DEEP ELLUM

477 CAMBRIDGE ST., ALLSTON. 617.787.BEER. DEEPELLUM-BOSTON.COM

By Cara Bayles | Photo By Derek Kouyoumjian

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The prospect of drinking with Lauren Clark, booze journalist (check out drinkboston.com) and walking alcohol encyclopedia, is daunting. It feels like a blind date: meeting, drinking until things get pleasantly fuzzy and hoping to glean some of a stranger's philosophies. As I wait, the bartenders keep checking in with me. Later, Clark tells me that's one reason Deep Ellum is among her favorite bars: "The staff are laidback, but offer good service. And make good drinks. The owners, Max [Toste] and Aaron [Sanders], educate the staff. They want them to be very knowledgeable."

Drink 1: Picon cocktail ($9). Our bartender, Emily, lights an orange peel (using Clark's matchbox business card), so the oils caramelize in the picon. Clark gets a "1930s", one of the five varieties of Manhattan offered. I warn her: I drink at slug speed. "Pacing is huge," she says. "I have to be athletic about marathons," like New Orleans' annual Tales of the Cocktail, where she tested her liver last year. "People have this instinct to drink as much as they can, as soon as possible. But the stuff behind the bar isn't going anywhere!"

Drink 2: Absinthe ($10). Derek, the photographer, arrives. Before we can point to a stranger's drink, someone buys us shots of absinthe. "I got those for you, Derek," says the guy who bought. "The flaming sugar cube will make a killer photo." Derek nods, then asks, "Do I know you?" The guy frowns. "I've known you for years, man." Clark only recently embraced absinthe, and recommends a Sazerac for anyone who can't seem to enjoy the "silly trend." "I don't think they did it this way in the 1890s," she says. "And I guarantee we're not gonna hallucinate." Nuts.

Drink 3: CBC Dry Hopped "Blunderbuss" Barley Wine ($6.50). 11.7 percent alcohol by volume? Consider the buck banged. Clark gets the "Two Headed Beast," a Belgian-style Dry Stout. While we're drinking beer, we talk brewing. I'm a novice (though my ginger beer can't be beat), but Clark reminisces about when craft beer blew up in the '90s. Working at Cambridge Brewing Co. helped her beer writing. "You learn what different hops and malts taste like," she says. I'll spare you the nerdy details of a wort temperature debate.

Drink 4: White Tiger's Milk ($9). Apricot brandy, Applejack brandy, cream and egg white; this is my first egg drink ever, invoking visions of salmonella and a vomitty evening, but Clark assures me, "The egg white just makes it fluffy, like meringue." It tastes like a cloud. In addition to drinkboston.com, Clark writes a Ms. Mug column for the Ale Street News, which talks about women and alcohol—sitting alone at a bar, objectification (think St. Pauli Girl). I enjoy an amazing vegan burger while a meat-eater at the bar declares he loves veal because he can taste pain. Thank my magnetic draw for militant carnivores.

Drink 5: Jack Rose ($8). Clark picks my last, Applejack brandy with lemon. She says Deep Ellum uses fresh citrus, makes its own grenadine and keeps the cocktails cold (all good signs). "And when the staff runs smoothly, it's like a well-choreographed movie," she says. Max appears with a giant portrait of a menacing baby, and tells us he's building a patio that will double Deep Ellum's capacity by the summer. Whether you watch the dance of the bartender, or slurp outside, you're covered here.