Coast Monthly - April 2016

< Previous60 COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016saloons. Between 1838 and 1846, more licenses were issued for the sale of wines and liquors in Fort Bend County than for all other businesses combined. By 1880, Galves-ton, then the largest city in Texas, had 530 registered businesses, of which notably, 147 were saloons.The very word “saloon” is an Anglicized version of the French salon, meaning a pub-lic or private gathering hall. By 1840, Ameri-cans had pretty well boiled it down to mean a bar. In the West, it was also affectionately called a doggery, hog ranch, snake pit and bucket of blood, the last reserved for places known for regular outbreaks of violence.It is reasonable to say that some ear-ly cowboys had good reason for their less-than-endearing descriptions of their alcoholic libations and the places that served them, especially the farther they got into Texas and farther from the coast.When and if they could ﬁnd a saloon in the far frontier, the businesses were often nothing more than tents or shacks usually created to service the nearest Army fort (and alcohol was not the only service they offered, nor the oldest). What got poured at the bar didn’t exactly stimulate debate about whether it should be shaken or stirred, but something more along the lines of: would it kill you?It was more often than not homemade whiskey, never aged, and combined with anything from burnt sugar to chewing to-bacco to give it color. This was often called bumblebee whiskey because of the sting. Depending on the honesty of the propri-etor, what was poured could well have been diluted with turpentine or ammonia to increase proﬁts.According to some early records, cocktails at the time included cactus wine, a concoc-Down the HatchPhoto by Stuart VillanuevaWhiskeys are prominently displayed on a wall shelf at Cullen’s American Grille & Whisk(e)y Bar on Space Center Boulevard in Houston. COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016 61Michael J. Gaido, IIIRealtor® Associate ABR, GRI, RSPS, SFR, SRES, SRS409.457.4900MichaelGaido@SandNSea.comMichaelGaido.comCarolyn T. GaidoReal Estate ConsultantCLHMS, CRS, RSPS, SRS713.851.3377CarolynGaido@SandNSea.comCarolynGaido.comSand `N Sea Properties, LLC Top Agent Since 1999Gaido - A Trusted Name on Galveston Island! 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With warm beer often in plentiful supply, many a shot or two of bad whiskey got mixed in both to kill the taste and hasten the tipsy reward. Another recorded drink, less hallucinogenic, was called a Mule Skinner, made with the rot gut whiskey and sweetened with liquor made from seasonal fruit found nearby, this being anything from blackberries, chokecherries or cactus apples.Fortunately, civilization came early to the Texas Coast and stayed. A German au-thor and scientist, Ferdinand von Roemer, visited the area in the early 1840s and described a Houston saloon in glowing terms.“Upon passing through large folding doors, one stepped into a spacious room in which stood long rows of crystal bottles on a beautifully decorated bar. These were ﬁlled with diverse kinds of ﬁrewater. Here also stood an experienced barkeeper in white-shirt sleeves, alert to serve to the patrons the various plain as well as mixed drinks.”Rather than making moonshine out back, an 1850s Galveston shopper could purchase (from a respectable store) bottles of cognac, Champagne, brandy, gin, varieties of rum, Irish, Scotch and rye whiskey, claret, port, Burgundy, sherry and more.One British adventurer explored Galveston in the 1840s and noted the city’s ﬁner hotels had a huge array of cocktails. These, he said, had names like “Tip and Ty, I.O.U., Moral Suasion, Pig and Whistle, Silver Top, Poor Man’s Punch, Jewett’s Fancy, Deacon, Stone Wall, Siphon, Smasher, Floater, Negus and mulled wines.”Juleps, slings, toddys and ﬂips were also easily found. For anyone wanting something besides cheap whiskey, rye or rum, he sim-ply asked for a menu of “fancy drinks.”This is not to say Southeast Texas’ cow-boys didn’t have dives and dumps to drink in that kind of ﬁt the Old West persona. It’s also safe to say these saloons had more than their fair share of brawls and shoot-ings, although one historian pointed out that the person most likely to be holding the smoking gun was the bartender himself. They policed their establishments, protect-ing them from thieves, cheats, destructive drunks and, in one recorded case, from a Photo by Jennifer ReynoldsCullen’s American Grille & Whisk(e)y Bar serves the cocktail Moral Suasion, which dates back to the 1800s.cowboy determined to ride his horse up the stairs to the second ﬂoor.What these cowboy saloons did not have were places for socially acceptable women to drink, ice cubes nor any liability for those who wrecked their horses after a long night.Interestingly, the origin of the Moral Suasion cocktail mentioned in the Galveston COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016 63visitor’s writings is based on an effort to stop the drinking of alcohol.The East Coast temperance movement at the time used ‘moral suasion’ to convince people to quit drinking, rather than axing the drinking premises, which came later. When a Boston bar owner was criticized in an 1842 temperance publication for being a supplier of evil drink, the bar man fought back by creating and widely promoting a drink “so seductive” he claimed it would convince the crusaders to drink. To the great irritation of his critics, he called it Moral Suasion.That a Galveston bar had this on the menu such a short time after it originated half the country away and sans Facebook is pretty amazing.Equally amazing, the Moral Suasion has lasted through the centuries (as a drink rather than a persuader) and is still served in many bars across the country, including around here. Cullen’s American Grille & Whisk(e)y Bar, 11500 Space Center Blvd. in the Clear Lake area, is one of them.This is not surprising considering the bar at Cullen’s stocks more than 300 American whiskeys from 11 states and more than 150 international brands from Scotland, Ireland, France, Tasmania, India and Japan. The cow-boy who saunters into this place and says, “Gimme a whiskey,” is likely to be greeted with confused silence.Cullen’s take on Moral Suasion has a few modern twists, but the heart of the drink remains with peach and citrus, cognac and whiskey. This particular recipe adds an inge-nious touch of a ﬂamed citrus peel garnish, which kind of literally makes this a drink with ﬁrewater.Of course, anyone who learned what they know about cowboys and the Old West from Hollywood has never seen a John Wayne, Kirk Douglas or Randolph Scott strut up to any saloon keeper and demand a Moral Suasion, much less a Pig and Whistle.“Gimme a whiskey” was the most popular drink order in decades of Western movie making. Note, however, Gimme a Whiskey is not a known cocktail.Hollywood, ﬁxated on those swing-ing bar doors at the saloon entrance, fails to acknowledge that at the height of the cowboy era, say between the 1870s and the turn of the century, all but the most rudi-mentary saloon served up several kinds of cocktails. Some were punch mixtures, some were whiskey sweetened with fruit juice or mulled fruit and others were brought to life with tonic and seltzer waters. A respectable cowboy could demand a whiskey and then quietly ask for a sarsaparilla as a mixer, sarsaparilla being a common medicinal drink tasting something like today’s root beer.When newfangled soda pops came to town, there was barely a moment’s delay before someone decided adding an alco-holic boost to it was a good idea. Bourbon and coke? Coca-Cola came out in 1886. The ﬁrst recorded mention of bourbon and coke followed just a few years later.So yes, the cowboy and his drink have a mixed and colorful history as rough and rug-ged as the Wild West and the whiskey made in it. Perhaps their derogatory names for the alcohol that fueled them were a way to keep the West wild. But as everyone knows, the West was tamed, Snake Pizen evolved into an evening cocktail and bartenders have gone from shooting horseback riders on the stairs to ﬂaming orange peels.It’s all a salute to progress.And the wagon it fell off of. MORAL SUASIONCourtesy of Cullen’s American Grille & Whisk(e)y BarINGREDIENTS2 ounces Whitmeyer’s peach Whiskey1 teaspoon luxardo Maraschino liqueur1 teaspoon Dry Orange Curaçao1 teaspoon agave nectar2 teaspoons lemon juice½-ounce Cognac V.S.O.p.DIRECTIONSShake all ingredients thoroughly, withholding the cognac. Then, ﬂoat the cognac on top.Garnish with lemon wheel and a ﬂamed orange peel (squeeze a piece of orange peel over the drink while holding a lighter ﬂame in front of the peel, allow-ing the oils in the peel to spray out and ﬂame as they pass through the ﬁre).281-399-2666409-740-2666www.Varmit Busters.comRats • Mice • Rodents • Raccoons • Squirrels • OpossumsAlligators • Snakes • Bats • Armadillos • Skunks • Wild HogsBees • Coyotes • Fleas • Roaches • Ants • Bugs • etc.Residential & CommercialAnimal ProoﬁngState Licensed • Bonded & Insured TPCL #13938AnimAlControlWild Animal ControlService and Pest ControlWildlife,Inc.Recommended by both buyers and sellers for more than 14 years!Donna Kay Mortoncell: 409-599-1175donnakay0161@att.net64 COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016Gifts • Jewelry Home Decor • canDlesFIND US ON FACEBOOK!IT’S A NEW DAWN, IT’S A NEW DAY! 8111 Hwy. 6 • Hitchcock • 409.986.4200Now you can look younger with a new kind of cosmetic denture. 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We spend a day at the beach with some of the mightiest moms on the Texas Coast.Next month ...EASY LIVING, TEXAS GULF STYLE COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016 65THE PRESERVE AT GRAND BEACHGVISIT our community230 East Beach DriveGalveston, Texas 77550CALL OR TEXT(409) 370-5678EXPLORE www.ThePreserveAtGrandBeach.com alveston Island’s newest gated beachfront community offers generously sized homesites from $125,000 on the naturally expanding East Beach.Your beach within reachTHE PRESERVE AT GRAND BEACHG alveston Island’s newest gated beachfront community offers generously sized homesites from $125,000 on the naturally expanding East Beach.VISIT our community230 East Beach DriveGalveston, Texas 77550CALL OR TEXT(409) 370-5678EXPLORE www.ThePreserveAtGrandBeach.comYour beach within reachCUSTOM HOME BUILDER409-684-7233MINWESTHOMES.COMNOW BUILDINGIN THEPRESERVE AT GRAND BEACH!66 COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016Currents | MusicStory by Zach TateLast year, when League City resident Matt “Scootch” Appleby appeared in The Grizzly Band’s music video “Stand Up,” he was one of several people holding a hand-written, dry-erase board sign with the words, “I will win.”The song is about overcoming personal obstacles and Appleby, a bass player for both The Grizzly Band and Card-Castle Deluxe, had no idea how poignant his role in the video would become later that year, when he would be faced with the biggest challenge of his own life — surviving a nearly fatal accident followed by learning to live and to continue playing the bass, minus his left leg.A day after the accident, Chad Lyles, The Grizzly Band’s lead singer and guitarist, posted on Facebook a still frame image from the video of Appleby holding the sign. That image quickly became an icon of inspiration for hundreds of musicians and non-musi-cians alike from Galveston to Kentucky and beyond.The accident occurred 1 a.m. Oct. 17, along Interstate 10 in Louisiana, headed toward New Orleans. Appleby was sitting on his motorcycle on the side of the road after helping some friends he was convoying with repair the truck they were driving. Appleby and four of his friends were planning to attend a car show.Appleby had just put his helmet back on and was preparing to enter back into trafﬁc when he was struck from behind by a car, whose driver, according to police reports, had fallen asleep at the wheel. Appleby was thrown through the air, careened off his friend’s truck and landed in the far right lane of the freeway.The impact, taken mostly by Appleby’s ‘Maybe it’s my calling’ League City bass player inspires others after losing leg in horriﬁc accidentleft leg, left him helpless on the road as his friend, Chris Langley, raced to pull him to safety. Appleby was conscious from the time of the impact until he was sedated in the ambulance and recalls each moment hap-pening in slow motion, he said.“Chris got there in seconds,” Appleby said. “I would have been hit by another car for sure if he hadn’t acted so quickly. I knew immediately after I saw my leg I was going to lose it. I was in shock, but I immediately started thinking about what it would mean Photo by Zach TateLeague City bassist Matt “Scootch” Appleby’s determination to pursue his passions after losing his left leg in a motorcycle accident has been an inspiration to others. 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Open Monday-Saturday: 6am to 2pm413 24th StreetGalveston, Texas 77550409-762-2864 409-763-9289Come by & Enjoy Breakfast/Lunch with us! - El Jardin Cafe Employees, Jake Rodriguez FamilyCAFEVoted By the Texas Monthly Dining Guide One of their Favourite Restaurants.68 COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016Currents | Musicto my life. Walking, playing music, doing the things I like to do. But at the same time, I felt thankful. I was alive.”Playing music with his friends has been a passion for Appleby since he was 13 years old and obtained his ﬁrst bass guitar. The al-bum “Appetite for Destruction” by rock band Guns N’ Roses inspired him to “get serious” about playing, he said. But it was at the Bay Area Christian Church in Webster, where his mother, Katherine, sang with the church band choir, that Appleby was ﬁrst drawn to the bass sound.Occasional childhood trips to various truck and auto repair shops where his father, Leroy, worked, inspired Appleby’s lifelong love of motorcycles and cars. He acquired his ﬁrst motorcycle at age 16. And he’s looking forward to riding one again. With a high-tech prosthetic leg, Appleby is conﬁdent he will be walking, riding and doing things he did before the accident, within a few months.Although he knows it will take time to get used to working with the prosthetic, he’s op-timistic — with good reason. He has amazed everyone, from his friends who witnessed his devastating injuries, to the doctors at Clear Lake Regional Hospital, with the speed of his recovery.Although Appleby’s determination to ride a motorcycle again hasn’t yet come to frui-tion, his desire to play music with his friends has.On Dec. 12 last year at Ronnie’s Ice House in Dickinson, just 57 days after he lost his leg, Card-Castle Deluxe bandmate Anthony Puskus helped to coordinate a beneﬁt con-cert and auction to help pay for Appleby’s medical bills.Appleby that evening triumphantly took the stage in his black wheelchair and played to thunderous ovations.The daylong beneﬁt raised more than $16,000 and featured 12 bands, including Those Crosstown Rivals, a popular Kentucky band, and drew nearly 1,000 people.“We live in a great community of sup-portive musicians and people,” Puskus said. “Scootch is the kind of guy who would be the ﬁrst to lend a helping hand in any situation, so it only made sense to help out a friend in need.”As his wounds heal, Appleby will contin-ue living with the passion that has been an inspiration to many.“Maybe it’s my calling to inspire people with what happened to me,” Appleby said. “Maybe it’s why this happened. If I can help just one person get through whatever they’re dealing with, that makes me happy.”Appleby has been a regular on Galves-ton beaches since he was a child and has performed many times on the island with various bands. For Appleby’s performance information, look for Matt Scootch Appleby on Facebook. Photo by Gary IrwinMatt “Scootch” Appleby performs at Ronnie’s Ice House in Dickinson just 57 days after losing his leg in a motorcycle accident. COASTMONTHLY.COM / April 2016 69GALVESTON OFFICE5934 Broadway, Galveston, Tx. 77551(409) 740-7744CONROE OFFICE606 Everett Rd.Conroe, Tx. 77301(936) 760-3050RICHMOND OFFICE1500 Jackson St. Richmond, Tx. 77469 (281) 238-4454HOMESTEAD OFFICE9324 HomesteadHouston, Tx. 77016 (281) 501-1196Dental implants are great at replacingmissing teeth necessary for proper function and digestion. Treatment can be done in one visit for most patients. And now Affordable Dental can place implant body only for $995. 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