What: Black Pepper Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegar
Where: Dead or Alive, 150 E. Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs
How much: $4
Contact: 760-864-7193; www.deadoralivebar.com
Why: It’s an equally attractive nonalcoholic beverage.
Back when I was in college, the university had a policy: Any group that threw a party on campus that included alcohol also had to offer EANABs—equally attractive non-alcoholic beverages—for attendees who were eschewing booze, for whatever reason.
However, this policy was a joke: The EANABs at parties were almost always terrible—a couple cans of Diet Coke, perhaps, or maybe a half-flat two-liter bottle of Sprite off in the corner somewhere. These lame beverages were certainly not equally attractive to anything, in any way.
EANABs have been on my mind as of late, because the hubby recently quit drinking. (He was never much of a drinker in the first place. He just doesn’t care for it.) Therefore, in recent months, we’ve learned that most bars and restaurants are horribly uncreative when it comes to non-alcoholic beverages.
That’s why the Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegar offered at Dead or Alive, the fantastic new wine and beer bar across the street from Mr. Lyons on Palm Canyon Drive, is so refreshing—in several different ways.
It’s refreshing because it’s a perfect warm-weather beverage. I know many of you are reading this and thinking, “WTF is drinking vinegar?!” The answer: It’s a tart, sweet, nuanced beverage that in no way tastes like the stuff one would use to make a salad dressing. Dead or Alive offers several different flavors in rotation, including Meyer lemon, grapefruit and passion fruit. However, my favorite is the black pepper: You don’t really taste all that much pepper, but you feel a pleasing, subtle burn on the back of your tongue while drinking the beverage.
It’s also refreshing because it’s truly an EANAB. Hooray to the folks at Dead or Alive (full disclosure—co-owner Christine Soto is a contributor to the Independent) for offering non-drinkers an equally attractive beverage. Here’s hoping other bars and restaurants follow suit.