Category Archives: Horses

Horses, Most excellent ideas, Nostalgia, The frontier, Whiskey, You gotta eat

Cocktails, pasta and pistols highlight Dallas bar’s Spaghetti + Western nights

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Windmill Lounge
Thirst rides a bar stool:  Hit the Windmill for the good, the badass and the linguini.

“I’m just a simple man of God.”

“Well, it’s time we unsimplify you, Reverend.”

The mysterious man rode in from the West, and before long the townsfolk would be looking to him to save their wretched lives. But that’s what happens when you’re packing whiskey, and Chris Furtado, Texas state manager for Utah-based High West Distillery, rose to the occasion.

On Monday, Furtado pardnered up with Dallas’ Windmill Lounge to present Spaghetti + Western Night, a “pasta and pistols” event they hope to make a regular occurrence. For $10 – barely a fistful of dollars, let’s face it – you’ll score a plate of pasta and an accompanying High West spirit-based cocktail to go along with the night’s chosen Western flick.

This week’s inaugural outing featured “High Plains Drifter,” the 1973 Clint Eastwood classic with dialogue like the above and a frontierswoman disparaging Eastwood’s character with the line: “From a distance you’d almost pass for a man.” The hearty, homey pasta was bowtie, the cocktail a theme-conscious, bitter and refreshing “Sergio” made with High West’s Double Rye whiskey, Ramazotti amaro and sparkling cider. The Windmill’s Charlie Papaceno even wore an apron. “This is a real Texas pasta because it’s got beans in it,” he said in his best Lee Van Cleef scowl.

If you want to ride in and hitch your horse for the next showing, “The Outlaw Josey Wales (another Eastwood vehicle) will hit the screen at 8 p.m. Monday, May 5. You might even run into a few of your favorite bartenders.

WINDMILL LOUNGE, 5320 Maple Ave., Dallas. 214-443-7818.

Cocktails are everywhere, Events, Horses, The Boonies

For your consideration: Another Derby event. Yes, there will be cocktails. And fancy hats.

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Polo on the Lawn
Amber West’s Thoroughbred may set your heart racing. (Photo courtesy of Lovell PR)

You could spent hours thinking about how none of the hats that appear on Derby Day are actually derbies, or you could do something way more productive: Figure out how you’re going to get yourself to Polo on the Lawn, the annual afternoon fundraiser featuring horses, cool hats and the excitement of the Kentucky Derby.

The 13th annual event, at the Prestonwood Polo & Country Club in Oak Point, features a U.S. Polo Association-sanctioned polo match and benefits Project Transformation, a Dallas organization serving low-income youth in North Texas. There’ll be live music, a silent auction and, no doubt, plenty of fancy chapeaus. Prizes will be given for best hat, picnic, tailgate and outfits.

The match will break at 5:15 pm for the traditional Champagne divot stomp, wherein attendees sip glasses of bubbly while wandering the polo field and stomping grass back in place where the horses have torn it up with their hooves. That will be followed by a viewing of the Kentucky Derby, accompanied by the day’s special cocktail, the Thoroughbred, a gin mint julep designed by bartender Amber West.

What’s this? A julep made with gin, not bourbon? “Gin and genever were used more in the medicinal juleps in the 19th century,” explains West, the former bar master at Central 214 who’s now with Caledonia Spirits. Her version uses honey, mint and Caledonia’s honey-tinged Barr Hill gin.

The polo match gets underway at 4 pm, with doors open at 3. VIP tickets – including grandstand box seating, a catered meal, wine and swag – are $150, though if you act fast you might be able to score them at half-price. General admission tickets are $45 for tailgate and lawn seating, plus Champagne and a commemorative glass. Kids 12 and under get in free.

Giddy-up.

PRESTONWOOD POLO & COUNTRY CLUB, 525 Yacht Club Road, Oak Point. 214-390-3444.

Events, Fashion and style, Horses, Theme parties

Fancy clothes, fancy dranks: Sissy’s’ annual Derby party rides again

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Sissy's Southern Kitchen
If you can’t make it to Churchill Downs, there’s always Sissy’s.

For those of you who like to drink in costume, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Barely a few days have gone by since we told you about History With A Twist, the Prohibition-Era vintage-cocktail-station benefit hitting Dallas Heritage Village later this month.

Now, on Saturday, May 3, comes Sissy’s Southern Kitchen’s third annual Jockeys and Juleps party, where you and your sophisticated self can sip $8 Mint Juleps while watching the horses run the track onscreen at the venerable Kentucky Derby.

Churchill Downs fashion is encouraged, and a $200 prize awaits the house’s best outfit. If this all sounds to you like a winning place to show (see what we did there?), grab your gaudy hats, your bow ties and blazers; settle your sockless feet into those horsebit loafers and join Sissy’s from 3 to 6 p.m. for the big race and all its pre- and post-hoopla.

The day’s drink specials – starting with brunch at 11 a.m. – will also include a Grapefruit Julep, Kentucky Punch and Presbyterian Bourbon Press. Reservations are available.

SISSY’S SOUTHERN KITCHEN & BAR, 2929 Henderson Ave., Dallas. 214-827-9900.

Events, Horses

Ponies, polo, and…. cocktails

This drink at Central 214 benefits literacy programs. Get over there immediately and order one.
This drink at Central 214 benefits literacy programs. Get over there immediately and order one.

There’s still time (barely) to get your horse on for Saturday’s 12th annual Polo on the Lawn event at the Prestonwood Polo & Country Club. Proceeds from the May 4 event will benefit Project Transformation, which supports literacy and education programs for Dallas’ low-income youth.

Kentucky-Derby attire is encouraged. Mint juleps will flow. Celebrity judges will be on hand to award prizes for best hats and best dressed, not to mention best tailgate. It’s that kind of event. A 4 p.m. polo match will be followed by a live Kentucky Derby broadcast and other festivities, with a trophy presentation at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $45 general admission (kids under 12 are free) and grant tailgating or lawn/picnic seating, plus champagne. Guests are encouraged to bring their own picnics and beverages.

A limited number of VIP tickets, with grandstand seating and catered dinner and drinks, are available for $150. The country club is at 525 Yacht Club Road in Oak Point. For more information, call 214-533-8997.

In conjunction with the event, Central 214 bartender Amber West has been serving her twist on the mint julep, the Equestrian (see above), with a portion of each one sold also benefiting Project Transformation. The bar is located inside the Hotel Palomar at Mockingbird and the North Central Expressway.