Beer, Whiskey, and Cigars

The gaming group, or part of it.

I'd better start this off by explaining I partook of none of the above. I was tagging along with my First Reader, who was. He met up with part of his D&D group (they have been playing together since 1985) at the Dublin Pub in Dayton, Ohio, for a whiskey tasting event. They guys didn't mind having me hang out, and although the First Reader probably didn't need a designated driver, it was a good excuse. I like the guys, and the conversation is always good.

Very Peppery Steak

The food was abundant. All the guys had the special, a ribeye steak smothered in a Irish Whisky cream sauce with peppercorns. Lots and lots of peppercorns. I think the consensus was that the peppercorns would have been good if there are perhaps a third or even a quarter of that many in the sauce. I ordered a seafood platter, which had clam strips in it (and I miss clams from my childhood and then time in New England) and was large enough to have fed me twice over.

Cod strips, clams, and shrimp with very nice chips. I appreciated the multiple dipping sauces. I get bored with just one.

First Reader: "The draft Guinness they have there is very smooth. I don't often drink Guinness but this went down nicely. An excellent accompaniment to the pepper steak."

cheeses, prosciutto, capicola, and something else. Tasty snacks.

The little cheese plates that came with the whiskey and cigar tasting special were good, too. A marbled Merlot cheese was pretty and tasty. The creamy cheese with mustard seeds in it met the First Reader's high approval. I liked it, too, even though I'm not fond of mustard. We all sat and ate and talked, and the guys drank whiskey. The tasting was for Tullamore Dew, with the regular, the 10 year old, a 12 year old, a Tullamore 10 year Malt, and the Tullamore Phoenix. It's amusing to see a man take a sip of the latter. I gathered it's potent stuff with a kick like a mule.

Sunset over Dayton from the Dublin Pub upper deck.

The First Reader: "I had the 12 Year Special Reserve, smooth, silky, very much on a par with the best of Bushmills, which to me makes it on a par with the best of whiskies. The Phoenix was a bit brasher, had a bit of a bite, with a strong robust flavor, also very good. There are no bad Tullamore Dew's, just like there are no bad Bushmill's, just differing versions dependent on what you like. The malt was a bit closer to a scotch flavor, simply because it was a malt. All in all, it was exactly what I expected of Tullamore Dew."

Making fire!

After a while we moved upstairs to the smoking deck, an open area with heating which made the early spring night air tolerable. We arrived on the deck right about sunset, which I enjoyed. The cigars were not as smelly as I'd feared they would be, and although I was prepared to retreat back into the pub, I didn't have to. We talked everything from science fiction to computers and life. It was a pleasant evening, and although I can't do it often, I'll send the First Reader off to see his friends more frequently.

The First Reader: "The Cigars were decent mid-grade cigars, I smoked a new one from Romeo y Juliet, can't remember the name, but it did have a nice Connecticut leaf wrapper. God I sound like some pompous twit."