The DU Lounge

hand to pour each ingredient carefully and slowly enough so that they layer, not mix. When I was in Houston, I was friends with one of the hotel bartenders in our mall. He was making a French 125 for me, and we were discussing difficult drinks. He was telling me about a woman, very pretentious*, who ordered a 7-layer pousse cafe. It took him two tries to get it perfectly layered. When he served it to her, she stirred it up, and gulped it down in one go. He refused to make her another one.

*My personal favourite pretentious bar patron was also in Houston. I was sitting at a bar, waiting for a friend, and reading. A guy came in, all bluster, sat just a couple of seats down from me, and ordered a Perrier and water. Perrier had just become available in this country. I looked at the bartender over my book, we both grinned, and I bent into the book so that I wouldn't actually laugh.