My grandparents’ home bar, off their living room.  (Entrance in the hallway. No doorknob – pull the painting) Midland, Texas

I can’t honestly say that my grandparents’ home bar inspired my mixology habit from the time I was a child (most of the time its crystal-lined shelves were simply a liability as we ran around the house), but it has always been my standard of the sweetest addition to a living room.  Separated from the living room by a shining stainless counter and hidden door, their bar was always a mysterious land of adult-things.  At this point, it strikes me as simply awesome.

Why is this relevant?

Because this Christmas (like most Christmases of my childhood), I’m hanging out at my grandparents’ house in Midland, Texas.  And because I want to inspire people with a variety of home bar styles (my way is not the only way), I will be conducting home bar/mixology station tours periodically.  Hopefully these tours will show a range of home mixology styles.  If you want your station featured, invite us over!

Now, if you’re not familiar with Midland, Texas, it does have a lot of the attributes you might imagine: oil rigs, ranch houses, Suburbans, more than a few people in Western hats and boots, tumbleweed, mesquite, and – my favorite part – a big, wide open sky.

My Granddad was kind enough to give me a quick tour of the bar – and more importantly, to share a little of his cocktail-drinking history, from age 12 to present.  Things were different in his childhood home in southern Louisiana back then:

Another view of the bar.  My Grandfather was the artist’s model in the painting next to it.

A little more detail on the bar and the home cocktail lifestyle it was created for:

When my Grandparents built their home in 1976, they entertained frequently, and they still do.  Their entertaining is a mix of informal and family events, as well as structured dinner clubs, bridge clubs, and other such social clubs that thrive in a place where restaurants just aren’t a big deal.  Wine was less common, and most of their entertaining would involve liquor-based drinks.  Given the circs, a decent bar was a natural feature to include in the design.  My Grandmother now thinks the architect and designer may have gone a bit overboard (that a simpler mixing station along the wall would be sufficient), but she brushed aside offers to include shutters so the bar could be hidden from “churchy friends and pastors.”  She figured since they were certainly going to serve alcohol, people may as well see where it came from.  Lesson: don’t hide your bar away!  Let it shine!

The drinks of the day were simpler mixes than many of the drinks commonly featured on this blog: whiskey with water or Coke, vodka and 7Up, Crown Royal on the rocks.  Though they did have a friend named Gus who made his own martinis.  Guests were encouraged to mix their own drinks.  Interestingly, rum wasn’t very common, despite my image of tiki drinks being popular during the era.  One favorite, though was frozen margarita mixes (the kind in a cardboard-wrapped can that comes frozen).  I think I would have followed Gus’s lead.

Bertessa with his Granddad in the home bar.

(And yes, with any luck, I will look just like him in  about 50 years.)