Wow Free Rangers,
Apparently it wasn’t enough for the Blue Dude (of Blue Dude Karen Project fame) that he made our Saturday a particularly trying one, he thought it best to come back to protest the resulting public shaming during our in-store tasting with our buddy, Rob, from St. George Spirits. He announced himself immediately from across the room. “You seem to have some problem with me,” he began, “but you put a picture of my friend on your website, who does that?” Being fairly certain I had written in detail my problem with this jackanapes, I wasn’t entirely sure what we were talking about here and I ask if he’d like to take the conversation outside. He says he doesn’t, clearly enjoying trying to make a scene, though nobody involved in the gin and whiskey tasting even bother to look up at him (our people!). “Well,” I’ll be outside if you’d like to talk,” I say, heading through the door. Blue Dude (now wearing muted earth tones) follows, and starts in again from his previous angle.
Blue Dude: You put my friend’s face on your website. Who does that?
Me: You really think that this kind of activity is worth your time?
BD: What time, it was 30 seconds out of my day to poke my head in.
ME: I’ve got you on our cameras walking around us taking pictures for almost 20 minutes.
BD: Pictures of the building.
ME: And how do you think that looks from inside? Pasquale first saw you in the side window and waved, thinking you were a friend, and you didn’t respond at all.
BD: At least take my friend’s face off of your website.
Me: It was an e-mail, it already went out, we can’t just pull them all back.
BD: It’s on the front page of your website right now.
Me: E-mails also go out as a social media blast, which get posted to the website.
It goes in a brief circle like this after which I explain that we are done and that he is welcome to submit an e-mail with further comments, and that he is not welcome in the shop anymore. He follows me back in. I take out my phone, begin recording and tell him that he has been asked to leave and that he will be remove physically if he refuses to leave. He presses the issue, but follows me to the door, which I pull closed on his final protestations. BD, on the day of your first invasion, I went outside to wordlessly take a picture of you so you’d see how creepy that is. And then you called me an asshole. Here’s the difference between you and me man, I know when I’m being an asshole.
Replaying the conversation, I’m not sure he ever saw the actual e-mail (which also goes to the blog on the website), and he really thought we just randomly put his pic on the website without a word about it. While my judgement can be harsh, I always try to see the situation from the other side, if only to make sense of the structure of the interaction, and to understand where they’re coming from. We were trying to figure out his deal for the duration of his stalking, but he couldn’t understand how disconcerting his behavior appeared from inside our unforgiving fishbowl existence here on The Ave. Had he actually clicked through and read the e-mail/blog post, he might have understood. Perhaps then he may have returned with a, “My bad, but…” instead of whatever that was. Regardless, thanks for the content Dude, and Derek took down the original instagram post (which appears on the website) and re-posted with your friend’s face hidden. That’s one more favor than you’ve ever done for us. But if you ever read any of these and want to apologize for how it all started, I’d still buy you a drink and call it even.
More importantly, we have two great FREE in-store tastings this week!
First, tomorrow, Thursday, September 12th (5-7pm) our old play Roy will be here in the shop pouring you FREE tastes of three wines by Brooklyn’s own, Andre Mack. Oregogne Chardonnay 2019 And Oregogne Pinot Noir 2021 is the flagship Oregon juice of Andre’s Maison Noir label, with very deliberate nod toward Burgundy which inspired them. As an added bonus, we’re showing our own Willamette Pinot Auction barrel, unavailable anywhere else on Earth, Maison Noir Lamb of God Pinot Noir 2019. We’re looking forward to checking on its progress in bottle as much as we are to share it with you. All three wines are 10% off, or 20% off 6+ bottles (mix & match) all week online, and in-store on tasting day!
(!) Click here for Maison Noir Oregogne sale page (!)
Also, please join a very special FREE Saturday tasting with Ben Wald from Sazerac! This one was a long time in the making. I tasted and selected a barrel at the (Barton) 1792 Distillery the day before the same (in very different fashion) at Buffalo Trace. At the latter we acquired our beloved single barrel of Sazerac Rye from which we received our bottles last November, which we released for the holidays that year. That first barrel finally arrived yesterday. Now I understand why, when I asked them at the distillery if we’d have our bottles for the holidays (of ’23), there was actual laughter. The upside is that the resulting Bourbon gained an additional 13 months of oaken wisdom between selection and bottling. So we are just getting to know this 130° beautiful beast ourselves. And for those of you keeping score, our own 1792 Bourbon Full Proof Free Range Single Barrel is the lowest priced, rarest, highest proof bottle currently being offered in New York (at the sale price).
But back to Ben who is one of the most knowledgeable and passionate spirits educators of whom we are aware in this godforsaken town. This gregarious walking library of a human will be here in the shop this Saturday, September 14th (5-7pm), to pour you FREE tastes (and answer the nerdiest of your questions) of our long awaited exclusive 1792 Bourbon Full Proof Free Range Single Barrel, alongside 1792 Bourbon 12 Year and 1792 Sweet Wheat. Plus, 30% off all week online, and in-store on tasting day!
(!) Click here for 1792 Bourbon sale page (!)
Cheers,
Jack
Proprietor
Free Range Wine & Spirits
P.S. Free Range E-mail Archive
