I wasn't able to make it to the recent absinthe tasting at LeNell's Ltd. liquor store in Red Hook, Brooklyn, but owner LeNell Smothers was kind enough to sit down with me and answer a few questions about the green fairy, the business of bars, and booze. How would you describe the experience of drinking absinthe to someone who had never tried it? Are you talking about the myth of hallucinating? That's bullshit. It's a high-proof alcohol, so you're getting more of a buzz, but it's not the same as taking a hallucinogenic drug. Do you subscribe to the traditional method of drinking absinthe, with the spoon, the sugar, and the dripping of cold water? It depends. Sometimes I just... More

Now that absinthe is legally available in the U.S. again, you might be at a loss as to the proper way to drink it. Time Out New York comes to your rescue. Just don't ... ... set it on fire. Yes, it was very cool to light your absinthe-laced spoonful of sugar on fire before stirring it into your glass in that dingy Prague pub, but that’s how the Czechs drink it. The only (legal) absinthe you’ll find on these shores is produced in the French style, and thus should be consumed the French way.... More