Operation Swill uncovers NJ restaurants serving fraudulent liquor

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Thursday, May 23, 2013, in Trenton, N.J. : "Operation Swill" news conference reported how 29 bars and restaurants in New Jersey were accused of replacing premium brand liquor with cheap booze and selling sub-par liquor at premium prices.

Thirteen of the restaurants cited are TGI Fridays located in central and northern New Jersey.

See the map to see findings of the investigation.  Story via NPR and Los Angeles Daily News.

Premium British Beer...from Iron Maiden

from TUMBLR

they even have tap plates/tap handles with the label!??

SPIDER'S KISS: Venture Bros. cocktail from "Operation P.R.O.M."

's the second drink recipe, as mentioned by JACKSON PUBLICK. on the bump of the VENTURE BROTHERS season finale (the exciting, long-awaited, double-long final season 4 episode that made me a little emotional! plus, SHORE LEAVE is a total badass), Mr. Publick quickly ordered this drink before cutting to commercial:

Spider's Kiss Cocktail

1 oz. green melon liqueur
1 oz. vodka
Squeeze of fresh Lemon
Grenadine (optional)
Chocolate syrup

Draw a chocolate web into a cocktail glass. Place in freezer and chill. Shake melon , vodka and lemon juice and strain into glass. For a blood effect, drizzle grenadine down the side of the glass. Garnish with a chocolate-dipped orange slice.

Recipe from DRINK OF THE WEEK website created by Victoria D’Amato-Moran, courtesy of Midori®.

[BTW here's the drink Doc Hammer ordered in the same bump.]

WE LOVE YOU TOO, MR. HAMMER AND MR. PUBLICK!!!

another Venture Brothers cocktail: HOT MOMMY (Hot Mummy?)

for all you DOC HAMMER - like skinny-minis (whinnies?) out there, here's a drink recipe for the beverage Doc mentioned at the end of the bump during amazingly brilliant, awesome, near-perfect VENTURE BROTHERS season finale on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim (no, not the arsenic in a coconut, sorry!):

Hot Mommy (Skinny Vacation Cocktail)
1 oz. coconut rum (50 calories)
4 oz. club soda (0 calories)
Splash of pineapple juice (16 calories)
Splash of orange juice (14 calories)
Garnish with a fresh slice of pineapple (20 calories)

Total calorie count? Just 100 calories for your fabulous vacation cocktail! Compare that to 530 calories and in the same size pina colada or 740 calories for a margarita...

(Thanks to the HOT MOMMY HAPPY BABY blog for the recipe...)

Venture Brothers cocktail: Sam in a Sweater?

In the episode, "Now Museum, Now You Don't", Rusty Venture orders a drink called "sam and a sweater" or "sam in a sweater" or "salmon the sweater". i have researched a bit online and have only come up with the following recipe:

"...Then you could start making up your own drinks like telling the bartender to make you a 'Sam in a Sweater'.

Bartender: "Ummm, WTF is that?"

"Well, you take 2 parts vodka, mix in some triple-sec, diet Cherry Dr. Pepper and a touch of cream and blend it with ice. Teeny umbrella garnish is optional. Do you have any curly/ bendy straws at least?"

[the idea of screwing with a bartender and ordering a drink that you made up on the spot is borrowed from a novel]"

But which novel?? Thanks to MicroBob on Vegas Drinking Prop Bet for the only reference to this drink that i could find...on YAHOO, no less!! Suck it, Googler purists...

In any case, i have found a few sweater-based cocktail recipes, but none of them seem to have anything in common. AlSto assumed, based on Dr. Venture's rather disgusting drink preferences, that this one would be no exception.

ERIN'S SWEATER is a 3-to-2 mix of Blue Curacao and chocolate liqueur, shaken and served over ice cubes in a champagne saucer!!!??? Thanks to drinkswap.com for this one. There is also the YELLOW SWEATER (with short sleeves) as given by barmeister.com: 1 oz. vodka, 3/4 oz. creme de banana, and 1/2 oz lime juice. Mix and strain.

With ice, i presume...???

MEH: Bar Louie Anaheim and Anaheim 300 Bowling

my friends DoGre and AlPa and i were looking for a place to have a drink. in our quest to find a bar, can you believe, we were THE FIRST customers in Bar Louie at the Anaheim Garden Walk? in fact, at 6pm, they were having a staff meeting, which we walked in on...so we had to kill time at the Anaheim 300 bowling lane.

Anaheim 300 had crap music but cool atmosphere, and a fairly friendly bartender and staff. it's eerie to be in any establishment where the staff outnumbers the number of customers...but it's also eerie to be in a bowling alley where there is no characteristic ==CRASH!== of bowling pins in the background. drinks were decent, but expensive. they had a menu, but we decided to pass cos we were going to go back and grab some food at Bar Louie...

Bar Louie had crappier music, and overly-friendly employees. with websites and local newspapers originally declaring a June/July 2008 start, months and months of delays led to this evening's rather soft opening. in fact, one bartender made a statement as to how we were 'popping his cherry' as his first drinks customers. gross.

silverware and menus abounded on each table, but SURPRISE! there is no food being served until next week. also, i liked seeing the Stone brewery coasters on each counter but SURPRISE AGAIN! there was no Stone beer brew anywhere on the menu.

the few other customers stopping by appeared to be friends of the working employees, or perhaps they were off-duty employees themselves. in any case, they were all chatting away amongst themselves like it was a big ol' get-together. with us sitting in a corner booth.

neither bar offered any drinks specials, nor any bonus for us being the only and/or first customers of the evening.

yeah, this entire area was pretty freaking dead on a Wednesday night. but if you go to the Anaheim Gardenwalk, you'll see the potential of the place, which is reminiscent of the Hollywood and Highland setup of upscale boutiques mixed with bougie-ass chain restaurants (in this case: Cheesecake Factory, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co., California Pizza Kitchen). there are a lot of pretty lights and blah blah blah.

there's even a totally independent but blatant rip-off of Jamba Juice who grants parking validation. but whatever you do, beware of the parking! none of the elevators take you to all the levels you want to go to. most of the shopping area is ABOVE the parking. and the signs are not very helpful. oh, and the garage is quite conducive to one's re-enacting the parking garage episode of Seinfeld, whether you are drunk or not...but if you are drunk, pay very close attention to where you started and where you want to go or you'll never get there.

ANOTHER Venture Brothers cocktail: Red Moco Cooler (Red Mocoa Cooler, Kooler?)

[Billy Quizboy] "What're you having?"

[Rusty Venture] "Red Moco/Moko Cooler! Kahlua, Hershey's syrup, and a dash of red Kool-Aid!"

[Billy Quizboy] (shuddering) "That...sounds...horrible."

---Drink from Venture Brothers episode: Orb

recipe for Suffering Bastard

As seen in Rusty Venture's glass...

SUFFERING BASTARD
1 oz Gin
1 oz Rum
1/2 oz Lime juice
1 dash Bitters
1 oz Ginger ale
Ice
Mixing instructions:
Pour ingredients into a glass. Stir. Drink