Drink: Page 14

Viva Vivacity

Oregon’s first woman-owned distillery crafts small-batch spirits from organic, local ingredients

Drink
Caitlin Prueitt of Corvallis’ Vivacity Spirits

There’s a burgeoning trend throughout Oregon for food and drinks that are locally sourced and handcrafted, and since 2011, Corvallis-based Vivacity Spirits has been sating consumers’ desire for organic non-GMO small-batch gins, vodka, rum and liqueur. Owned and operated by Caitlin Prueitt and her partner and spouse, Chris Neumann, Vivacity is not only the first woman-owned distillery in Oregon, but also one of only a handful nationwide.  Continue reading →

Eugene’s Sexiest Bartenders: Jacob Franklin, Black Forest

The Ginja Ninja

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Jacob Franklin, Black Forest

Jacob Franklin, 28, dubbed by voters as “the Ginja Ninja,” says bartending is “a passion I’ve had for a long time.” Franklin has called Eugene home for a decade now, but his first job slinging drinks was at a country bar in his hometown of Chicago. There he had lots of day regulars, most notably a Sunday morning crew of 12 Christian bikers — “Like a motorcycle gang, but for Jesus.” These days, he pours drinks and hosts an always poppin’ karaoke on Monday and Wednesday nights at Black Forest. Not into karaoke? Continue reading →

Eugene’s Sexiest Bartenders: Jonna Threlkeld, Starlight Lounge

Freaky sexy, quirky and original

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Jonna Threlkeld, Starlight Lounge

Jonna Threlkeld, 28, first came to Eugene from Red Bluff, California, to play sax in the UO marching band. She has since ditched green and yellow for black, keeping bar at the Starlight Lounge for the past three and a half years. Threlkeld is honored to win “Sexiest Bartender,” especially because she has a “crush” on all the “beautiful and talented” women who bartend downtown. Continue reading →

Wines for Your Honey

Drink

In his peripatetic novel, The English Major, Jim Harrison nailed down what we need to know about love — this being Love’s month — and wine: “Desire,” he wrote, “is not subject to logic.” We love how — and whom — we love just because we do, damnitall. Continue reading →

New Wine Time

Drink

I hunkered in my chair, rolling behind the desk, periodically gazing down through grimy windows 17 floors above Eugene’s winter-wet streets. Derelicts and “travelers” huddled in the park, smoking, yakking, looking to score, ducking cops. Through the pebbled glass on the office door, I caught sight of a deformed shadow. The door creaked open. Continue reading →

Giftmas Wines

Drink

Christmas? Already? Light the lights, jingle those bells, let’s wassail all season long. It’s a love fest. Quick switch from giving thanks for our gifts, to giving gifts, with our thanks — and lots of love. Now, you might imagine that because you have a wine fiend on your gift list you have this one in the bag: Plunk for a jug of plonk, plop into glitzy bag, designate, done. Not so fast. True, there are thousands of decent wines in stores, and gobs of wine-related gadgets, but getting a wine gift just right can be challenging. Continue reading →

Thanksgiving Wines

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Slumped against the grimy wall, I rode the wheezing elevator, creaking and clanking, to the 15th floor of the old high-rise in downtown Eugene, then ambled down the hall, dodging peeling linoleum, stopped at our office door, Wine Investigations, flaking black letters on frosted glass. The door was ajar, Mole obviously already at work. I pushed in, tossed my ragged fedora on a hook, surveyed our “lab.” I couldn’t suppress the dread that rose in my chest. Continue reading →

Mole’s Back

Drink

I leaned back in my chair, propped my feet on my battle-scarred desk, stared out the window on downtown Eugene and watched as sheets of rain marched across the streets and flattened the tops of the maples. Even on the 17th floor of the burg’s oldest high-rise, the window wore a grimy film. But our office-cum-lab was spotless; obviously, Mole and his wife, Molly, had held us together while I meandered through political nightmares. Continue reading →