Wine bottles are scattered across the floor and there’s a working tub in the middle of the kitchen in Alice Feiring’s 5th-floor boardwalk on Elizabeth Street, where she’s lived since 1988. Famous wine writers tend to be. pass most days in her NoLIta neighborhood, where Alcohol therapy, a boutique that specializes in the natural wines she famously loves, is located just down the street. An exception? Her weekly drive to Bayside, Queens, where her mother, Ethel Feiring, lives.
Ethel is a prominent character in Ms. Feiring’s new memoir“To Love, Drink This. Along with wine recommendations and sketches of different wines and varietals are vivid portraits of stubborn Ethel, Miss Feiring’s alcoholic father, Philip, and beloved brother. yours, Andrew. A serial killer and different boyfriends, past and present, also appear.
MOVE IT My time is really limited on Sunday if I’m not traveling. I get up really early and put on any kind of gear, depending on the weather, and do a short five-block run, because that’s all I believe in. I like my knees and ankles. I want to do it or I like Morris dance. I can go out in the backyard and do some compound moves.
RITUAL MORNING If I don’t have enough bagels in the freezer, I run down to the Black seed bread and get some. I’ll pick up the Sunday Times, on the doorstep. Peter, my boyfriend, will turn on the water and probably took yesterday’s smoked Scottish salmon from Russ & Daughter outside. And we’ll kick off the morning ritual with coffee, lox, bagels, cream cheese, capers, and a tomato that’s delicious if they’re in season.
VOTINGS Peter and I will spend some time playing music, he plays my acoustic Gibson, I play the keyboard or the button accordion. He’s a much better musician than I am. We are old folk. He does Choose Travis Style, as I did before switching to other instruments. A lot of times we’re just jamming, creating stuff, playing around on old jug bands, jazz, or Irish tendons. But we’re working on something like “St. Louis Tickle” Holy Modal Rounders tunes like “Griselda“By David Bromberg”Midnight on the water” and some Turlough O’Carolan melodies.
NEW YEAR WINE I try to work two hours in the morning my newsletter. Then maybe I’ll hit Tompkins Square Greenmarket and find what I need to get for Ethel. Sometimes, I spend the night at my mother’s house. If so, I’m sure I have enough alcohol to last the night. There’s a bottle of Fleischmann’s 60 year old gin that I took from her last apartment. It’s there if I need it.
ERROR WITH ETHEL The important thing is to take her to Great Neck to the kosher supermarket. It is called Enjoy shopping. I asked her to set the week. It must be a lot of prepared food. If I stay, I have enough to make dinner. Otherwise, Peter and I hang out with her a little more. Then I took Peter across the bridge to his house in Hudson Heights. Then I go home.
FRIEND If I’m working on something, like an essay, I have a Thursday night writing group that also meets on Sunday. Because the weeks are so packed, I often use Sunday evenings to chat with friends I’ve forgotten. I have a friend, a psychiatrist named Glen. We usually have dinner at Veeray da Dhaba, an Indian restaurant does not have enough press. It has the best paneer makhani (small pieces of cheese in a spicy tomato sauce).
WORK AREAS I usually see them in pubs. I will go to comfortable places like Ten bells. Sunday night will never be a day in Brooklyn, because I was on the road with my mother. So it must be within walking distance. I’m going into Wine Therapy, a great store near me, to see what’s new. Since the pandemic, it is more important. Now, the tasting is starting up again, but I really don’t like my tasting game, so I’m leaning more on what’s in store. I like to go Discovery Wines to see what they have.
LET’S START Before going to bed, I gather levain, it is usually based on rye. I’m afraid another Covid baker. I usually knead the dough on Monday morning and bake the cake on Wednesday.
SIP AND READING I usually go to bed with a little Scotch. I am a fan of sleeping caps. Lately, I like 8-year-old Port Askaig, if I can find it. It has smoke. And then I started reading. I’m too sick and tired to just read books and alcohol. I’m reading “Ice storm“By Rick Moody. I love the movie. It tells me a lot. Put the WASP family into an Orthodox Jewish family and then you get my life. The book is much worse than the movie. It’s almost Rothian. I was not prepared for it. This may be a rare instance where I prefer the movie to the book.
Sunday Routine readers can follow Alice Feiring on Twitter @alicefeiring and on Instagram @alice.feiring.
