Ryan Layman (of Steuben’s fame) and I are good friends (at least I think so…) – as with all my friends, we have a banter that only happens between he and I.  Its fun.  Its quirky.  Its (usually) pretty clean.  Always entertaining.

Ryan likes to badger me about not going out of my comfort zone in terms of places I will go within the city (by choice, of course).  Whether that is restaurants, bike shops, whatever, I have my little bubble (no, not a Boulder Bubble) where I am comfortable in the city.  His point is, my bubble ain’t all that big, and I need to get outside of that more.

This especially applies to wine shops (or spirits merchants, whatever).  Ryan is a devoted DiVino guy, and I am highly loyal to Mondo Vino – have been for about 12 years now.

I have never actually been IN DiVino, he has never been in Mondo Vino.  Its WAY too far south on Broadway for me.  Its WAY to far up in the Highlands for him.

We both know a good deal about spirits (he WAY more than me), and we know something about some wines…and we both know what we like and don’t like in liquids, stores, and the people who run them.

So here is the deal.  Sometime in the month of December, we each, on our own, have to go to the others’ wine shop.  Give it a fair shake, spend at LEAST 15 minutes in the store, minimum.  Talk up the staff (quiz them on obscure trivia??), browse around, look for dusty shelves or hidden gems, unique stuff.  AND, we MUST purchase a bottle of some product.  Anything.  Might be a bottle of bitters, might be a bottle of Dom Perignon – that is completely up to the purchaser.  Each of us is going to ‘invest’ a little bit in one of these local shops, this month, then give the other an honest assessment of what they like and did not like about the shops.

What do you think?  Is there a difference?  Are there more?  Who will win the Showdown??

Posted in Journeys and Musings |