THE BIG TOP'S '57 CHEVY WITH HAWAIIAN PLATES

Dear Reader,

Troy Fields

Location Info

Venue

Shoeshine Charley's Big Top Lounge

Map

Shoeshine Charley's Big Top Lounge

3714 Main
Houston, TX 77002

Category: Bars/Clubs

Region: Downtown/ Midtown

Photos

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More About

• Southern Comfort Liqueur
• Mike Perkins
• The English Patient
• Liquor and Spirits
• Beverages

The torch of Stirred & Shaken has been passed. I am your new drinks columnist. I hope you enjoy the recipes (and stories). If you have suggestions for cocktails we should try, please e-mail me at stirredandshaken@rocketmail.com. — WH

Bad Film Night had not drawn much of a crowd when I arrived at Shoeshine Charley's Big Top Lounge (3714 Main) last Thursday to meet Jose and Vic and sample a Big Top signature cocktail, the '57 Chevy with Hawaiian Plates. On the large screen over the stage area, they were screening Blood Freak (1972), a vaguely Christian, antidrug abortion of a movie that features a confusing parade of potheads and drug dealers, a chain-smoking narrator, a poultry farm and a half-man, half-turkey serial killer.  I am not making this up. Bartender Donna LaMell looked baffled when I ordered three '57s in a mostly empty bar at 8:30 p.m. on a weeknight. "You know it's a shot, right?" Having tried the shot already, I ordered mine on the rocks; my friends got the other version. The pineapple juice that lends "Hawaiian Plates" to the moniker makes the '57 a refreshing, all-too-drinkable summer libation when served with ice. After two rounds, the group was actually enjoying Blood Freak. Someone suggested it may have been a prequel to The English Patient. We debated the point until the film ended abruptly but mercifully, and Mike Perkins, a "bad films collector" and the curator of Bad Film Night, cued up Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster. Afterward, a '60s psychedelic rock band called Psylli Psybin (like 'shrooms, get it?) started its set. Is a theme developing here? I don't know, brother...ask the Turkey-Man.

1 ounce Southern Comfort whiskey

1 ounce Amaretto liqueur

1 ounce Grand Marnier liqueur

Splash of cranberry juice

Splash of pineapple juice

Mix ingredients in a shaker with ice. Strain into shot glass or serve on the rocks. Pairs well with poultry.