Bar Gets Green Around Gills

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The Green Hour, an absinthe-filled Parisian predecessor to the modern-day happy hour, is coming to downtown Los Angeles.

Paul Sanguinetti, beverage director of downtown’s Patina Group, is bringing a promotional absinthe menu to Kendall’s Brasserie, its downtown French eatery, this month in an effort to attract customers beyond its typical post-theater crowd.

The Green Hour Menu, which will run from 8-10 weeknights, will feature the green-hued, anise-flavored spirit and cocktails made from it for around $9. Drinks will be prepared in the traditional manner, mixing absinthe with ice water dripped through a sugar cube on a special spoon.

In legend, the drink was thought to be highly addictive and created hallucinations of the sort that led Vincent van Gogh to take a knife to his ear. So powerful was it thought to be that it was effectively banned in the United States for nearly a century. But on Thursday nights, Sanguinetti will be behind the bar dispelling myths and teaching patrons how to consume the spirit, legalized in the United States in 2007.

The drink’s mystique has made it popular in Los Angeles: the Edison in downtown serves absinthe, and the Thirsty Crow in Silver Lake has an “Absinthe Minded Tuesday.” But Sanguinetti said he wanted to be a part of reviving the culture associated with the “Moveable Feast” generation that embraced absinthe in the 1920s.

“I want to be part of that revival of absinthe,” he said. “The Green Hour back in Paris was a time for artists and writers to go and enjoy absinthe and pastis. I want to bring creative minds together and have fun for a couple hours.”

– Justin Yang

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