Odd Books + Wine = Broadbent

Why do I buy books like this?


I guess because they're cheap...


and loaded with images like this. The Chairman, Directors and Staff.


This was Christie's first full year of wine sales. Click on image to read and ponder 1966 prices for 18th century wines.

Director of wine sales, Michael Broadbent, holds up one of the 200 year old bottles from the cellar of the Marquess of Linlithgow.


I mentioned Chateau Musar Hochar here earlier. A unique red that has recently become an obsession due to it's soft but bold character. Like a not very attractive woman with huge personality who dresses in St John. Warm, open, funny. A little bawdy, she likes to say 'fuck' a lot.


Hochar, when you can find it, runs $26 a bottle. That's not cheap but it's still an amazing value. And while white and rose have filled this Summer's record breaking temperatures -- Hochar is soft enough to pair perfectly with grilled steaks, lamb or a spread of smoked meats and cheese.


Go to Broadbent.com for a distributor in your state, and have that warm, funny and bawdy woman over for dinner. What the fuck have you got to lose?

Sit On These

Left to Right: Budd Crocodile, GJ Cleverley Russian, Rogue Empire Tartan

Budd's credit card case in a wallet


Certificate of Authenticity


225 year old leather - Smell the years


Green silk moire lining

Rogue Empire Tartan

My father brought back an elephant skin wallet from Vietnam. Not very PC, even in 1967, but it was masculine with it's black thick skin covered in ridges and a worn patina that molded the corners to my father's fourth point of contact.

When not in use, it lay on a white folded handkerchief on a teak Danish bureau in my parent's bedroom and while I'm not sure of this... I could swear a small halogen spot from above illuminated it in a blue tinged halo glow.

I went through a number of less serious wallets. Camouflaged wallets that closed with velcro and made a loud ripping sound when opened at a cash register. Leather tri folds that looked like brown plugs of chewing tobacco in Puckett's General Store in Huntersville.

I even had a Rolf's wallet from some Christmas in the '70s that was made from a corfam leather so hard it never did mold to my butt. At least not before I lost it with my military dependent I.D., a REI life time co-op card and a well worn B&W picture of a Dutch woman from a nudist magazine.

Naked women and men's wallets sure have changed. The croc wallet is from Budd and is a steal at $215. It comes with a small credit card case so, like a soldier with a ruck sack, you can drop the heavy stuff and drive on with the civilians equivalent of an LBE; Driver's license an ATM and credit card.

The center wallet is from George Cleverley and is hand made of 18th century Russian leather. It reminds me of my father's elephant wallet with oily ridges yet it has an instant patina of more than 225 years. There's a distinct smell that's not unpleasant but a little like smelling your leather watch strap after mowing the lawn. If you do that sort of thing. I paid $450, and I try to smell this wallet everyday.

The smell comes from the Russian tanning process where skins were soaked in pits of willow bark and then curried with birch oil. These skins were found next to a ship wreck on the bottom of Plymouth Sound and buried in black mud since 1786. It's an odd thing - carrying this much history next to my ass - yet despite my repeated offers to friends - to smell something from the 18th century - everyone turns me down.

The $58 tartan wallet comes from a young man in Chicago who decided he wanted to create wallets from discarded tie and suit fabrics. How green is that? Rogue Empire is a lotta fun. I'm not sure how these fabrics will take to the wear a wallet gets but the price is reasonable and they're lighthearted without looking childish. I'm not sure a man on a date wants to pull this out when paying for dinner.

Humble-Ties

I have a question. I'm a 26 year old working in financial services in New York City. I have a couple Hermes ties and while I love them, they seem too old for me. I also have a number of Vineyard Vines ties but they seem too young. Any ideas? Connor Fused

Dear Con,
You're in a predicament. However, you've provided enough information to work with. A young man (under 35) in an Hermes tie comes off looking, at worse, pretentious -- over reaching at best. Also, older men (over 40) in your office don't like you simply because you're 26. They'll look for anything to disparage and what you wear is an easy target.

I was 21 and driving for a colonel just before I got out of the army. I had known him for about a year, respected him and was flattered he specifically requested me as his driver. Coming out of a G-3 briefing, he climbed into the jeep and said, "Sergeant, I'm so confused I don't know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch." I'll never forget that or what he told me next.

He told me I was a smart ass. Not so much because of what I wore. Except for his rank and C.I.B., our uniforms and footwear matched perfectly. He told me it was how I walked and talked. He also told me that people would either like me or hate me with no in between. I remember sighing a plaintiff, "Jesus, sir?"

Which reminds me of the time a chaplain in the field was chewing me out for my helmet graffiti which read, "Kill a Commie for Christ." This same colonel came to my rescue and told the chaplain that, "...it's his fucking job to kill Commies and if he wants to kill 'em for Christ, that's his business."

I'm getting off track here so let me wind scratch this up. I said, "Jesus, sir?" and the colonel said not to get him wrong. He loved smart asses but he wasn't everyone. He told me, "You need to be humble. I'm not saying you can't be you -- I'm telling you to be humble 'cause you don't need to wave your flag. It's big enough for everyone to see." I thanked him although I have managed to ignore his advice pretty much the whole of my life.

I don't know if you're a fellow smart ass, Con. But I do have some advice. 'Humble' is not a word you associate with Hermes while 'insipid' is what a designer I know calls Vineyard Vines. If you want something with Hermes gravitas while following my colonel's advice for humility, try Ferragamo. Not the shoes. They're not humble. The ties. As elegant as Hermes but not nearly as in-your-face assertive, the Ferragamo tie walks a fine line of understated style and restraint. Grown up but not middle aged. They're not cheap ($170) but women love giving them as gifts while old farts like me will hate you just a little less.

Update: I have just been advised the colonel retired a major general. I'm guessing I should've taken his advice.

Last Shouts of Summer

left to right: Nantucket Classics Madras, Faconnable Flowers, Lilly Pulitzer GTH

Sartorial courage increases with September in sight. Every day of August is like watching 60 Minutes on CBS. Something I look forward to -- but with a ticking dread of Monday. The queasy feeling in my gut remains unchanged 26 years since the last day of school. August colors are my last act of defiance -- the middle finger to Fall.

Do You Remember the Days...

Ersatz Kodachrome





... before NYC became a ghost town?

Gate Way to 'B-Squared'

Brooksgate Three Piece & Golden Fleece Club Tie - Hartford, 1987 - NFS


1984 Brooksgate Catalog


1985 Brooksgate Catalog


1986 Brooksgate Catalog


1987 Brooksgate Catalog

I haven't heard the expression 'B-Squared' in probably 20 years. I'd like to remedy that.

Brooks Brothers closed the doors on it's authentic University Shop in the mid-70s but the idea, and it was a good one, hung around. An entry level line cut trimmer and cheaper for the starving young man of the '80s. Lets face it, in 1984 the $500 Brooks Golden Fleece worsted suit with its 6" drop would look pretty silly on a 25 year old with a 32" waist, a 40" chest and a razor thin wallet.

Brooksgate offered a 8" drop at half the price of Fleece. In short, it was a 'two-fer' and it was hard to walk away from two suits for the price of one. I bought three. Solid navy, navy pinstripe and grey pinstripe. Not a fan of Brooksgate shirts. Too thin with a short collar that caused the B-Squared roll to go MIA. However, outerwear was a steal. A Brooksgate duffle coat was half the price of a Brooks duffle and I'll be damned if I could tell the difference.

Brooksgate even had a catalog. Half the size of B-Squared and filled with photos rather than drawings. They have a certain '80s cheesiness - not unlike a Duran Duran video - that I find comforting and easy to dance to. Some great classics are mixed in with best forgotten designer train wrecks. I love the DB pincord with peak lapel on the Spring 1984 cover while Spring '87 looks like a cover from today's two-fer king, JoS. A. Bank.

As promised last week, the Trad archive deaccession continues with Brooksgate and women's wear catalogs at auction this Sunday. Realized prices last week were moderately surprising to me while jaw dropping to the Golf Foxtrot. To that end, a quick shout out to the boys in creative at 650 --Hey, this is like stealing candy from a baby -- but then, you guys already knew that.

Are You A Nurd?

National Lampoon - The Gentleman's Bathroom Companion, 1975 (double click to see how Hip)

Frameless Duck Head

We believe what we're told and rarely trust our own instincts. A museum is as good a place to start as any. Priceless art hangs on a wall and for years people line up to look and admire. Not so much because they know anything about art, but because they've been told the painting is art and, this is always important, it's worth a shit load of money.

One day the curator learns the painting is a fake and -- what elicited so much respect -- is no longer worth looking at. So what happened? One day it's art. The next it's not. The painting didn't change but perceptions did when the authenticity was taken away.

Museums offer a frame to art. Not the one you see with the painting but the one that gives you a perception. "Well, it's a museum so this must be art." Same with a popular restaurant, "It's impossible to get a reservation so the food must be good." With wine, "Robert Parker and The Wine Spectator gave it a 90. It must be good." Art, food and wine are given a 'frame' to help our increasingly lost and vacuous culture find their way, without much effort, to the "good stuff."

And since all this is about making a buck - too many times the black velvet Elvis painting gets the nice frame while real art sits frameless and ignored in a dusty corner. When Goody's, the southern discount store, was going out of business I was traveling around a big chunk of the Southeast on business.

Goody's carried Duck Heads and I was positive their demise would spell the same for Duck Head. I stopped in every Goody's I could find and bought up every pair of plain front pants for insane discounts.

It's been a few years but Duck Heads are finally back. The classic trousers that are the sartorial symbol of the khak-i-fied south are the same shade of boiled peanuts and just as salty. Duck Head never had much of a frame. They don't need one. I know my memories connect me to these trousers in ways I can't even begin to describe.

You don't need to frame your memories -- 'cause they're something you understand and know. More Duck Head to come. In the mean time visit their web site and Face Book page.

Duck Head is offering a coupon code DHW186520 for 20% off and Free Shipping on orders over $100.

Wide Boys

A Wide Tie: Purple Label Shirt/ Tie & Turnbull Asser Blazer


A Wide Boy: Hardy Rodenstock aka Meinhard Gorke

They say they're coming back -- As if they ever left. In London, 'Wide Boy' is a derogatory term for a working class schemer. A phony always on the make. Someone who deals in goods of questionable authenticity. Hardy Rodenstock (not his real name) allegedly created bottles of rare wine (not his real job) and sold them to the world's biggest suckers. Rich people. I suppose it's hard to be poor and a sucker -- At least not for very long.

But Rich people can be suckers and live long lives -- As long as the money holds out. Kip Forbes paid $156,000 for a suspect bottle of 1787 Chateau Lafite supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson. I doubt it has kept him up nights. You can read about Hardy/Meinhard and Kip and Robert Parker and Michael Broadbent and lots of other "experts" in the true mystery, "The Billionaires Vinegar" by Benjamin Wallace. You'll never look at the wine world or experts in the same way.

Someone told me they were an 'expert' since they had read a 'book' on a hot new collectable. Of course, this party also sells these hot new collectables so I'm sure they know what they're doing. The point is, you should know what you're doing -- But that's not always possible. Like the $300 I threw away on a fake box of Cuban Cohiba cigars in 1994. Or, back in '76 when I gave $25 to a hooker -- who told me to drive around the corner where she'd meet me -- only to find a Fayetteville cop who asked me what the fuck I was doing and convinced me to leave before I got into, 'real trouble.'

There's a lotta Wide Boys in the world but there's not a lotta Wide Ties. Least not in the High Street shops. That's an old Purple Label up there from six or seven years ago. Word is they're coming back. Which means some of you are gonna have to have one or two. And that means you'll have to buy shirts with a spread collar. And suits with wider lapels. And a watch with a larger dial. And... You see where this going? No? Then I have a box of amazing Cuban cigars and if you'll give me $300 -- I'll meet you around the corner.

Lots Of Friday Belts

Somewhere on the Upper West Side -- Near Broadway -- Maybe it's on Broadway -- I'm not telling you exactly -- In the 70s -- There are a number of outdoor book stalls. The guys who own them don't strike me as serious bibliophiles. Sometimes you can find a real bargain. It's a couple blocks south of Fairway. I'm not telling you exactly where.

The Golf Foxtrot does not allow me to stop at book stalls. And she ain't crazy when I bring books back from book stalls. Sometimes they smell like an ashtray. She's also afraid of bed bugs. Me? Not so much.

Walking north on Broadway a week or so ago -- 50 feet north of 73rd Street -- On the west side of the street -- Not telling you exactly where -- The sun reflects off a sheet of mylar and nearly blinds me. Stumbling up to a stall between Loehmann's and American Apparel -- That's your last clue -- I find this book. The yellowed '40s style cover is one I've seen before.


The introduction by Lucius Beebe is one I've read before. And I know, through my many bookstore travels, that this book is worth, depending on condition, about $100 smackeroos. Even more in New York. That should be a bumper sticker-- "Even More In New York" Anyway, I open the book and see it's a first printing. $3.00 is written in pencil at the top of the page.


The book is bright and clean with no smell and no bed bugs. I look at the stall owner and Presbyterian him down to $2 because, that's what you're supposed to do in New York. Another bumper sticker?


I get the book home and am amazed at the number of cocktail recipes, long lost to history, that I can steal and call my own. If I could find a source for cheap custom made belts then I'd have a book contract -- And a line. Look at the Portuguese Virgin. White Port!? Who in the hell even buys White Port anymore? Well, me but that's another story.


Most are straightforward sans blenders and infused syrups


"How about a Sink or Swim, Phil?" Now that's a cocktail


One of you will steal this


Never


Beats a Slow Comfortable Screw


"Do you want me to call you in the morning or should I just nudge you?"


Two of you will steal this


Brandy, gin and vermouth - That's a wedding


The End


Pretty amazing story, huh? I just wish it were true. What is true is that I don't have the time or the bridge table to set up a stall on Broadway. And I have a lotta catalogs to sell. Brooks Brothers catalogs going back to 1980. The first batch went up Sunday night. I'll follow each week with different seasons: Fall, Christmas, Winter, Spring and Summer.


Brooksgate, Women, Footwear...You get the idea. These things are taking up too much room in an 805 sq foot apartment. Add that to the fact that Heavy Tweed Jacket is off the air again and you can blog your own Brooks Brothers posts. Catalogs can be found here and I suggest having a few of these cocktails while you're bidding. Cheers.