A specialty drink not included on a menu held together with duct tape at Bootleg Bar in Los Angeles, The Dirty Ashtray was on my cocktail conquests list. The base is a tall boy of Tecate Cerveza, so far not intrigued, but add in the rest of the ingredients, and you had me at “dirty”. The bartender, whom resembles someone right out of a dag gone semi, squeezes half a lime onto the top of the Tecate can. Excuse me, Mr. Mixologist, but isn’t that supposed to go IN the drink? Next, a calamity of salt and pepper is shaken onto the lime-can concoction. Interesting… Next, an unknown hot sauce is fruitfully shaken into the mix. Ok, cool, but how am I supposed to drink this? The bartender then opens the can with a friendly, “are you ready for this?” and there ya have it. The Dirty Ashtray, there in all of it’s trashy glory, ready for you to consume.

Upon my first gulp, I was delightfully surprised. This was pretty damn good and I’m not even a fan of hot sauce or Tecate. Described as, “The White Trash Bloody Mary” I could see the similarities. The vinegar in the hot sauce somehow combined with the acidity of the lime and spiciness of the pepper and made for one sassy down home wedding reception in my mouth. I felt like I was drinking a taco truck. I like taco trucks.

The Dirty Ashtray is best halfway through. Once you hit that pessimistic half-way point, all you end up with is a nose covered in hot sauce, salt and watery eyes. I had to hold my cocktail away from my colleague because it was making his eyes tear up. Out of desperation for that glorious first drink, I used my finger to shove that beautiful hot sauce concoction into the little can hole of my Tecate. I liked it mixed together, I really did and I wasn’t going to stop halfway in.

I come from the white-trash part of the country, and I must say, this would be a fancy cocktail to my comrades. The Dirty Ashtray, another hipster’s ploy to make white trash cool. I wonder what they’d think of that back in the homelands with their Miller High Life in hand and butt rock on the radio. Regardless, I have a Dirty Ashtray date this weekend with my room mate. It was interesting enough to make at home. Give it a whirl, even if just to say, “I drank a Dirty Ashtray once!”

“The Dirty Ashtray” available for $6 at:
The Bootleg Bar
2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026
Click here to visit the venue’s website.

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