I just saw this news regarding my favorite watering hole. As the head of Station MN (Minnesota) I hereby nominate myself to try a shot on behalf on CBn...
St. Paul Grill Stocks Up on Pricey Scotch in Time for Republican Convention
by Tad Vezner
Pioneer Press
In time for the biggest political bash to hit the Twin Cities in living memory, the
St. Paul Grill has made an extravagant business decision: to corner the market on the best booze in town.
Republicans coming to their national convention in September can buy a "pony shot" of The Macallan 55-year-old single-malt scotch, fresh from a famed 184-year-old distillery in the Scottish Highlands.
For $525 a glass.
It's a small glass: A pony shot, used for fine liquors, is 1 ounce, rather than the 1.5 ounces doled out, a bit less delicately, for common spirits.
"I got the hotel involved. I didn't want to be the only one making the decision," said David Soos, general manager of the St. Paul Grill.
The drink, roughly speaking, goes for about a buck a drop.
The Grill, within the historic downtown
St. Paul Hotel - a place of old money and opulent finery with a portrait of F. Scott Fitzgerald watching over the bar - always has kept a diverse and much-touted selection of fine scotch. But The Macallan 55-year-old single-malt scotch whisky, kept in a crystal decanter by French designer Lalique, likely is the most expensive bottle ever to hit the Twin Cities tavern scene.
And it's here for a reason.
"With the RNC in town, we wanted to be the exclusive seller," Soos said.
The hotel decided to buy all four of the available rare bottles, which retail at $12,000 apiece.
The fact the bottles were made available in the first place - only 400 were produced in December for worldwide distribution - was the decision of national distributors, who wanted the area around the Republican National Convention to be a fine, scotch-rich environment.
"That decision (to supply the central U.S. with so many bottles) was made solely because of the RNC," said Susie Deshon, of St. Paul-based Griggs, Cooper & Co., a statewide wine and liquor distributor supplied by Remy Amerique, the U.S. distributor for The Macallan.
"I was surprised that we (the Midwest) were going to get that many. The Chinese and the Japanese are huge single-malt scotch connoisseurs."
And even in politically correct times when the wheel-greasing relationship between fine liquor and politics isn't overtly touted, some Republicans see that as good business sense.
"I've been in the $250,000 donor suite. People expect the good booze," said Sarah Janecek, the Republican publisher of Politics in Minnesota. "Do we expect anything less from the Republicans than drinking $500 scotch? ... I don't think (John) McCain is going to stay at the Kelly Inn."
Joe Webber, a longtime Republican activist, said there likely would be wry commentary from the opposition: "I'm sure the Dems are going to have plenty of lighthearted comments about it."
Former St. Paul Mayor George Latimer, a Democrat, obliged: "Thank goodness (Mitt) Romney didn't win because all the people in there would be drinking water. ... I think the McCain people being free thinkers, they might have a few."
The hotel bought a lockable wood-and-glass container for The Macallan to make everyone feel better, complete with a backlight to make the bottle glow.
Serving it up always is a spectacle.
"You kinda expect them (patrons) to do cartwheels," said Hammer, who last week served the first shot of the 55-year-old vintage to one of the St. Paul Hotel's frequent patrons, who shared it with a friend.
The reaction was muted, Hammer said, but "they were pleased." (The patron, he added, is notoriously low-key.)
Troy Pearson, of Stillwater, who owns Hugo-based Pearson Mechanical Inc., struggled to describe the scotch while sampling it Thursday.
"There's a few fruits coming at you ... 'Smooth' could be every other word ... The finish goes off into the sunset," he said.
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