real Italian food. It was south of Westbury, out Hillcroft, somewhere. 

 

I remember Leonardo's very well, I used get my late long suffering Mom, to take me there as a kid.
I used to save my change to feed the Nickelodeon machines that were all over the restaurant.
Loved the Italian food there, and had a lot of fun playing all the antique machines.
I'd always buy a pack of Sen-Sen that they had at the cash register, and the coin operated Edison cylinder players went on to inspire me to collect a few antique wind up phonographs 
 

There was one on Kirby that went up around '68 or so, I was there at the Grand Opening because Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were doing appearances at the opening of the chain.

The Kirby location may have been the first in Houston, due to their appearance. I remember there was a big crowd of kids and parents to see them.

- Was the building where Spec's is one big store originally? Was it a Globe or Sage?

It was Woolco.

Here's Vittorio's for you:

Thanks,

I wonder if any pictures survive when Vittorio just had the little Village Diner, before he built that location. (He had an ancient diner/cafeteria before then)

I believe that was Meyer Brothers.  Women’s and children’s clothing, no men’s?  Then it was an antique store before being taken over by Half Price.

There was a meat locker on Kelvin, south of Rice, east side of the street, about where Evoke is now.  A co-worker and I bought a side of beef there ca. 71, had it cut and wrapped to our specifications and rented a locker.  I ate a lot of beef that year, got sick and tired of it.  After we ate it all up, neither one of us wanted to do it again.

It will always be just The Village to me, not Rice Village.  That’s the way it was advertised, on radio and in print.

The old Meyer Bros. store was the last incarnation for The Catacombs Club in 1969, it didn't last very long before it was closed down due to the crowds. (I suspect West U. PD tagged a lot of people when they left the Catacombs)

The meat locker was Martin & Klix, I remember the name from my days of wandering through The Village as a kiddo.

I miss the old Village Cafeteria/Vittorio's, my Mom and I ate there all the time. Onetime we stopped by, and all of Vittorio's family was excited that Frank Sinatra came by the Italian restaurant side, the night before. They had autographed menus from Sinatra, and his party, I wish we had gone in the night before. That must have been a sight to see in the old Village.

The train was called the "Green Diamond," it was part of a group of early articulated diesel streamliners, like the Pioneer Zephyr, and M-10,000.

Beautiful machines.

Would anyone have pictures of or know where Sybil Leek’s Cauldron, restaurant circa 1970s, was located in Rice Village (Houston, Tx)? I'm aware it was first located where Charlies used to be which I believe was 611 Hyde Park Boulevard, Houston, TX., then moved to Rice Village.

If I remember correctly, it was where the childrens section of Half Price Books is now.

Nice! Was the pool at the St. Francis up front by the road? I can't tell from aerials..

Yes, the pool was up front, they had two different swimming pools from my memory.

Sometime between '62 when the photo was taken, and the mid '60s they had a larger pool installed toward the front.

My parents were friends with the family that owned the St. Francis, I have photos going back before I was born, of my Mom and Dad hanging out there in the 1950s.

I'll have to look through the photos and see if there are more of the building.

The pool area at the St. Francis back in '62.

The lady at the right was the owner. (We knew their family quite well)

A pre-school absinthe drinker sitting on the patio table with her granddaughter.

I remember all the neon lights from those days, I can't bring myself to drive down there and see how it changed.

Are you talking about this one? This one is from a Tulsa station in the 1970s.

This is the one 26 ran in the very early 70s.

http://www.jfredmacdonald.com/aifg/playaifg152.htm

Are you talking about this one? This one is from a Tulsa station in the 1970s.

The one ch 26 ran was different, this site has a copy of the original one I saw back when 26 was KVRL / KDOG :

http://www.macfilms.com/mixed%20ads%20181-190.htm

MIXED ADS 189

10) PSA: The Lord’s Prayer: Shows an elderly American Indian man performing the Lord’s Prayer in Native American sign language——performed by Chief Shatka Bear-Step, voice-over by Walt Conley, contributed by the Appaloosa Horse Club.

One of the things I remember buying there was a beer can lamp. I know somebody else has to remember these. They sold them in all different colors, beer or soda cans, and they had this sort of flickering fillament in them that looked like a flame when you pluged it in. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world as a kid, but you can't find these anywhere now. Lava lamps, sure... but not those.

Memories of Spencer's Gifts.

7Up started it with a TV commercial that had one of those oscillating filament bulbs in a 7Up can lamp. I had one around 1970 when I was a kid.

You can find the 7Up can lamps on eBay, the colored oscillating bulbs are very scarce, though you can substitute one of these:

http://www.kyp-go.com/products.htm Balafire bulb.

He'll be waiting a long time, there never was any absinthe that can do that.

Vectorworks for CAD, and Renderworks are my choice, and I use Artlantis for rendering as well.

When I drink absinthe I never use sugar.

If I drink amber colored booze, it's usually 18 year old Sazerac Rye, Jack reminds too much of my misspent youth.

The only psychoactive component in absinthe is the alcohol.

There is no "good stuff" from Eastern Europe, and the thujone myth has been debunked by modern studies, the crap from Eastern Europe is cheap vodka mixed with steam extracted essences, and artificial color, sold to suckers thinking they will trip when they drink it.

Vintage absinthe never contained high levels of thujone, the majority of it stays in the still during distillation.

Absinthe as a drink when properly distilled and colored is delicious, it was never a horribly bitter drink, if it was, why would millions of people in France drink it during it's heyday? The sugar ritual came about in part as a way to attract women to drinking absinthe, and general tastes for a sweetened drink back in the day.

I've had absinthe ranging from 100 year old Pernod Fils, and artisanal made absinthe distilled from vintage recipes, you won't trip, see the green fairy, or cut off your ear, it's just a very pleasant drink with a complicated history.

If one likes aniseed based liquor you'll probably like absinthe, if not then you probably won't.

Right on about the Vert stuff being awful! Actually, so far all the absinthe we've tried is rotgut when taken traditionally. Absinthe is a special corner of the cocktail snobbery world that I am perfectly happy to leave be, lol. Eh, I'm a bourbon and rye person anyway.

Try a Sazerac, it's great drink: http://www.neworleansabsinthehistory.com/2...ink-of-new.html

That LTV swill won't glow under either one, it just lays in the glass, reeking of cheap alcohol and Aqua Velva.

More like blue Rotgut rather than glow in the dark rotgut.

It's almost sacrilegious that The Old Absinthe House has that swill under the same roof as the two historic fountains, and old bar.

From my collection, a little something from the old days of New Orleans:

G & G Hobby shop has been around for many years.

Or absinthe! Picked up a bottle of Le Tourment Vert, which is available at only one or two liquor stores in town (we got it at the one on Decatur in the quarter). Very good stuff and better than Lucid according to our own tests and everyone we spoke with. It ain't cheap, we got a bit of a deal at $58, the woman at the shop said it would be going up to $75 soon. Damn Euro. Also a couple of bottles of the local Sazerac Rye, which is the rye of choice for making sazeracs (rye, absinthe, simple syrup, and bitters).

Good times.

Le Tourment Vert is awful stuff that bears no resemblance to what a good absinthe should taste like.

Using that swill in a Sazerac is heresy. Herbsaint would be a better choice for a Sazerac.

Vieux Pontarlier absinthe, Vieux Carre absinthe, Leopold brothers absinthe, or Pacifique due to be released soon are much better choices.

Le Tourment Vert would make a better drain opener.

Channel 11 if I remember correctly had some guty sitting in a wing back chair and he would have call ins , contests , heck all kinds of worthless trivia to share . Hell, it was a hoot! The "bumper music was Whatever gets ya through tha night . man , what I would give to relive those times too............

Ed Shaver,scrubba

That was Roger Grey on ch. 26.

In the old days Channel 13 used to post the FBI's Most Wanted list prior to sign-off. That's where I first learned about Katherine Boudain and Bernardine Dohrn (wife of Bill Ayers, Obama's friend).

When I was a kid, I remember Ch.13 had Ray Conaway doing Conaway Comments just before Wanted By The FBI, this was back when they showed Laurel & Hardy shorts very late at night.

I remember the crash of the KULF Bird as I was a flying obsessed teenager at the time, I saw the wreckage after the Cessna had been moved to a hanger for the accident investigation.

Around 1976 when I was working on my pilot's license, a friend and I flew on the next KULF Bird with Dave Hale, who replaced Johnny Gilbert at KULF as their pilot.

I finally got power!!!!! Man you don't really know how good you have it until you lose it for a few days.

We got ours yesterday afternoon in our part of West U.

You are not joking about losing.