the MARTINI SHAKER

I completely realize that from the look and tone of my personal branding, one could easily infer that I am a tremendous alcoholic. Just off the top, we’ve got the MARTINI SHAKER, the COCKTAIL NAPKIN and the ROCKS GLASS. I also talk about cocktails a lot. While all this added up is a formula for Lushville, know that my passion actually lies in the sublime enjoyment of a finely crafted cocktail in a place whose ambience is befitting of the drink in hand.

This post actually started out last week as something completely different. Last week I sat down to write about how much I miss one of my favorite haunts in Oklahoma City, Dooley’s Tower Club. You won’t find much about Dooley’s online. It was in the basement of the Citizens Bank Tower on 23rd and Classen, which a few years ago was converted into some tony condos. When the tower converted, Dooley’s went into OKC history. I hear it’s the building’s fitness center now.

Anyhow, this blog post started last week with a wistful nostalgia for that dark, musty, red naugahyde-lined den that was Dooley’s. The number one thing I missed about it was the ambience. You could hear live jazz there almost every night of the week, and karaoke on Friday night was not quite like what you would expect. The crowd was a little better at drunkenly belting out tunes than most. And for the most part, had much better taste in the songs they chose.

Dooley’s served probably the best martini I’ve had at any bar. A night fueled by those and a couple of glasses of scotch was sure to be a fantastically interesting night, and a pretty awful morning the next day. And, then there was Donny.

Donny was the absolute best bartender that I’ve ever had the pleasure to have known. He was attentive, accurate, friendly and knowledgeable. The fact that he was one of the most flamboyantly gay men I’ve ever known simply added to his character. Picture a younger Paul Lynde tending bar and you get the essence of Donny. My favorite Donny story is a tale of how he got up to sing “Copa Cabana” on karaoke night, and during the long instrumental break, he ran back to the bar to make everyone sitting there a round of drinks and was back in time to finish the song.

When I started this post, I missed Dooley’s and the feelings it elicited terribly. I figured that I’d never find that combination again that would make me feel the same way. I think that’s true, but this weekend I found something just as good, and in some ways, BETTER.

This weekend, Robin and I had a date night. We had dinner at Carmen’s in Brookside and then went to try a new place I had been hearing about from people at work… Manifesto.

Manifesto has many similarities to Dooley’s: It’s very dark. It’s in a basement. In fact, it’s so basement-y that it probably holds only half the people that Dooley’s could. It’s all about ambience. But, that’s where the similarities end.

Where Dooley’s was very campy due to its refusal to remodel since the 70’s, Manifesto is simple and rough-hewn yet refined. You got to Dooley’s by driving into a parking garage and walking right in. You get to Manifesto by walking into an alley, being escorted in and going down a set of old stairs and past the building’s breaker boxes and mechanical systems before entering the bar through a pair of flowing brown curtains.

Dooley’s was famous for doing one drink right. Aside from that it was your basic run-of-the-mill cocktails (although it was the first place in OK to serve Boulevard beer). Manifesto is all about concentrating on doing a core group of cocktails to perfection and eschewing all the rest. There’s a small beer and wine selection for the unadventurous.

I had the Smokin’ Choke. The moment I saw applewood smoked bourbon as an ingredient, I knew I had to. It also featured Cynar, an artichoke liqueur that I had been eyeing with curiosity for at least a year now. Round that out with maple syrup and a dash of bitters, serve it with one large block of ice and an orange zest, and you’ve got what amounts to the perfect cocktail in my book.

The flavor is complex and delicious, and the artistry and care that goes into making, well, ALL of Manifesto’s cocktails is second to none in Kansas City.

I missed Dooley’s for its ambience and its charm, but I think I missed it more for what it represented. It represented a period of my life where I thought I was the fourth main character (or possibly even Mike) in Swingers and Dooley’s was my Dresden.

Manifesto is for the grown-up part of me that identifies and keeps the Dooley’s part of me alive as remembrance for where I’ve been. Now, it’s still about a certain exclusivity, but it’s also about quality, and it’s about knowing there’s a special place I can go to reward myself with a truly unique, truly fantastic cocktail experience.