Brenda Coates

Our continued celebration of the 50th anniversary of America’s landing on the Moon, explores the history of the moon and its significance in our lives. This past Tuesday, July 16th, the moon was in full phase and was 100% illuminated as seen from Earth. The Moon (or Luna) is the Earth’s only natural satellite and was formed 4.6 billion years ago around some 30–50 million years after the formation of the solar system. The time it takes between full moons is known as a Synodic month and is 29.530587981 days long. In reality both sides of the Moon see the same amount of sunlight although only one face of the Moon is ever seen from Earth since the Moon rotates around its own axis in exactly the same time it takes to orbit the Earth, meaning the same side is always facing the Earth. The side facing away from Earth has only been seen by the human eye from spacecraft. The first man to set foot on the Moon in 1969 was Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission, while the last man to walk on the Moon in 1972 was Gene Cernan on the Apollo 17 mission. Since then the Moon has only been visited by unmanned vehicles. The first space craft to reach the moon was Luna I in 1959 and was a Soviet craft, which was launched from the USSR. It passed within 5995 km of the surface of the Moon before going into orbit around the Sun. Earth is about 80 times the volume of the Moon, but both are about the same age. A prevailing theory is that the Moon was once part of the Earth, and was formed from a chunk that broke away due to a huge object colliding with Earth when it was relatively young. NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon to set up a permanent space station. Mankind may once again walk on the moon in 2019, if all goes according to plan.
Cherry Moon – Brandy, lemon-lime soda, grenadine
Bloody Moony – Brandy, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce, celery salt, -usual spices for a bloody Mary
Harvest Moon – Applejack, cinnamon bitters
Super Moon – Brandy, Cointreau, cream of coconut, lime juice
Eclipse Night – Copper & Kings Immature Brandy, CB Frost brandy, crème de cassis
Brandy by the glass: Clear Creek Douglas Fir, Clear Creek Plum, Etter Cherry, Moletta Grappa, or Barsol Pisco

Thurs- 7/11/19 – Appollo 11th 50th anniversary celebration. The main festivities will take place between July 16 (the date of the Apollo blastoff) and July 24 (the day the astronauts returned safely back on earth) at where else but Houston. But we’ll celebrate a few days early on Thursday, July 11th with some special astronaut designed cocktails.

Drinking in space has always posed a bit of a challenge for astronauts. Closed containers (like the zero-gravity coffee cup) and straws have been essential for keeping liquids from floating around the cabin. That is until now with a new Kickstarter program, “The Zero Gravity Cocktail Project,” that was seeking funding to produce an open air cocktail glass. This would permit the astronauts (or one day those space seeking tourists) to enjoy their cocktail drinking, gravity be damned. According to the Kickstarter campaign, the space-bound vessel allows astronauts to experience the aroma of a drink while keeping the liquid under control, thanks to a complex, 3-D printed groove system. Unfortunately it takes 15 hours to print one glass for a cost of around $1,000. If fully funded, the campaign aims to test the glass in a real weightless environment and eventually 3-D print a small drinking cup aboard the International Space Station later this year. Developed by the Cosmic Lifestyle Corporation, who describes itself as “a boutique concept, design and branding company that develops stylish products for off-world use while connecting Earth brands to space.” Perhaps this is the first of many plans to improve the comfort for space travelers. Certainly our nightly cocktail is a good place to start.

Astronaut shot, Brandy served with lemon wedge coated on one side with sugar and the other side with coffee. Suck the lemon and drink the shot – Houston, we have a problem……. 
The Astronaut, Brandy, rum, cranberry juice 
Fuzzy Astronaut, Brandy, peach brandy, Tang 
The Moonwalk – inaugurated at the Savoy Hotel American Bar in 1969 to commemorate the first moon landing. It was the first thing Neil Armstrong and Buss Aldrin sipped upon returning to earth. Cointreau, grapefruit juice, rose water, topped with Champagne
Major Tom (a fictional astronaut referenced in David Bowie’s song Space Oddity)- Douglas Fir, vermouth, bitters, topped with tart lemon juice 
Adult slushy (select your fruit brandy to top the shaved ice -consider a peach, apricot, lemoncello, blackberry)

Sat – 7/13/19 – back by popular demand The Geriatric Jukebox will entertain from 7:30 p.m. til 10 p.m.

July 4th – ½ price special on patriotic drinks – Did you know that some feel that the official day for celebrating America’s independence is actually July 2nd and not the 4th? According to History.Com, on July 2nd, 1776, the Continental Congress voted in favor of independence, and two days later delegates from the 13 colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence (written primarily by Thomas Jefferson). John Adams believed that July 2nd was the correct date on which to celebrate the birth of American independence, and reportedly turned down invitations to appear at July 4th events in protest.
On June 7, when the Continental Congress met at the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall) in Philadelphia, the Virginia delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a motion calling for the colonies’ independence. Amid heated debate, Congress postponed the vote on Lee’s resolution, but appointed a five-man committee—including Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, John Adams of Massachusetts, Roger Sherman of Connecticut, Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and Robert R. Livingston of New York—to draft a formal statement justifying the break with Great Britain. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on July 4, 1826—the 50th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence.
So on July 2nd, the Continental Congress voted in favor of Lee’s resolution for independence in a near-unanimous vote (the New York delegation abstained, but later voted affirmatively). On that day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail that July 2 “will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival” and that the celebration should include “Pomp and Parade…Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other.”
On July 4th, the Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence, which had been written largely by Jefferson. Though the vote for actual independence took place on July 2nd, from then on the 4th became the day that was celebrated as the birth of American independence. In 1870, the U.S. Congress made July 4th a federal holiday.
These early celebrations would have also included the firing of cannons and guns, adding to the explosive nature of the festivities. With the Revolutionary War’s end and increasing concern for public safety, those firearms were eventually phased out of the celebrations and replaced almost entirely by the fireworks, which were often given the official stamp of approval in the hope of drawing citizens to public celebrations instead of more dangerous private firework shows.

Cocktails to celebrate the “melting pot” we have become:

Margherita Italiana – Brandy, Aperol, Cointreau, fresh squeezed lime juice

Star Spangled Berry – Applejack, Blueberries, grenadine, lemon juice

Doña Carmen – Brandy, grapefruit juice, sour mix, Aperol, topped with Tonic water

French 75 – Brandy, lemon juice, topped with champagne

Gilded Grand – Grand Marnier, grapefruit juice, honey, lemon juice

Select your Brandy by the glass – remember Brandy is the whiskey of the colonies: Courvoisier, Chemist, Cardenal Mendoza, or Etter Kirsch
July 6th 8:00 – 10:00 p.m. – Eric Congdon debut – described as a “veritable ‘jack of all trades’, Congdon does it all himself — guitars, dobro, mandolin, percussion and drones and does it well. Mixing roots, blues and country with some contemporary jazz and classical influences and a mix of cultural melodies, he takes his songs in unusual directions.