A Velveteen Lounge New York Minute

The past week has been crazy! Here's our video recap of the past week in our lives, along with a couple of vintage recipes for video days!

Welcome to the Fabulous Lush Gardens!

Join us for a visit to a fabulous home bar in Connecticut and a lovely tropical libation by master mixologist Paula!

Road Trip: Tiki TNT in Washington, DC!

Our recent road trip/tiki tour in Washington, DC was fab! Here's our visit to Tiki TNT and Potomac Distilling Company. What a great afternoon!

Pearl on the Lam!

Aunt Pearl has been spotted sipping tiki drinks while on the lam! Will the authorities ever catch up with her? Stay tuned!

A Fabulous Phoenix Home Bar

Road trip! Join us for a visit to a fabulous home tiki bar in sunny Phoenix, Arizona!

Bad Day? Visit Your Local Tiki Bar!

Having a bad day? Sometimes all you can do is visit your local tiki bar. We have another episode coming next week from Lun Wah, featuring some suspicious characters, so stay tuned!

Porco Lounge & Tiki Room in Cleveland - Painkiller Recipe!

Are you ready for happy hour? Me, too! Today we're visiting Cleveland's fabulous Porco Lounge & Tiki Room for their delicious Painkiller! The title is apt - any pain you're feeling will evaporate after a couple of these little miracles. Cheers!

Road Trip to Tiki Underground in Akron - Mai Tai on the Menu!

Are you ready for a happy hour cocktail? Me, too! Today I'm enjoying the fabulous Mai Tai from Tiki Underground in Akron, Ohio. The recipe is in the video and highly (no pun intended) recommended. Be sure to drop in when you're driving through Ohio. Their decor is beautiful, their food is great and their drinks are spot on!

Hidden Harbor Pittsburgh Tiki Bar - Road Trip!

Today we're excited to bring you along on our recent to Hidden Harbor, Pittsburgh's fabulous tiki hot spot! Head bartender Max Stein makes three drinks, all of which are delicious, and their decor and ambiance are to die for! I wish I was there right now!

Our Autumn Road Trip Part 1: Pittsburgh and Akron

We've just returned from a whirlwind tour that took us through Pittsburgh, Akron, Cleveland and Buffalo and what an amazing time it was! We managed to shoot upcoming episodes at six different locations, met wonderful people and had experiences we'll never forget. You never know what will happen when you hit the road. This time we were very, very fortunate. Here is a little travelogue of our first two stops, Pittsburgh and Akron.

Pittsburgh:

The morning we started out was not promising. Torrential rain, road work and traffic made for a nerve wracking first couple of hours on the road. The rain eventually let up and we were able to relax a little and take in the sights.

If I'm smiling that means the rain has stopped.

We stayed at the Hotel Indigo, in the area known as East Liberty, and it was gorgeous. I loved our room. The view left a little to be desired, but I kind of enjoyed the juxtaposition.

The hotel had a vague "old Hollywood" theme happening, which I loved. I would stay there again in a second. It also happened to be within walking distance of a Primanti Bros., so we got our fix of huge, overstuffed sandwiches.

There's just no way to do this neatly.

That night we dropped in our master mixologist friend Lucky at Acacia, where he works his liquid magic. A number of lovely libations were consumed (thank heavens for Uber!).

The next day we shot an episode at Hidden Harbor, a fabulous tiki bar with a touch of modern inspiration. They were so kind to us and shared recipes for three of their cocktails! It's truly a beautiful place and we were delighted that our friend Paul could join us for a couple of rounds.

The ladies room. Hysterical! 

Of course, we'd be forced to turn in our record collector cards if we didn't visit Jerry's Records. Happily, Jerry's was easy walking distance from Hidden Harbor, so we were able to drop in after our shoot, then return to Hidden Harbor later for more tiki goodness!

    

Akron:

Akron was a quick stop for us, but we had such a good time that we stayed far longer than we'd originally intended! We shot an episode at the fabulous Tiki Underground, opened earlier this year by Sean and Jessie Coffey. They're wonderful hosts and Tiki Underground is gorgeous, with delicious food and drinks and, among more upscale selections, an impressive collection of Old Man Beer:

Old Man Beer connoisseur Paul ordered a Hamm's. 

 

Thank you so much to Sean and Jessie, Tim, Carol, Julie, John and Elaine for showing us a great time in Akron! We will be back!

Up next: Cleveland, Buffalo and the bizarre drive home.

Coming Tomorrow: Our New Music Video!

It's taken many months longer than we originally anticipated, but our next music video is scheduled to go live on YouTube tomorrow morning! Our past music videos were ambitious, but this is our most ambitious to date and I'm dying to see the finished product, which Paul is still editing.

In making past videos we've worked with a recording engineer/arranger and composers. This time we had a composer (we write the lyrics to these little masterpieces ourselves), an arranger, musicians and a recording engineer. There were lots of moving parts and I learned a ton, which I plan to put to good use, as we want to do two more music videos this year. Well, I want to do one every week, but they're expensive to produce! We're aiming for mid-summer for our next one - wish us luck!

In the vocal booth

The view from the vocal booth. Paul looks emphatic about something!

The fabulous Dennis in a scene shot at Lun Wah Restaurant and Tiki Bar

Whirlwind Washington, DC Trip & AIDS Walk New York

The past four days are a blur, but they certainly were fun! Thursday morning we hit the road for the Washington, DC area, where we shot an episode at Tiki Thirstday at House of Foong Lin, in Bethesda, then another the next day at Archipelago, in Washington, DC.  Tiki Thirstday was an absolute blast. If you're ever in the area on Thursday evening, definitely go! Chef Fu, who has won all kinds of "Best of Bethesda" awards for his fabulous food, and Miss Ling, the general manager and mixologist, are so sweet and the food and drinks are out of this world! And the tikiphiles who attend were incredibly friendly and welcoming. I wish we lived closer and could go more often!

The first of many cocktails at House of Foong Lin

Huge soft shell crabs at House of Foong Lin - heavenly!

The next day we did what we called the "45 minute tour" of monuments, then arrived at Archipelago, the new tiki bar in town. They were super nice as well and have a great place! The drinks and food were both fabulous, but the garnishes were really transcendent. I forgot to get a shot of the one that looked like two exotic dancers on a pole, but they were all pretty special. And they have a Tom Selleck shrine! It's a great place!

The Tiki Thirstday episode will be online May 24 and the Washington, DC episode on May 31!

Tom Selleck shrine at Archipelago

Is it a hat or an island? Or just a fabulous garnish?

Sunday was AIDS Walk New York, our 20th walk! The weather mostly held out (a little rain, but nothing awful) and they changed the route this year, which was so much better than previous years. There was much more space on most of the route, so you didn't feel like you were uncomfortably close to 30,000 strangers - always a plus. And we stopped for a celebratory lunch at Chan's Dragon Inn on the way home - the perfect way to end the weekend!

AIDS Walk New York Star Walker Breakfast

They even had a throne!

Flaming Virgin at Chan's Dragon Inn

I've only been home for two days, but I'm ready to hit the road again! If you have a location you'd like to see in an upcoming episode, please let us know!

Our Music Video Is Coming Together!

It typically takes us a week or so to pull together an episode of the show. I'll write it early in the week, test recipes and shoot the food mid-week, then we'll shoot several on a weekend day and Paul edits on Sunday. A music video takes a lot longer, but I'm pleased to report our next musical offering is on track to go online by the end of the month! The song was recorded earlier this month, we'd already shot some video at home, and yesterday we shot some of the sequences at Otto's Shrunken Head, in NYC! We're so grateful to them for their support of the show and their hospitality! Here's a small taste of what you can expect:

Lights, camera!

Director Paul "tests" drinks.

Guess who?

A tiki bar is so convenient for "apres shooting" celebrating!

We have more work to do, but it was a great day! We need to get a few more shots, then Paul can don his editor's cap and pull it all together!