"Liquor" by Poppy Z Brite, 2004

[realexplodingcat]

Poppy Z. Brite (a.k.a. docbrite), the once revered and reviled goddess of horror fiction, has left behind the goths in favor of another subculture, the culinary world. Her husband is a chef, giving her an insider's perspective on what goes on in a restaurant kitchen. Trading gay vampires for gay chefs, Liquor is about two guys who want to achieve the American dream--running their own wildly successful business after working themselves up from minimum wage jobs.

Ricky and G-Man are talented, unemployed cooks recently fired for drinking on the job. While drowning his sorrow in more alcohol, Ricky comes up with an idea for a new restaurant called Liquor, where every dish served, from salads, entrees, to desserts, feature some kind of liquor as a key ingredient. A perfect idea for New Orleans, a town very fond of its booze and food.

In a lean style, much less verbose than that of her older work, Brite tell a rapid and uncomplicated tale about two guys setting out to start a new restaurant. A clear goal, without a clear path to get to it.

While there are some shady characters that thicken the plot and challenge the protagonists, the meat of the story is about the necessary challenges every restaurateur must overcome, from finding a location, to raising enough money, to putting together a staff, and creating a menu. I've always been intrigued by restaurants and the business of cooking, and the popularity of the Food Network suggests I'm not alone. Liquor offers an entertaining inside look at how a restaurant comes to life.

I grew up with an amateur gourmet cook for a father who enjoyed taking his family out for dinner on vacations and cooking Sunday meals that met or even surpassed the quality of the restaurants we dined at. Personally, I enjoyed the book because I have always had an interest in the culinary world after growing up with those experiences. But it touches upon my current life, too. Having little to no experience with starting a business, reading the book has led me to a greater appreciation of the tough task ahead of xiane as she attempts to start a new music venue.

New Orleans, the city Brite calls home, is integral to her novel. Liquor can't take place anywhere else. It made me wish that I've lived in a place long enough to feel comfortable writing about it and treating it as a living, breathing character as she does with New Orleans. Perhaps if I stay in Charlottesville long enough, I'll be able to do so. This town is quite unique and interesting and I'd love to capture that on the page. Liquor also made me think of Charlottesville because this city has an unusual amount of restaurants for its size. You can't walk across the street in the evenings without tripping over a waiter or a line-cook collapsed on the ground (quite possibly drunk) after a long day's shift. After reading Liquor, I better appreciate and understand them (so now I will be less likely to kick them and rummage through their pockets for loose change).

Comments

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

This makes me want to read Kitchen Confidential again. Can't understand why ;-).

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

That title rings a bell. But I'm not familiar with it beyond recognizing it as a title. I'll have to look for that one.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Sorry, should have linked it.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0060934913/ref=pd_sim_books_1/002-5322099-0896021?v=glance&s=books

I love this book.

[twilight-spirit.livejournal.com]

the meat of the story is about the necessary challenges every restaurateur must overcome, from finding a location, to raising enough money, to putting together a staff, and creating a menu

I think you must know that my dad ran a pretty successful restaurant in Newtown at one time, right? He has lots of restaurant stories, but this reminded me of how he told me when he was scrambling with his partner to get all the expensive equipment they were going to need to open up, he went to auctions down in Philly in the little part right off I-95 where there are all sorts of distributors that cater to the restaurant biz (perhaps you've noticed Mr Bar Stool before?). He said it was really an uneasy feeling, going into a business venture, buying equipment on the cheap that was on auction because the businesses they had belonged to previously had failed. It was all liquidated merchandise, basically.

He told me another interesting story about building the bar when they were getting started. Apparently it's really expensive to hire someone to build a nice bar because of all the moulding and trimming and whatnot. At one point they were looking at hiring someone from Princeton who did that for a living I guess. Great work, but his figures were just too high. So they finessed it by building it out of garage doors, with some thick, solid wood for the bar top, of course. It worked great for them, and it was really cost effective. And wouldn't you know it, they got all sorts of compliments on how nice their bar looked -- no one could tell the difference. :)

By the way, I think I left two somethings behind on Sunday. Did you happen to find a cd wallet and a cell phone charger by any chance? If you have the cd wallet, check out one of the discs labeled 'Celldweller'. Chad played the first song for me at the Dawning. Good disc.

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Cool. Yeah, I bet your father would have a lot of interesting stories. I like that one about the bar. I don't think I've noticed Mr Bar Stool.

I have not noticed a cell phone charger or a cd wallet. Any idea which room they might be in? I did find your oatmeal. Did you find a place to park downtown to find city papers?

[twilight-spirit.livejournal.com]

The cell phone charger was plugged in where Jos's laptop is plugged in; I know that I left that behind. If you don't have my caselogic cd case, I don't know where it is then. The last I remember it, I put away the Heart Throbs cd and probably put it down on your coffee table. I do vaguely recall picking it up, but I'm not sure if I actually brought it out to my car. I would have had it on my passenger seat, but I don't remember it being there at any point on my journey home. Though I do remember a weird noise when I first put my car in gear. I actually got out and checked around my car to see if I had run over anything, but I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. I hope it's not lost. :\

I found the city papers, no problem. And enjoy the oatmeal. S'good for ya. ;)

Chess to resume shortly...

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

You are correct! I found the CDs beneath the coffee table (with an umbrella that I think is yours). And the phone charger was where you said it was. I needed the specific directions on where to look for the stuff, because I get overwhelmed with our clutter sometimes.

So...now what? How long can you wait for this? We will be driving through and/or stopping in New Jersey in July during our vacation.

[twilight-spirit.livejournal.com]

Ah, excellent! I was afraid I lost *another* batch of cds. I have a new phone charger now, so no biggie there, though it would be nice to get that back. I'll probably just get another umbrella. I guess I can wait on the cds if you're coming up in July. If your plans change or it looks like our schedules aren't going to work out, would it be too much to ask for you to ship it? I probably won't be back down myself until October or so.

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Yes, if it looks like we won't get a chance to meet, I'll arrange to ship the CDs. We're stopping at my parents' place on the way up to Maine, probably around July 8 - 9. We might stop there on the way back, or we might be meeting my parents in Ocean City. But if we are going to be near Philly on the way back, that would be July 17-18. I guess that is a pretty small window of opportunity. But it might work.

So, I have the bonus of rifling through your CD book. :)

I saw the CellDweller. And is that VAST's new album in there?

[twilight-spirit.livejournal.com]

Hey, you're going to Maine? That's where my dad was born, actually. I guess we'll see how the timing works out.

Yes, that is VAST's new album, Nude. Honestly, I'd recommend listening to the burned disc labeled 'Turquoise' instead because half the songs on Nude are *from* there, and in some cases I like those original unmastered versions better. Turquoise is great, though; I haven't really gotten into everything on Nude. If you like it, I can send you the original mp3 files I bought, which were only 128k to begin with (so they won't sound too good if you rip/re-encode them). Celldweller was originally 192k, so that might not be too bad.

I forget what else I had in there. Some mp3 compilations among other things. Enjoy! :)

[drcuriosity]

Damn, haven't talked to her for years - ever since I stopped checking alt.gothic regularly. I really ought to get around to reading some of her stuff. Slack, I know...

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Have you read any of it? I used to read all her horror stuff. But this is the first of her non-horror work I've read. Now I need to go back and find the other stuff that came before Liquor.

[drcuriosity]

I read a short story she posted a link to, once. Something about meeting the guys who did South Park. Kind of slashy.

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think I've read that, too. Quite slashy. Quite silly. I wouldn't consider it representative of her work. For horror, her short story collection "Wormwood" is worth a look. For the non horror, I found "Liquor" to be quite enjoyable.

[seeliespright.livejournal.com]

I almost bought that book (to read and then return). And now, even though i'm not really interested in restaurants, I think i'd like to try the book. Thanks for the commentary / recommendation... I'll pick up a copy tomorrow on my day off. That is, after I've read my manga and am ready to return it. :oX

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Cool. I hope you enjoy it. Sounds like you do this read & return thing often. Do they ever give you trouble about it? Do you to return within a certian number of days?

[seeliespright.livejournal.com]

I do, do the read / return thing a lot because usually the library does not have the books I want b/c they are too new / lib doesn't carry them. And, I go through books so fast that it would get quite expensive if I kept all of the books I read. However, I do keep some (if they're worth their ticket price) and coming back and returning leads to my purchasing further things... some of which I keep.

So, either way, Barnes & Noble and Borders get their money. And if not from me, from selling the books again b/c I _always_ return them without bends or cracks or scuffs.

0:oP

[radiantdaffodil.livejournal.com]

This book sounds absolutely intriguing! And appetite-whetting :o)

[explodingcat.livejournal.com]

Appetite-whetting, indeed. The book contains the complete menu for the restaurant, in addition to several other described dishes. How about an order of "Pork Terrine with Wild Mushrooms and Bushmills Irish Whiskey?" Or maybe "Garlic-Perfumed Beef Ribeye Flamed with Cognac?" It's a tasty book.

[radiantdaffodil.livejournal.com]

*giggle* I've never heard of perfume-wearing meat :P And garlic, no less! Sounds absolutely scrumptious, though.