Brenda Coates

Wed 11/8 – 7-9 PM – We are co-hosting with the NC Writers Network to present Meagan Lucas as our next author in our ongoing series, “In the Company of Writers.” The program offers a series of personal and conversational dialogues featuring guest writers/poets followed by an open mic forum. These inspirational gatherings will elucidate and entertain those attending. The guest author speaks from 7-8 PM with an open mic from 8 -9 PM. The Chicago blues music of “Hollywood Johnny Cosgrove” welcomes you, continues during intermission, and closes the evening. Sign-ups for the open mic visit: https://thebrandybar.com/writers-open-mic   Author of the award-winning novel, Songbirds and Stray Dogs and the collection, Here in the Dark, Meagan Lucas is also Editor-in-Chief of Reckon Review. Her short stories are Pushcart, Best of the Net, Derringer, and Canadian Crime Writers’ Award of Excellence nominated, and she won the 2017 Scythe Prize for Fiction. Her short story “The MonstMeer Beneath” was noted as Distinguished in 2023 Best American Mystery and Suspense. Songbirds and Stray Dogs was North Carolina’s selection for the Library of Congress Center for the Book’s 2022 Route 1 Reads program. Meagan teaches Creative Writing at Robert Morris University and in the Great Smokies Writing Program at UNC-A. Born and raised on a small island in Northern Ontario, she now lives in Flat Rock, NC.

Thurs 11/9 – 4-9 PM – Ghostly Cocktails – Halloween is over, Day of the Dead, All Saints Day – all over for this year but how did this madness get started?  Casper the Friendly Ghost, Danny Phantom, and Scooby-Doo, Ghost Whisperer, Medium Supernatural, The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, Ghostbusters, A Haunting, Ghost Adventures, Ghost Hunters, Ghost Hunters International, Ghost Lab, and Ghost Haunter – to name a few. Ghosts have fascinated us for centuries. From ghost tours to paranormal investigations, people always seek a way to encounter the supernatural. Even in early texts, excerpts about apparitions and spirits can be found. But throughout all the reports of ghosts, one thing remains the same: for most adults, there is an inability to see them with the naked eye (except perhaps for mediums and children). The first ghost story account was written in the First Century A. D. by the Roman author Pliny the Younger, who wrote his story after experiencing a horrifying haunting wherein an elderly man with a long beard, with chains hanging from his arms and ankles, haunted his home, Hundreds of years later, in 856 A.D. a report in Germany detailed the first known poltergeist activity that took place in a farmhouse where a family experienced torment at the hand of an unseen force that threw rocks, started fires and caused endless chaos – is the earliest account of a violent spirit. While ghost stories are explicitly meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes from comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative as sentinels or prophets of things to come. Belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world, thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form.  In the Christian faith (and in the Western World and although the belief that the dead could return to earth on All Soul’s Day persisted), it changed as the Christian vision of the afterlife became increasingly popular and ghosts came to be linked with demons and the devil. Ghosts are mentioned in the Bible in passages of Matthew 14:25-27, Mark 6:48-50, and Luke 24:37-39. Among the most famous passages referring to a ghost is 1 Samuel 28:7-20 in which King Saul goes to the Witch of Endor and asks her to conjure the ghost of Samuel, his former advisor, and a prophet of God. Saul is afterward cut off from God’s favor for choosing to consult a spirit about what he should do instead of trusting in God for his future.

Ghostly cocktails – Meuknow vanilla cognac, cream, Mozart white chocolate; Graveyard Ghost – Courvoisier, Kahlua, Ice cream; White Cosmopolitan Ghost – CB Frost, Cointreau, white cranberry juice, lime juice; 1/2 price on Fruit/infused flight;

Reminder Songwriter Sessions returns Nov 11/15 – 7-9 PM with Peter Berglund, Mare Carmody, and Nikki Talley.

Wed. 11/1/23 – 4-9 PM – Choose your flavor for $5: Ginger, Mango, Peach, Pineapple, or Honey. Winter is a’coming and we need to warm up!

Thurs. 11/2 – 4-9 PM – Presidential Cocktails:   Founding Father or one-term Presidents, or Democrat or Republican, almost every American President has shared something in common. They all drank.

TEDDY ROOSEVELT –       Mint Julep – our Brandy Smash. Brandy, mulled fresh mint with simple syrup, topped with club soda.

ANDREW JACKSON – New Orleans drinks were his liquor of choice so we have chosen the Vieux Carre’ using an Italian Vermouth to create some cultural diversity. Brandy rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, Benedictine, bitters.

FRANKLIN PIERCE – Since he drank a lot of everything and died of cirrhosis of the liver, we have chosen one of our popular cocktails – the Jack Rose using Laird’s Applejack (oldest distillery in the US), fresh squeezed lime juice, and our own grenadine.

 

WILLIAM McKINLEY – He drank McKinley’s Delight named after him and popularized during his election campaign. Cherry brandy, rye whiskey, sweet vermouth and absinthe (similar to a Manhattan)

1/2 price on US Flight                                                                                             

 

Thurs – 10/26 – 4-9 PM – Underappreciated cocktails – The word “under-appreciated” reminds us of David Zweig’s book Invisibles: The Power of Anonymous Work in an Age of Relentless Self-Promotion. So, to offer our take on the word we are offering our under-appreciated cocktails. Your under-appreciated job may not be as thankless as you think it is. All have one thing in common: no one usually notices them u until something goes wrong. According to Zweig the most successful people with these careers share three common traits: “ambivalence toward recognition,” “meticulousness,” and “savoring of responsibility.” In other words, people who do these jobs well don’t care that you don’t know their names because they take pride in their work being done well. WOW What a concept! Heare are five that we feel are under-appreciated: 1) Wayfinders – ever taken note of the impressive signage at an airport? Probably not because when “wayfinders” do their job well, you are able to arrive at the baggage claim or arrivals terminal seamlessly thanks to their system of signs, which are each designed with a specific color, font, or shape in mind to help you arrive at your designation. 2) Cinematographers – The Academy Awars gives out an Oscar for outstanding cinematography, but you probably used that part of the show as your snack break. Cinematographers are in charge of lighting the sets of movies and television series. The precision needed to do it well requires a meticulous and intelligent mind –if it belongs to a person who doesn’t mind staying out of the director’s spotlight. 3) Structural Engineers – most people have never heard of Dennis Poon, who has designed the structures for 10 of the 20 tallest buildings in the world. As a structural engineer his meticulous work allows a building to stand. While most of the credit for a building’s structure goes to the architect. 4) Anesthesiologists – While more people have heard of anesthesiologists, in Zweig’s “Invisibles” …. They are not usually the ones receiving the “fruit baskets” when a surgery goes particularly well but…”In an emergency surgeons are often the ones freaking out, looking to anesthesiologists for assurance,”…. To excel in this field, one must epitomize ambivalence toward recognition. 5) Understudies – The role of the understudy got somewhat of a bad rap from the 1950 movie All about Eve, in which Eve Harrington schemes her way from understudy to lead actress. Zweig shows how understudies can take pride in being a part of a production, regardless of whether they ever step in front of the audience. 

Brandy Daisy – Martel cognac, Chartreuse, lemon juice, simple syrup, club soda; Caipirinha – Leblon, muddled lime, sugar cubes; Jill Rose – Laird’s applejack, gin, grenadine, lemon; Peach Cadiz – Peach brandy, dry sherry, Cointreau, heavy cream; Southern Star – Applejack, Southern Star Bourbon Crème Coffee, add ice if desired; 1/2 price Worldly flight