road rager
the ultimate bar crawl for anyone looking to go on vacation, thanks to alie & georgia.
How would Alie Ward and Georgia Hardstark describe their new TV show, Tripping Out with Alie & Georgia? "Kind of like if you multiply Anthony Bourdain by two and put him in a dress," suggests Hardstark--but we'd also add, make him even cooler. The vintage-loving, dive bar-favoring, tattooed duo, who used to daydream about having their own travel show, were approached by the Cooking Channel after the success of their web series Classy Ladies with Alie & Georgia and Drinks with Alie & Georgia (it certainly helped that cooking show goddess Giada De Laurentiis signed on as a producer). "The fact that it's come true is crazy," admits Hardstark, with Ward adding, "We can't even handle it!"
And yet, they totally can; the show, which premieres tonight at 10:30 pm, is one-part travel buddy comedy and one-part cooking show, with the duo zig-zagging across America in search of the tastiest cocktails. Though you can tune in to watch their hijinks, we had to know their very favorites--keep reading for their guide to the ultimate road trip that you can toast to. Just no drinking and driving, OK?
Click here for more info on the show!
The Place:Marfa, Texas
The Bar: Padres Marfa (209 W El Paso Street)
The Drink: Paloma (tequila, grapefruit, lime, soda)
Why: "It's actually surprisingly a really beautiful, nice bar. If it was in L.A. it would be one of those places that you can't get into. It's a local, classy hangout. And the tequila drinks are great, but what we found in Texas was that everyone drinks beer," says Hardstark. Adds Ward, "It should also be noted that Padres is in a former funeral home, which is crazy as hell. It's this great little hangout, a watering hole in this really creepy place."
The Place: San Francisco, California
The Bar: Zeitgeist (199 Valencia Street)
The Drink: Bloody Mary (vodka, tomato juice, lime, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco sauce, celery salt, ground pepper, Boozely's spicy pickled green beans, horseradish, olives, and a "secret ingredient")
Why: According to Hardstark, "Alie and i both hate tomato juice, so we can secretly never have a Bloody Mary at brunch. This is the only Bloody Mary I've ever liked, so I wanted to take a fellow hater to try this one. It's like a Bloody Mary on crack--it has a ton of horseradish, it's like a crazy salad in a pint glass, with delicious pickled vegetables. It's one of my favorite bars in the world--it's a dive-y, dive-y place."
The Place: Las Vegas, Nevada
The Bar: Double Down Saloon (4640 Paradise Road)
The Drink:: Bacon martini (bacon-infused vodka, bacon garnish)
Why: "I'm probably going to get stabbed for this, but it's the sketchiest dive bar I've ever been to. It's way way off the strip, but they have really fun, silly cocktails," says Hardstark. "They're almost offensively affordable--which is why there are a bar fights every night. Do not enter without hand sanitizer," notes Ward.
The Place: Miami, Florida
The Bar: Sugarcane Raw Bar Grill (3252 NE 1st Avenue)
The Drink: Apricot-Whiskey Reverie (apricot jam, apricot-infused Dickel-Rye Whiskey, fresh lemon juice, ginger ale)
Why: "I love using jam in cocktails--it gives them the flavor of a muddled fruit, plus it has sugar in it instead of using simple syrup," explains Ward. As for the bar, Hardstark describes it as "this super-classy joint, where one pair of women's shoes [worn by someone there] will pay our rent for a month. They have a raw bar and really delicious food at this new, hip spot with a great cocktail program." Adds Ward, "Sit on the patio and nosh on small plates and look at people who live in Miami and wear white all year round."
The Place: Homer, Alaska
The Bar: Salty Dawg Saloon (4380 Homer Spit Road)
The Drink: mead, Canadian whiskey
Why: According to Hardstark, "Homer was the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my entire life; the most stunning vistas, the most stunning scenery. And Salty Dawg Saloon is this dive-y bar and everyone hung out there. And if we ordered fancy cocktails, they would have laughed--so we found out that they liked to drink Canadian whiskey there, so you might as well join them." "It really is a public house in every sense of the word," Ward points out. "It's the one watering hole for this town of 5000, but that's the meeting place. There are dollar bills thumbtacked to every surface, there are ladies underpants hanging from the ceiling, and there's a bell on a rope and locals try to get you to pull on the rope--if you do a bell will ring in a bell tower and you will have you to buy everyone a drink. They're wonderful people and we felt like we had made new family!"
The Place: Palm Springs, California
The Bar: Amigo Room Bar at Ace Hotel Palm Springs (701 E Palm Canyon Drive)
The Drink: Amore Margarita (Basil, Red Pepper, Jalapeno, Don Julio, House Sour Mix)
Why: "If you want to drop out of your life and become a crazy awesome musician, Palm Springs and Joshua Tree are where you go. Palm Springs is this new, hip vacation spot for people from L.A., and the Ace is the coolest; the pool is awesome and they have really god food and the cocktails are really awesome," Hardstark says. As for their favorite cocktail, Ward describes it as "hot like love and it gets you a little drunk like love. It's crazy to have red pepper and jalapeno in it, but it was great because you tasted the herbs and it also did have a little kick at the end. You expect a little bit of heat in the California desert, but it's also refreshing. At the Ace you know that the food is going to be great, the drinks are going to be great, and the people watching is going to be great."