You can’t buy bourbon in Dallas on Christmas day.
We planned pork tenderloin with apricot/bourbon filling. Wonderful recipe.
But we needed a cup of bourbon, and when we got to the liquor cabinet, we had only about a quarter cup left in a bottle.
We aren’t bourbon drinkers. The last time we used bourbon was the last time we cooked pork tenderloin with apricot/bourbon filling . . .
So at about 10:00 a.m. I headed out of our nearly-dry end of the county to a precinct rife with liquor stores. If any place was selling bourbon on Christmas day, it would likely be among this small city of liquor stores just off I-35, near the sinning areas of Harry Hines Blvd. and a couple of truck stops.
A mile down the road the new quickee mart was open, selling beer and wine. No hard liquor in this precinct, though.
Liquor store by I-35 near Dallas - photo on Flickr by Futurowoman (Polaroid photo?)
12 miles up the road, past the doomed Texas Stadium, I passed four liquor stores at one exit, all dark. At the next exit, the gas station at a liquor store was open. The main liquor store next door was dark, but I was hopeful.
Inside, one man with an obvious need for a hit of something bargained with one employee over the price of a can of malt liquor. Another customer queried the other counter man about where he could get a ribbon for the can of beer he’d just bought for his girlfriend, sleeping outside in the car. Merry Christmas, baby.
No ribbons. It would be an unwrapped, un-beribboned can of beer.
“What are the chances of finding some bourbon?” I asked. The guy looked at me like I came from Mars. His store was selling cheap alcohol in tiny amounts to people down on their luck, but of me he wanted to know: “What are you doing with bourbon so early in the day?”
Cooking, I told him.
“You won’t find any today. State law. All the stores are closed.”
The sauce would have been better with more bourbon, I think. What else would I be doing with bourbon on Christmas morning?
Posted by Ed Darrell 
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 