Friday, July 25, 2025

THE BLUEBIRD

 The Bluebird Cocktail Room that is!


When coming home from Rehoboth we had an overnight stay to visit a friend outside Balitmore, near Hampden. So we went that night to a favorite haunt, the Bluebird Cocktail Room. What better time to post this then the start of the weekend. The place is a favorite...it's brought sophisticated cachet while still having an approachable vibe. The former gallery space was transformed into a stylist joint done mostly in a moody navy blue, with gold accents, communal tables, corner lounges and a fireplace, with natural light coming in during the day and candlelight at night. But kids, its cocktail program does a lot right. The menu reads like an eight-page book, which is appropriate for this literary themed bar, (the owner likes to read, and the place has books to read all over the place) the place is also named after a Charles Bukowski poem. Cocktails are divided into four chapters. Simple, more complex, long sippers, and after dinners. The Dame had a lovely Hemingway daiquiri. The food is also very delicious, but the cocktails are the star. The bartenders top notch and old school, and they even take the ice seriously. I tried three different drinks, all gin related, and we ended the meal with absinthe and flaming cube of sugar.

Shrimp crochets.
Brussel sprout and kale salad

After the gin drinks and an absinthe ending, cards on the table, I barley recall leaving the joint. Now on to the weekend. The Harrisburg clan and one friend from NYC is coming for the Harrisburg Pride festivities tomorrow, in addition us queens have to get ready and host for Crystal Envy and Sam Star who will be delighting us with their talents. If Sam gets drunks tomorrow night, I told her I have some delights for her.

18 comments:

  1. What a great place; such a moody vibe. I love the idea of the books and the drink menu.
    And brussel sprouts and kale salad??? Sign me up.

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  2. I totally love a place like that! 'Course, you know me and books....

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  3. Classy! Love the literary drinks menu. And 3 kinds of absinthe drips!

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    1. I like to drink and can handle many Liquors, I have to say absinthe, oh boy, was that mine altering.

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  4. Shrimp croquet and Old Tom Gin - What more can you want?

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  5. This is fabulous!!!!
    You always haunt the coolest places, Mads!
    If you come to Chi, we have to go to La Pharmacie, on Sheridan Road (close to the gay beach!). You’d love their drinks!

    XOXO

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    1. Is that by chance a bar that's Pharmacy related theme? There used to be a place in New York City that I loved called therapy. That was a fun place, and all the drinks were named after medications.

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  6. Our little gang had a notorious night out at a Moulin Rouge-themed evening, with absinthe - traditional, with sugar cube and in cocktails - on tap. It ended up a bit of a drunken mess, with several of the party not remembering whether they'd actually watched the end of the film or not (but crying anyway), nor how they got home. I got on the wrong bus and ended up wandering through Dalston (a fairly dogy area at night) in a top hat and tails, trying to find a taxi home. Everyone survived! None of us has touched absinthe since. Jx

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    1. That should have read "fairly dodgy area". Bien sûr. Jx

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    2. I believe you!!!! I don't recall leaving the joint and was then told I stripped naked in the back seat of the car and then told I had to dress again to get out and get into my friend's house, to which I'm told I said Fuck it, and walked in the house naked. Search me.

      Talk about a mind-altering drink. Reminds me of the Deelite song, Music Selector is the Soul Reflector. That song would sum up what was going on in my head.

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  7. Anonymous7/25/2025

    L'absinthe, cet élixir maléfique des artistes et des écrivains :)
    La salade de choux de Bruxelles et de chou frisé a l'air délicieuse.
    Tu choises bien.
    -Beau Mec à Deauville

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  8. Milleson7/25/2025

    "After the first glass of absinthe you see things as you wish they were. After the second, you see things as they are not. Finally you see things as they really are, and that is the most horrible thing in the world." - Oscar Wilde
    It is said that Wilde drank absinthe during the last three years of life and exile in France and Italy. Absinthe has an interesting history, banned for a time but available now in the U.S. but with regulations to limit thujone content(the supposed hallucinogenic compound)

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    1. Anonymous7/25/2025

      Oui, rêves hallucinatoires d'armoise/ hallucinatory dreams of wormwood :)
      -Beau Mec à Deauville

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  9. Look at that, they have Herbsaint .... I'm impressed.... Its like the Mirror Room at the Hotel Bentley here in the Lil City by the Red

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  10. Oh and I forgot.... who's drinking a Sazerac in the late afternoon..

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  11. Those brussels sprouts look delish.

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  12. The name alone would draw me in. Then I'd sit there for hours, reading and drinking. Absinthe always makes me think of my daughter.

    Love,
    Janie

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  13. So, is this the Bluebird of Happiness that I've heard about?

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Go ahead darling, tell me something fabulous!