Not Shaken or Stirred

Before you have dinner, you usually chew a Rolaids or drop an Alka-Seltzer into a glass of water to get your stomach prepared for what’s about to go down. But during Bon Aperitif! Week, a group of Miami’s finest restaurants is offering you a more sophisticated way to prime your palate. From Thursday, October 18, to Wednesday, October 24, at Social Miami, Town Kitchen and Bar, Tuscan Steak, Mark’s, the Biltmore Hotel, and Chispa, you can get a glass of chic aperitif Dry Sack sherry and a delicious appetizer -- for only $10.

The idea of having a light alcoholic drink before a meal can be traced back to Shakespearean times. “Europeans have all embraced the aperitif moment, but it hasn’t been embraced in the United States,” says Dry Sack’s marketing director, Abbey Glaser. “We are a cocktail culture, but excess alcohol dulls the taste buds.” So save that dirty martini for after your meal, when you no longer give a damn about your taste buds, and try out a new way to get toasted before you chow down.
Oct. 18-24, 2007