Hard Liquor

I hope you all have been enjoying the spring weather we've been having. The first few days of spring always make me crave fresh things to eat and I love how refreshing lemon drinks are. Life has also been giving me a particularly insane amount of lemons lately, so I thought this DIY project was a good solution to both problems. (Wink wink). What is limoncello? It is a traditional Italian digestif. It’s enjoyed after dinner on warm summer nights. It’s a sweet, lemony liqueur, and it’s surprisingly easy to make.

Outside West Baltimore's Penn Station Liquors, folks say the store is no place for children. Only a block away from Westside Elementary School, Penn Station is one of four liquor businesses within feet of each other on North Fulton Street. Youngsters sometimes wander in to buy candy, soda and chips - stocked next to the alcohol, flavored cigars and sex pills. "Kids don't belong here," says Pauline White, 50, who lives nearby. "When people start drinking, they get crazy. " On Monday, the City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill, championed by freshman Councilman Nick Mosby, to make it illegal for liquor stores to sell anything to minors, including seemingly innocuous goods such as snacks or T-shirts.

It will be a lot easier to buy an alcoholic drink at Columbia's Merriweather Post Pavilion this summer, despite objections from Howard County police and County Council Chairwoman Mary C. Lorsung, liquor board members said yesterday. The County Council, acting as the liquor board, approved an increase from 64 to 90 alcohol stations and the purchase of hard liquor in the new VIP seating area. The board also approved the sale of beer in plastic, wide-mouth bottles. Ogden Food Services Corp.

I hope you all have been enjoying the spring weather we've been having. The first few days of spring always make me crave fresh things to eat and I love how refreshing lemon drinks are. Life has also been giving me a particularly insane amount of lemons lately, so I thought this DIY project was a good solution to both problems. (Wink wink). What is limoncello? It is a traditional Italian digestif. It’s enjoyed after dinner on warm summer nights. It’s a sweet, lemony liqueur, and it’s surprisingly easy to make.

WASHINGTON -- Saying he wants to protect children, President Clinton urged the Federal Communications Commission yesterday to consider "any and all actions" to keep hard liquor advertising off television and radio."

Outside West Baltimore's Penn Station Liquors, folks say the store is no place for children. Only a block away from Westside Elementary School, Penn Station is one of four liquor businesses within feet of each other on North Fulton Street. Youngsters sometimes wander in to buy candy, soda and chips - stocked next to the alcohol, flavored cigars and sex pills. "Kids don't belong here," says Pauline White, 50, who lives nearby. "When people start drinking, they get crazy. " On Monday, the City Council overwhelmingly voted to pass a bill, championed by freshman Councilman Nick Mosby, to make it illegal for liquor stores to sell anything to minors, including seemingly innocuous goods such as snacks or T-shirts.

Marketers of hard liquor are chasing after Generation X. Hoping to reverse two decades of steep sales decline, the liquor industry is trying to attract young adults with lighter tasting spirits and a trendier image.Distilled spirits marketers are throwing liquor-tasting parties in bars and are sponsoring rock concerts and sporting events in an effort to bring into the '90s drinks synonymous with boring business lunches of 20 years ago. The strategy is being put to the test during the most important selling season for hard liquor.

You know the caricature of the New Year's reveler, the half-zonked party animal in the funny hat swigging sloppily from a foaming bottle of champagne. Turns out he may be the symbol of times gone by.Researchers, liquor dealers and caterers all say that Americans are drinking less, drinking lighter and drinking more responsibly."When I first started this business, the last hour was the busiest hour at the bar," said Jerry Edwards, owner of Chef's Expressions catering. "You know: 'One more for the road.

Q: Our daughter is graduating from high school this month and she is planning a party at our home for many of her friends. Since this is a special occasion, she wants to serve alcohol. We know they'll wind up drinking somewhere, so we wonder whether it wouldn't be better to let her friends drink at our house where we can monitor them and confine the alcohol to beer and wine coolers rather than hard liquor. What do you think?A: Maryland law is quite clear in this regard: Serving alcohol to individuals under the age of 21 is illegal, regardless of where it occurs.

This holiday season party planners may find themselves in a quandary. For many, money and time are tight, so elaborate dinner parties aren't an option.Cocktail parties and open houses make sense as flexible and relatively inexpensive alternates.But do they? People are drinking less; and if they aren't, many hosts and hostesses feel they ought not to encourage excessive alcohol consumption. On New Year's Eve especially, they have second thoughts about giving a party with an open bar.So what are your choices if you do decide to have a cocktail party but don't want the emphasis to be on heavy drinking?

NEW YORK -- As James Villas stood in the majesty of Le Cirque preparing to address the crowd of well-wishers gathered to celebrate the publication of his memoir, Between Bites, he was a man in his element. Villas was turned out in a magnificent vested brown suit and yellow bow tie. His sandy complexion seemed to emit the same burnished glow as the chandeliers hanging in the L'Orangerie room in the fabled Manhattan restaurant. In the crowd was his mother, Martha Pearl Villas, who is in her 80s and still bakes her own biscuits.

Now that NBC has agreed to accept commercials for hard liquor, many in the Baltimore advertising community say other networks will follow suit and that such advertising is here to stay. Yet, viewers may scarcely notice the new advertising, based on the findings of a recent poll commissioned by Eisner Communications. The majority of Americans, 56 percent, said they thought they had recently seen a commercial for hard liquor on TV - but such ads have been absent from broadcast television since a self-imposed ban in 1948, said David L. Blum, senior vice president of Eisner Communications.

CHICAGO - It's not hard to read, chat or doze during most of what passes for entertainment on network TV. But once in a while, something comes on that makes you stop and pay close attention. Thank goodness for those beer ads. The only problem is choosing the best. The fellow on a date who orders Bud Lites for the mariachi band and finds himself saddled with friends for life? The Jersey buddies whose idea of conversation is "How yadoon?" The guy with the hilariously obnoxious voice rhapsodizing about the virtues of the "High Life Man"?

It will be a lot easier to buy an alcoholic drink at Columbia's Merriweather Post Pavilion this summer, despite objections from Howard County police and County Council Chairwoman Mary C. Lorsung, liquor board members said yesterday. The County Council, acting as the liquor board, approved an increase from 64 to 90 alcohol stations and the purchase of hard liquor in the new VIP seating area. The board also approved the sale of beer in plastic, wide-mouth bottles. Ogden Food Services Corp.

WASHINGTON -- Saying he wants to protect children, President Clinton urged the Federal Communications Commission yesterday to consider "any and all actions" to keep hard liquor advertising off television and radio."

Of the 3,142 counties in America, only one holds a monopoly on the distribution and sale of booze: Montgomery County.Now a growing number of business leaders and state lawmakers are pressing for last call for the government-owned stores."

Now that NBC has agreed to accept commercials for hard liquor, many in the Baltimore advertising community say other networks will follow suit and that such advertising is here to stay. Yet, viewers may scarcely notice the new advertising, based on the findings of a recent poll commissioned by Eisner Communications. The majority of Americans, 56 percent, said they thought they had recently seen a commercial for hard liquor on TV - but such ads have been absent from broadcast television since a self-imposed ban in 1948, said David L. Blum, senior vice president of Eisner Communications.

Maurice Kanbar has a million-dollar idea that he thinks could clear your head and solve the sales problems of an industry: hangover-free vodka.He says people who drink his Skyy Vodka aren't likely to get hangovers because he has removed most of the impurities that he thinks causes them. He used to get bad headaches when he drank, but not since he created Skyy, he says.But now Mr. Kanbar is getting headaches from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. It has launched an investigation of his hangover claims that could force him to scrap his advertising altogether.

In an article in Wednesday's editions of The Sun, the location of Wells Discount Liquors was reported incorrectly. In fact, the store is in Baltimore City.The Sun regrets the error.A hand truck overloaded with cases of liquor rolls quickly down the aisle, clipping a rack of bottled onions and olives. Crash. The smell of onions permeates the checkout line.But never mind, the booze is on its way out the door, the owner happily loading it into the car and soon down the throats of people who today may be sorry it was the onions that lost the battle with the vodka.

It was a bright, sunny, cheerful Saturday morning, full of warm breezes and chirping birds -- in short, the kind of day that makes you glad to be alive.But that wasn't quite the way I was feeling as I lifted my throbbing head from the pillow. I had spent the previous evening investigating the lounge music revival with some friends and a number of martinis, and now each golden sunbeam felt like a dagger through my skull. Unless someone had sneaked in during the night and replaced my tongue with an old gym sock, I was beginning to suspect I had been a little too diligent in my research.