frozen custard and wine

two new vices found down the street from one another on church street in vienna.

vice number one. frozen custard. for the uninitiated, frozen custard is like ice cream. i believe it has egg in it, hence the custard name. it is the richest, creamiest, most marvelous version of ice cream you will ever put in your mouth. i was going to be bland and get cookies and cream. then the counter people let us try the pistachio. heaven. chocolate shelled. heaven squared.

fat and happy from custard, we discover vice number two. church street cellars. think stubbie's, but wine and self-serve. they had these bad ass wine dispenser coolers. run a tab with a card, try a whole bunch of different wines. this is the most brilliant idea for a wine bar that i've ever heard of. no talking to snooty sommeliers about the hidden flavors of currants and kiwis. bottles bottles everywhere to buy when you find one that you really like, from that $10 bottle to the $155 bottle.

next visitors to the district, we will be winos and eat custard, ok?

en vino veritas

apparently, northern virginia and maryland are on approximately the same latitude as napa valley, northern italy, and france. add the corresponding southern latitudes of chile, south africa and australia, and the local vineyards are in quite heady company. source: drunk on life and wine tour guide allen.

i went to a wine-tasting event at boordy vineyards yesterday. fond-of-you fondue in february. next month, stew in our stews and get stewed. april, red, whites, and bluegrass. a lot of their wines were pretty sweet, and their drier reds were a little young. in the interest of selling more wine, they told us that aging one of their bottles for about 5 years would make it pretty tasty. not being a oenophile, i don't have a stockpile of wine that i'd even consider that. if you are a wino, let me know in five years. i'll just stick to their others. i don't like dry wines anyhow.

as was the case in georgetown at mr. smith's, our gregarious performer (allen the tour guide) picked the two of us to make running commentary about. in georgetown, it was pretty funny because we'd only been dating for two months. john at the bar was predicting love and marriage and babies in carriages. whether that happens remains to be seen, but yesterday's commentary was a little more..."colorful". by colorful, i mean blush-inducing. it wasn't all that bad. if it were, i wouldn't be planning on return trips for more tasting and music and food and fun.