Night of the Unusual in Boston

We live on two levels, the realistic level and the fantastic level, observed Tennessee Williams.

Guests weren’t sure what to expect when Hendrick’s Gin launched the month of Halloween with an event in Boston that evoked the spookiness of blending the two levels. Staged at Space 57 at the Revere Hotel, Hendrick’s Voyages into the Unusual offered something of an early 1900s circus act, with curious characters and creative cocktails.

The annual, award-winning event highlights Hendrick’s positioning as an “unusual” gin. Presented in old-style apothecary bottles, the top-shelf liquor is infused with rose petal and cucumber, giving it a fresher taste and aroma than more traditional gins.

As the eclectic band White Ghost Shivers played, guests sipped a variety of cocktails–like Night of the Iguana, made with celery and cucumber juice, simple syrup, fresh lemon, cucumber wheels, and ground sea salt and cubeb berry–served not only at a large, half-moon, book-stacked bar but even at an “apothecary”.

Everything has its shadowy side, and guests never really knew what they’d see next.

Drinks popped out of “secret” Prohibition-style bar holes.

There was even a bar under this lady’s voluminous, well-guarded skirts.

Other oddities included a bird-caged bottle, a captured cucumber, and a Wall of Curiosities.

We live on two levels. And which is the real level, really?