A committed lecture attendee and seasoned drinker reviews the weekly drink choice at YSoA’s lecture reception.

WHISKEY, WARMTH, AND BITTER(S)

1/9/25
From our home set of Rudolph pews, it was easy to feel camaraderie with the Tuskegee Chapel, especially after the charming and warm lecture by Kwesi Daniels and Helen Brown Bechtel’s introduction to the new gallery exhibition. This warmth continued onto the second floor, where the whiskey-based cocktail of the evening welcomed everyone back to the new semester. While the new gallery layout was cause for harrowing new traffic patterns and pile-ups, the new exhibitions made up for this in giving us new things to look at and copy for our studio projects this semester. The drink, featuring a duet of Kentucky and Tennessee whiskey and celebrating black-owned distillery Uncle Nearest, was served on the rocks but left a very warm feeling in the stomach on the cold January night. I give this week’s cocktail and its ending of many dry Januaries 3.5 out of 5 stars.

REMIXING THE CLASSICS

1/30/25
It’s hard to mess up a gin and tonic. While criticized by some on the way out of Hastings Hall for being a basic choice for an architect that is anything but basic, I would argue that the gintonica served in Benedetta Tagliabue honor fits the bill. With peppercorn, juniper berries, herbs and fruit added to Italian gin, the drink was elevated from a standard G&T (especially the ones you can order at Heidelberg or Gryphon’s) and like EMBT’s work, always hits the spot. Benedetta aims to make architecture to make people feel better or to make better people, and while I am certainly not a better person for drinking three (or four) cocktails at reception, I can confidently say I did feel better for having done so, at least for the evening. While most gin and tonics are a solid 3 stars, I give the Spanish and Italian inspired version from tonight a 4 out of 5.

SAFE ROUTES

2/6/25
This review is for the white wine drinkers at reception. Make no mistake, the cocktail this week was excellent — in Andrew’s words “a bouquet of flavors” with floral gin, notes of ginger, celery, lemon, rosemary, and spearmint — I give it five stars. But in the spirit of Beka’s lecture, I want to celebrate the option to not drink a curated cocktail every week. Safety and choice to play or not to play, rules we all agree on and can lose ourselves within, these are the things that make a space welcoming and create community. While for myself the white wine is what to resort to when the cocktail runs out, its role in reception (along with the mocktail du jour) is important to give everyone the ability to play in the way that best works for them. While it might only be a 2.5 star wine, its reliability as a safe alternative is 4.5 stars.