The Nice List: Gifts for the Tippler

Still Life with a Gilt Cup, Willem Claesz (1635)

Guest columnist Nathalie Atkinson is a culture journalist with an affinity for spirits. There are presently 198 bottles in her liquor cabinet (107 of them gin). Follow her on Instagram at @jadedjournalista.

By: Nathalie Atkinson

A jigger, a shaker, and a Hawthorne strainer walk into a bar. It’s your bar, and they’re regulars because you’ve been doing this a while. You’ve got the basics but these holiday picks will make cocktail hour better in every way.

With a Twist

You can mix a stirred drink in any heavy wide-mouthed vessel or carafe (I use a vintage flower pitcher) but a twisty stainless steel mixing spoon is non-negotiable. It will save your shoulders, elbow, and wrist — and it looks slick in a boomerang. $16 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

Have you been enjoying the mixology magic of Stanley Tucci’s deadpan cocktail tutorials on InstagramTV? And his matte gold bar accessories, similar to these at Cocktail Emporium?

Stanley Tucci made that scotch sour just for you, you lucky thing.

The Big Squeeze

Because only suckers buy ready-made simple syrup: a plastic squeeze bottle will keep yours fresh in the fridge for up to a month. 

$5.49 at Kitchen Stuff Plus (KitchenStuffPlus.com)

Behind Door #3

Every serving from That Boutique-y Whisky Company’s Advent Calendar gives you a daily surprise to look forward to. $199.95 at LCBO while supplies last (lcbo.com)

Blow Me

Nova Scotian Crystal

Brad Copping’s Xylen tumblers

A scotch sour served in Halifax’s own Nova Scotian Crystal just tastes better. I’m partial to the diamond-cut Titanic pattern, so-named because the design was inspired by its stateroom light sconces (and because artefacts from the doomed ocean liner are housed in the nearby Maritime Museum of the Atlantic). For a more colourful cocktail by all means covet Campbell-Rey’s striped tumblers, but remember that artist Brad Copping’s cheerful Xylen tumblers are blown right here in Canada.

From $85 at Nova Scotian Crystal (novascotiancrystal.com) and $48 through Craft Ontario (craftontarioshop.com)

Cherry Bombed

Some people swear by Luxardo; I do not. For an Aviation my go-to is Tillen Farms’ plump dark Bada Bing. In a Manhattan, it’s Paw Paw’s unctuous Amaretto variation made with organic B.C. cherries. If you’re into packaging and design then Fabbri and Toschi’s curvaceous ceramic jars are the epitome of bella figura—like it’s 1962 and you’re sipping a leisurely Negroni in Via Veneto, not a paparazzo in sight. But better no cherry at all than those round things tinted with red dye #40 that call themselves maraschinos but taste like a cartoon version that has survived Chernobyl. If you heed nothing else here, make them good cherries.

$12.99-$29 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

The Gin is In

Filmmaker Paul Feig launched Artingstall’s in the spring and his premium gin is now firmly in my top 3. It’s not just that Stanley Tucci loves it, or because Feig’s Spy and Freaks & Geeks are my comfort-food, or even to copy what Emma Thompson swigs at the London outdoor market in Last Christmas. Unlike some celebrity booze brands we could name, Feig is not a come-lately: the Freaks & Geeks creator has long been as famous for his love of a crisp Duke’s Martini as he is for his sartorial flair. He formulated the distinctively citrus-forward gin with the micro distillery division of Calgary’s Minhas at their Wisconsin facility, gave it his mother’s maiden name, and even designed the cut-glass bottle. When you’ve polished it off—which will be sooner than you think—soak the label off and it’s an elegant art deco decanter.

Artingstall’s Brilliant London Dry Gin, $54.95 at LCBO  and several other Canadian provinces, and in USA (artingstalssgin.com)

Shadow of the Thin Man

Contemporary martini glasses are too large and too tall: the centre of gravity is off and they teeter. Instead, opt for the simple tulip glass known as a Nick and Nora, after the urbane and prodigious drinkers of The Thin Man. The smaller capacity is how Nora managed to line up those five more martinis—and will help yours stay chilly to the last drop.

$14 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com)

Shaken and Stirred

I’ve taken many drinks classes and, with apologies to Stanley, my favourites are with Famous Last Words, the Junction’s literary-themed bar. Marlene and her team combine history and lore specific to the chosen cocktails with useful tips on ingredients, variations, and technique (because yes, you are holding that bar spoon wrong). Until indoor tippling can safely reopen, sign up for their online classes themed around imbibers Ian Fleming, Ernest Hemingway, and Charles Dickens.

$40 per screen at Famous Last Words (famouslastwordsbar.com)

Frozen, Too

Retro-classic stainless steel makes a satisfying thwack but Prohibition’s over, folks, and flexible silicone ice cube trays make much less mess. A covered silicone tray is also easier for stacking and prevents cubes from absorbing freezer odour while setting. (Bonus: the frame means it won’t slosh and sag when filled with water.) Once they’re solid, pop the cubes out and store in a sealed plastic bag. $16.99 at Cocktail Emporium (cocktailemporium.com) 

One last tip for the long winter ahead:

Trainer Vineyard’s display-worthy Haberdasher vermouths.

Familiarity breeds contempt, as they say. A great way to liven up a favourite winter cocktail like a Boulevardier or Manhattan is to use a higher-quality version of one of the ingredients. Chances are your local bar is selling bottles and I guarantee you they and local dealers have a better selection of sweet red vermouth than the provincial liquor authority (I like Cocchi, and Punt e Mes, and Haberdasher vermouth from Prince Edward County’s Traynor Vineyard). And in a Paper Plane I play with different amari to see how they alter the flavour profile.

Cheers!

The Nice List: Gifts for your Favourite Man

Give the gift of self-care to your nearest and dearest this holiday season, because everyone needs love, attention and coziness.

Real talk: men require very few things in life. They’re pretty simple beings, but one non-negotiable is that they absolutely need to be found super-hot by their partner. (I express this in a much more vulgar way to my girlfriends, but this is a public forum, so I’m trying to be circumspect.)

***

Jean Paul Gaultier’s Le Male Le Parfum ($98) is a clever reworking of the 1995 original, with amped up spicy and woody notes surrounded by lavender and iris and a quiet but compelling vanilla that highlight a man’s allure.

There are too many black puffer coats in the world and I say this as a black puffer owner. But here’s a secret: even if they’re not fashiony peacocks, many men love colour. This citrusy slice of joy is a sunny hug for your significant other. The Parajumpers Bold Parka, $1198, will give them a jolt of pure happy when they pull it on to head outside into the biting cold.

Why should women get all the gorgeous Taschen coffee table books? The History of EC Comics$260, The Beguiling Books & Art, is a tour through childhood (Mad Magazine), teenhood (Tales of the Crypt) and beyond. It’s available through Toronto’s own legendary The Beguiling bookstore, because if you ‘shop local’ you’ll get stellar customer service while ensuring your city stays vibrant and people are employed.

Tokyo Smoke Cannabis Infused Dark Milk Chocolate was invented for times like these. I can’t really come up with a caption other than it’s delicious chocolate that contains 2 mg of THC, because literally everyone needs help chilling out right now.

Because you can’t sit around eating THC chocolate all day long to relieve tension, there’s the Theragun Prime, ($299 on sale) which uses percussive motion for a deep muscle massage. Whether or not you work out, we all have super tight neck muscles and ‘traps’ right now from sitting hunched at our computers. And incipient carpal tunnel hand pain from too much phone and keyboard time. Buy one for your guy and then just use it yourself. I would kill for one.

Carrying little bottles of sanitizer around can be a nuisance (especially if, as a man, society has seen fit to deprive you of carrying a purse) so these flat, one ounce Nudestix antibacterial hand gel packs, $10 for five, Sephora, are perfect to stash in a pocket without feeling uncomfortably bulky or ruining the line of a garment

How to get men to use moisturizer in the winter: the Ultimate Hemp Power Big Gift Sack from The Body Shop, $65, has a faintly illicit vibe, uses hemp seed oil (rich in soothing fatty acids) to moisturize even the driest skin and the signature scent is fantastic.

And if an Overnight Nourishing Rescue Mask is one beauty product too far, then just steal it back for yourself. (Or do as a friend did when she told her husband that using moisturizer after drinking prevents hangovers the next day.)

After mastering sourdough last April, many of use because de facto barbers, giving desperate male family members haircuts with varying degrees of success.

The Conair Barbershop Pro Series cordless clippers, $70, are easy to use and come with many attachments to help create exactly the style that your haircut guinea pigs desire. These clippers are practically idiot-proof (and I say this as a certified idiot.)

It's Eat-Boozy-Pasta-and-Hand-Wash-Your-Sweaters Season

Forever New laundry powder gently cleans all your cashmere.

I am christening the upcoming four months of cold weather and Covid isolation “the winter of rigatoni alla vodka. ” To make that happen I’ve laid in lots of vodka, Calabrian chili paste and dried rigatoni (which is superior to penne. Ask anyone.) Just as important, as the temperatures drop, is stocking up on the best gentle laundry powder ever, Forever New, because I refuse to take anything made of cashmere to the dry cleaners.

Dry-cleaned sweaters feel weirdly stiff and not particularly ‘clean’. The thought of putting one against my bare skin (especially after it has rolled around in an industrial drum full of perchloroethylene and the dirty clothes of strangers) gives me hives.

Forever New was pressed upon me in the 80s by a saleslady in Eaton’s lingerie department (underwire bras being way too tricky and pricy to just throw into the machine.) It gently gets things thoroughly clean and rinses out easily, because rinsing laundry in the sink is a pain. The scent is subtle and nicely laundryish. And, according to back of the jug, you can even use it in the laundry machine. I would never do that, because I am way too attached to my White and Warren travel wrap to ever trust it to a Whirlpool. But you might be braver.

The Duchess Recommends

Please welcome Craig MacInnis, former Toronto Star pop culture columnist and film critic, and now Oldish’s first guest columnist.

By: Craig MacInnis

I spied this sign by a storefront on Yonge and it gave me a start, like seeing the vapour trail left by a long-vanished ghost.

Meghan, at the time of her patronage, would have been just another hard-working actress here, grinding out episodes of Suits as the dynamic paralegal Rachel Zane while renting a fine but unremarkable house in tranquil Seaton Village.

When she snarfed back her açai bowls up in the nosebleed section of Yonge (Editor's note: anything above Bloor qualifies as nosebleed, and this joint is above *Eglinton*), she hadn't yet met her prince and was probably still married to the other schlub whose name I can't be bothered to Google before my first coffee of the morning.

Likewise, she had not yet fallen afoul of Piers Morgan and all those cane-banging Union Jack-asses who quote passages from The Daily Mail like Scripture and pine for the days of herbaceous borders, sticky wickets and the drawing-room schemes of Bertie Wooster.

Also, one has to assume that she and Jessica (last name redacted) were just getting launched as professional 'besties' then and what better way to bond than going out for açai bowls after a hard day's work? I'm told (and I have impeccable sources here), that it's almost as much fun as going for matching helix piercings after coming down off a hot-yoga high.

Then again, what do I know? Maybe she went for her açai bowls after a night of pounding bottles of Tignanello with Gina Torres at Everleigh. 

Toronto is a big city, a fact I was reminded of just the other week when Ben Mulroney walked across a cross-walk at St. Clair and Mt. Pleasant with his dog and neither Liza nor I shouted out the window: "Hey Ben, keep your chin up," because with a Mulroney that's a given.

For my own part, I have never been tempted to try an açai bowl but I'm fond of açai jokes, which are gradually replacing kale jokes, which have had their day. 

My current favourite: "I just ate an açai bowl and now my name is Ashley and I have a fashion blog."
Seeing Meghan's small thumbs-up, to a juice bar along this featureless stretch of Yonge, reminded me of an earlier American newsmaker, also a royal consort and also widely if unfairly perceived as a throne wrecker.

"You can never be too rich or too thin," decreed the late Wallis Simpson, who would no doubt gag at the calorie-rich slurry of bananas, peanut butter and guck that Meghan ravenously spooned up during her days in Toronto. Before her life and menu changed forever.

A “November Box” is Critical For Your Winter Happiness

Kelly Klein’s Central Park West NYC apartment.

A November box is a hedge against winter gloom, prepared during the summer, and meant to be opened when temperatures plunge and it gets dark by 4:30 p.m. You assemble it in August (September at the absolute latest), when you are least inclined to think of winter, so that by the time you open it you’ve semi-forgotten what’s inside.

In the summer I only need full ice cube trays and a wide-brimmed hat, but winter calls for reinforcements, so I approach the coming season with the singleminded focus of a general preparing for battle.

I want my home to be a hybrid of fancy hotel (I like to aim high) and cozy nest. With that in mind, here is this year’s list (clockwise from upper right):

Central heating means you have to kick up the body moisturizing or suffer the itchy, uncomfortable consequences. I also like to add a couple of drops of James Read Click & Glow Gel Drops into my body lotion for some gradually developing colour. If you are pale verging-onto-greenish in the winter like me, some faux glow on your arms and legs will help them look less ghostly when they stick out of sleeves and from under blankets.

The bath needs to be a haven of good smells when nature and all living green things shut down for the season. Fredéric Malle’s Vetiver Extraordinaire body wash ($65 US) is headily resinous, faintly smoky and very green, like you’re hiking through a fragrant jungle. Vetiver is potent, but I don’t understand why it isn’t more widely used. It’s herbal and complex and earthy and I can’t live without it.

Obsessively doom-scrolling Twitter has destroyed my attention span, so it’s short stories only for the foreseeable future. Not only is there immense comfort in rereading old favourites, but as Nabokov observed “one cannot read a book: one can only reread it” (meaning you only start to get it after the second or third time around.) If you haven’t read Nora Ephron’s feminist classic Crazy Salad and Dorothy Parker short stories since you were in school (or ever), now is the time.

Phlur’s Howl candle ($86 CAN) is actually named after Allen Ginsberg’s Beat poem, not the wind that will be howling outside your windows this winter. Its tobacco, smoky oud and saffron blend will stand in for that roaring fire, while the spherical, lidded, porcelain jar becomes a sculptural catch-all after it’s finished.

This oversized jar of Body Shop’s Spa of the World French Grape Seed Body Scrub ($32 CAN) is a great-smelling jolt that will remind your senses that there is a living world outside, while also handily scrubbing away all the dead skin and leaving smoothness in its wake thanks to grape seed powder which is the perfect texture and offers the right degree of exfoliation. It’s not too rough but still does the job.

I am determined to keep seeing friends somehow over the winter and Yeti’s 30 oz rambler mug ($45) in brushed aluminum will keep my coffee really hot for socially-distanced dates in the frigid outdoors. (The Yeti also comes in bright colours, but ewww.)

Naadam’s kilo throw ($325 US) is 1000 grams of cashmere (my kind of weighted blanket) to hide under with your book. This is especially useful if you don’t in fact have a fireplace like Kelly Klein in her Central Park West apartment pictured above.

Weekend Dinner: Summer Pasta Lets the Sun do the Cooking

These simple ingredients mean dinner is almost ready.

Summer pasta is the best sort of recipe. A no-cook sauce that uses the heat of the noonday sun to infuse roughly chopped tomatoes with the flavours of basil, garlic and olive oil, you prep it in the morning, so when dinner time rolls around you only have to cook (and drain) the pasta and add it to the bowl. Plus all the tedious (and potentially dangerous) chopping was done hours earlier, which is great if you’ve now consumed a glass or more of rosé and shouldn’t be allowed near knives.

A 1980s artifact from The Silver Palate cookbook, Summer Pasta bears the hallmarks of that more-is-more decade. The original recipe went heavier on the olive oil and called for an indulgent, entire wheel of camembert. Sure it’s a whole wheel, but if you’ve removed the rind, that has to reduce the calorie count too, right?

But maybe I’m just rationalizing. If it still seems like too much, you can use less cheese, but I wouldn’t recommend it. This is not the time to be mingy.

Summer Pasta

Ingredients (serves four)

·       5 fist-sized tomatoes or 7 roma tomatoes, cored, seeded and cut into ½ inch cubes

·       A half-pound wheel of very ripe camembert, rind removed (don’t substitute a strongly flavoured brie, because the sharpness will dominate. You want bland creaminess.)

·       ½ cup basil leaves, torn up or chiffonaded (rolled up and cut into thin strands)

·       2 medium cloves of garlic, finely minced

·       ¼ to ½ cup of olive oil (the original recipe called for 1 cup. Ugh. No.)

·       1 box (450-500 grams) of spaghetti or small pasta shapes

·       Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Dice the tomatoes into a bowl and add the torn basil leaves, finely minced garlic cloves and a healthy glug of olive oil (a quarter cup is more than fine.)

Remove the rind from a half pound wheel of ripe camembert and put its gooey interior into the bowl along with everything else. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and place it in direct sun for the flavours to meld. And finally, while you’re still feeling all briskly industrious, put a lidded pot of salted water on the stove, ready to go. (Obviously, don’t turn the stove on yet.)

When everyone starts thinking about dinner (and when you feel least like it), drag yourself to the kitchen. Cook your pasta as directed and then drain (reserving maybe a quarter cup of pasta water) and place back into the warm empty pot.

Add the very warm, sun-melded tomato and basil sauce and fold in quickly with a wide spatula. The cheese will melt and vanish, coating each pasta strand. You will not need parmesan. Divide into bowls and garnish each with fresh basil leaves and then take them outside to join your friends.

The ‘I Would Like to be Invited Back’ Cottage Gift Guide

Lake of Bays July 25, 2019

Cottage host gifting is all about largesse.

If someone is lending you their lake house this summer, or you’re lucky enough to have cottage-owning friends or family in your ‘bubble’, this year’s essential gift is not a sold out Provençal rosé, but rather hard-to-find Lysol wipes. (I recently got some at Dollarama. Go figure.) But that’s only your opening gift salvo. 

Bring snacks (healthy and otherwise) as well as all the components for one very nice dinner. Throw in a special bottle for the host to enjoy later, apart from what you’ve brought to consume during your stay. And if you are positively giddy with the thought of leaving the steamy city for a cool, quiet lake, then add a gift so nice and unexpected that every time your hosts look at it they’ll think, “oh, we must invite her back.” 

And don’t forget to sweep up the bunkie on your last day, strip your bed (or even better, bring your own sleeping bag so you’re not sticking them with laundry) and maybe leave some gas money if they took you out in the boat for a tour of the area or wake surfing.  

Enjoy your stay!

Images clockwise from centre upper right

• If your hostess was a bookish young girl in the 1970s, The Long Secret is a trip back in time. The darkish 1965 sequel to Harriet the Spy spoke directly to outwardly polite girls with hidden reserves of intensity. And it takes place in Water Mill, on the south fork of Long Island, New York, i.e. the Hamptons before they were “The Hamptons”. 

• Hand sanitizer is part of our daily lives now, so make it pretty. Vancouver’s own AG Hair’s Hands Free Clean Hand Sanitizer Gel, $13, in a sleek pump bottle, looks chic on an entry hall table and its 73% ethyl alcohol formula is effective, while aloe and glycerin calm skin and restore moisture. AG Hair has donated 5,000 bottles to BC area frontline and health care workers.

•  A family sized bottle of Bioderma Photoderm SPF 40 High Protection Spray sunscreen, $37.90, contains almost half a litre of sunscreen, with a trigger sprayer that makes it easy to keep the entire brood protected.

• Draped over the back of a couch during the day (cannily hiding that patch that the cat destroyed) and over your shoulders on the deck on chilly nights, The Bay’s 350th anniversary sterling wool caribou throw, $170, is a monochromatic take on the classic multi-hued Hudson’s Bay point blanket and its subtle gradations of pale to dark grey stripes will elevate any room.

• If those tubes and jars in the cottage bathroom have Zeller’s price stickers, they’re probably pretty old. Restock the medicine chest with Canada’s own Zax’s Original brand natural remedies like arnica-based Bruise Cream, $19, and soothing Bug Bite & Itch Cream, $16. (Zax’s is donating twenty per cent of online sales to the Red Cross in support of Covid-19 initiatives.)

• Saje x Jillian Harris Aroma Carve ($94) diffuser’s fluted cylindrical cover looks beautiful on a shelf. Too many diffusers just look like diffusers and that utterly defeats the point. Include Saje Deep Breath Diffuser Blend, $16, a mix of eucalyptus, peppermint, and lavender that is not only calming and invigorating, but also refreshes musty cottage and cottage bathroom air.

• A French market basket can corral towels indoors or get loaded up to stylishly transport a picnic lunch to the beach.  

• Nude’s Glacier Wine Cooler, $118, is so elegantly sleek and unfussy that your hosts might even decide to bring it back to the city. Include a fresh bag of ice from the gas station en route and be the cottage hero.

• Sure you can bring the ingredients for a summer cocktail (Remember Greyhounds? I would like to bring them back) but a modern classic like Cave D'Esclans Whispering Angel Rosé is always a crowd-pleaser.

Grey, White & Silver: Spring Colours for Chromaphobes

Here in the east, spring is still weeks away, but the light is slowly changing and the days are getting longer. But how do you herald spring when you’re a confirmed colour-phobe and the only pink you ever want to wear is your lip balm?

Silver adds just enough spark to grey and white to make it springlike: this Pommelato Iconic ring in silver is a bold counterpoint to all the delicate jewelry out there, silvery grey shearling Birkenstocks acknowledge that it’s still cold out, and Valmont’s Palazzo Nobile Casanova 2161 cologne is a welcome switch from heavier winter fragrances. Sisley’s new Photo Hydra-Teint Tinted Moisturizer is the perfect non-makeup makeup to bring your skin back from its winter sleep and Rodial Pink Diamond Lip & Filler is a gentle lip soother with just enough plumping. And I love the whimsy of a $10 IKEA laminated paper tote. It isn’t exactly sturdy, but it makes the process of carrying things from place to place (laundry, donations from this month’s big clean-out) a bit more fun.

And when I’m home, I’m going to hide under this blanket (Hermès but without the aggressive ‘H’ logo), drink tea and immerse myself in former Vogue Fashion Director Tonne Goodman’s photo memoir because looking at magazines on my iPad is just not the same, and I really miss print.

Photo (clockwise): Grey sweater the Row,  Valmont Storie Veneziane Casanova 2161, eau de toilette, Tonne Goodman Point of View, Sisley Photo Hydra-Teint Beautifying Tinted Moisturizer,Rodial Pink Diamond Lip & Eye Filler, Hermès Avoine wool/cashmere blanket, IKEA Frekvens tote, Birkenstock Arizona in grey shearling, Gap white girlfriend jeans, Pommelato Iconica ring in white gold, Kusmi Alain Ducasse white tea w raspberry and rose, Viva Scandinavia Nicola tea cup.