Which is the best slivovitz in the land? Slivophiles across America will have to wait until October 13 to find out the official results of the International Slivovitz Drinkers Association, which will hold this year’s U.S. Slivovitz Festival at the Northeastern Hotel on Dunlap Island, Minnesota. But a few enterprising slivofans got the party started early, with simultaneous celebrations on September 8 at a residential home in Queens, New York and at Lambert’s Seafood Restaurant and Sports Bar in Glenn Dale, Maryland, just outside of Washington, D.C.
We discuss the new approach in the fight to free Alan Gross, the top Jewish sandwiches and the eastern European liqueur that’s guaranteed to burn all the way down.
While reporting ?If the Slivovitz Hasn?t Killed You Yet, Have Another Shot,? for the Forward?s food and drink section, I talked to a lot of serious slivophiles. Some of them discovered the super-potent plum brandy later in life, but for many the appeal went back to childhood, growing up in families who drank slivovitz in an almost ceremonial fashion.
A Brooklyn bar creates a modern cocktail out of a long-mocked plum brandy.