A Priest Walks Into A Bar (Reheat)

What do a great bartender and a great priest have in common? We ask a Catholic priest who moonlights as a mixologist. Plus, Dan revisits a beloved pub from his past to find out what makes a great bar.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Dan Pashman?

  You put a lot of love into the things you send during the holidays. It's baked with love, carefully packed with love, or shipped with love right from home. Because what you're sending isn't just what's inside the box. It's the time, thought, and care you put into it. And this holiday season, the United States Postal Service is delivering your love to more addresses in America than anyone else. So send it with love. Send it with USPS. The United States Postal Service. Learn more at USPS.com/holiday. I grew up on Lando Lake's cheese. I still remember going to the supermarket deli counter with my mom and her ordering Lando Lake's American cheese. And now Lando Lake's cheese and butter are a huge part of my home. There are so many easy weeknight recipes using Lando Lake's cheese and butter that bring delicious restaurant taste right to your table.

• 0:44Dan Pashman?

  From chicken parm to weeknight shrimp pad thai, Lando Lake's has plenty of quick dishes that'll have the whole dinner table talking. Visit landolakes.com/reцепes/collection for easy weeknight dinners.

• 0:59Dan Pashman?

  Hey, everyone. Dan here with a special St. Patrick's Day reheat of the Sporkful. And this one, I'm going to sit down with a Catholic priest to share a drink. And I'm not talking about sacramental wine. This is a priest slash mixologist. Also in this episode, I revisit a bar from my past, Sligo Pub in Davis Square in Somerville, Mass, right near Tufts University where I went to college. Sligo actually closed down in 2023. R.I.P. Sligo after decades in operation. But I'm glad to have this audio record because Sligo was like a real dive bar, not a trendy dive bar, just a great, super casual, no frills place to get a drink. So I'm so glad to share this episode with you, which I think will give you a vivid sense of what made it so special. Now, of course, I love hearing from you and I want to know what episodes you think we should reheat.

• 1:44Dan Pashman?

  Send me an email or voice memo to [email protected]. Tell me your name, location, what episode you want us to reheat, and why. So cheers and happy St. Patrick's Day.

• 1:58Dan Pashman?

  So how do you feel about the term dive bar?

• 2:00Speaker 01

  It doesn't bother me at all. It's good.

• 2:03Dan Pashman?

  This is Steve. He's the bartender at an old Irish bar in Somerville, Mass. Called Sligo Pub. And Steve's been there for six years, but the bar's been there a lot longer.

• 2:12Speaker 01

  There's a guy that comes in here. He's 78. He was shining shoes when he was eight years old in here. So this bar, it's been here for 70 years at least.

• 2:23Dan Pashman?

  And when you switched jobs and you came here, what drew you to this place?

• 2:28Speaker 01

  Because I don't have to make martinis.

• 2:37Dan Pashman?

  Today on The Sporkful, ahead of St. Patrick's Day, we're going to ask, what makes a great bar and what makes a great bartender? I went to Sligo Pub to find the answer to that first question, and I ended up finding so much more. I just can't wait for you to hear the people that I met there. And then later in the show, I'm going to have a drink with a priest. But not just any priest. This one's got a special title.

• 2:58Speaker 02

  The chaplain to the DC Craft Cocktail Bartenders Guild.

• 3:01Dan Pashman?

  Was that a vacancy? The previous chaplain had left?

• 3:04Speaker 02

  I think I was the inaugural chaplain. And I said, well, what would my duties be? He said, well, we didn't really think about that, but I guess you'd just have to keep coming to our bars and eating and drinking, but we'll charge you less.

• 3:14Dan Pashman?

  Father Bill Daley is going to make me a drink called the Gaelic Flip, and he'll explain what a great priest and a great bartender have in common. That's coming up. Stick around.

• 3:29Dan Pashman?

  From WNYC Studios, this is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. And before I take you to Sligo Pub, I got to set this place up for you a little bit. First, Sligo is a county in Ireland. County Sligo. That's where that word comes from. Now, it's in Davis Square, Somerville, Massachusetts, just on the outskirts of Boston. Davis Square, kind of an old Irish-Italian neighborhood that has gentrified somewhat in recent years, but not completely. And it's right near Tufts University, where I went to college. And for four years, I was at Tufts. And when I had my fake ID, and when I had my real ID, I went to all the cheesy college kid bars in Davis Square. I never set foot

• 4:15Dan Pashman?

  in the Sligo. The Sligo was known as the townie bar. Like, and, and the perception was that someone like me was not welcome there. After I graduated, I still live nearby. Couple of friends of mine started hanging out at the Sligo. And they were like, you've got to come to this bar. Like, it is the greatest place. Like, it's so warm and friendly and full of every kind of character you could imagine. And oh, by the way, the drinks cost half as much as what they cost at the bar down the block. And I started hanging out there and I fell in love with Sligo Pub. Fast forward to today, I went into Sligo Pub just recently. And the place hasn't changed a bit. Still the sort of lived in, no frills feel.

• 5:02Dan Pashman?

  And I told the bartender why I was there. And he sort of made this announcement to the five or six regulars. This is a Monday afternoon, five or six regulars sitting at the bar. Anyone want to talk to this guy on the radio? One of the guys sitting at the bar, without saying a word, picks up his pack of cigarettes and turns, leaving half a drink on the bar, turns and walks right out the door.

• 5:23Dan Pashman?

  And does not say a word and does not come back. Okay? There is a certain crustiness to Sligo Pub. In, in a way, it's a lot like New Englanders. It's kind of crusty on the outside, but once you get past the crust, there's a very soft, warm and fuzzy interior. And so that guy left and I could tell that this was going to be a bit of a tough nut to crack to get these regulars to talk to me. So I didn't pull out the mic right away, ordered a beer, sat with the guys. We watched some Family Feud together, chatted. Eventually, I decided it was time to start recording. And since I fell in love with Sligo, the term dive bar has gained this sort of hipster cachet. And I was really curious because nowadays, that's probably how you would describe Sligo. So I started off talking to one of the regulars named Mike.

• 6:08Dan Pashman?

  And I asked him how he feels about that label.

• 6:12Speaker 03

  I mean, I guess I equate dive bar to a neighborhood bar. You know, where you can come without any airs. You know, you can hear something on the jukebox. You don't have to refinance to have a drink.

• 6:25Dan Pashman?

  Right. Yeah, it's interesting that, that that term dive bar has become this sort of like new fangled. It has this sort of like weird hipster cachet, but I feel like it's kind of, I can understand how it could be perceived as sort of insulting.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, you can try too hard in a lot of things in life, you know, you try too hard to be a dive bar, you know, a natural bar may be a dive bar, you know, or, you know, you try and be cool chic and, you know, dark and funky, or you can just be yourself, whether it's life or a bar. We're here in Davis Square at the Sligo, and this, it is what it is. Either you like it or you don't, and they don't apologize for it.

• 7:04Dan Pashman?

  What does this bar mean to you now?

• 7:08Speaker 03

  It's, you know, it's a comfortable shoe that, you know, you come in and you put it on, and if you want to chit chat or whatever and talk about, you know, did you see the debate last night? Did you see the Patriots last night or whatever? You can do that. It's a place that I have a certain comfort level to, I can do what I want and, you know, be left alone in doing it.

• 7:31Dan Pashman?

  I said goodbye to Mike and made my way down the bar to a guy named Corky. He's a carpenter from Ireland.

• 7:38Speaker 04

  I'm gonna say, I moved to this country 15 years ago. I've been coming here about 13, 14 years. It used to be great years ago, and Monday mornings especially, when people didn't go to work and there'd be a ton of Irish in here. But it was good, good times, always good times.

• 7:56Dan Pashman?

  What makes these bars special?

• 7:57Speaker 04

  It's definitely the characters in the bar. Exactly, it has, it's different people, like, but genuine, honest people, that's what I like about coming here. I could leave a hundred dollars on this counter, I'll walk out the door, and come back a half an hour later, it'll be still here, you know what I mean?

• 8:13Dan Pashman?

  How do you feel about the term dive bar?

• 8:15Speaker 04

  Actually, I just think it's just that somebody makes up this name and it's to give it a word. I don't, you know, I don't class it as a dive bar. To me, it's just a bar, it's like a home bar, to me, that's what it is. It's home, it's home.

• 8:33Dan Pashman?

  Remember at the start of this show, Steve the bartender mentioned an older guy who comes in all the time, who shined shoes at the Sligo as a boy? Well, when I turned around, he was sitting right next to me. His name is George.

• 8:46Speaker 05

  I've been, I was born here in Somerville.

• 8:48Dan Pashman?

  Wow.

• 8:49Speaker 05

  So I, I came in and started shoe shining about, I was about six, seven years old. Mrs. Conley had owned it. The Mr. and Mrs. Conley owned it at the time.

• 8:58Dan Pashman?

  And you came in here to shine shoes to make some money?

• 9:00Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:01Dan Pashman?

  When you were six or seven years old?

• 9:02Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:03Dan Pashman?

  And may I ask how long ago that was?

• 9:05Speaker 05

  No, you can't.

• 9:09Dan Pashman?

  Steve estimated that it was about 70 years ago. Can we go with that rough estimate?

• 9:13Speaker 05

  Well, it may be, uh, close.

• 9:16Dan Pashman?

  Okay.

• 9:17Speaker 05

  Close. I'm not gonna say anything. I usually try to keep my age to myself, you know?

• 9:22Dan Pashman?

  Right. So you've been coming to this bar for roughly 70 years?

• 9:26Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 9:28Dan Pashman?

  What do you love about it?

• 9:30Speaker 05

  Oh, I've been coming here a long time. I like the people, the Mrs. Conley was very, very nice. And she, you, when you're a young African-American kid, little boy and everything, people might wanna play it, not attack you, but they, you know? And then she made me, uh, feel very, very protective. She was very protective to me. And she would say like, um, "Don't mess with him. Don't rub his head, anything. Just pay him his money and give him a tip." When she died, I went to her funeral in St. John's Church, and her husband was there, and he told me, "My wife liked you," and she was, uh, she was the nicest lady. I was like her grandchild.

• 10:13Speaker 05

  And that's the way things were.

• 10:16Dan Pashman?

  I'm sure that especially many decades ago, there were, you know, times that being an African-American young man was not so easy.

• 10:24Speaker 05

  Well.

• 10:24Dan Pashman?

  Anywhere in the country, certainly here.

• 10:26Speaker 05

  When I graduated Somerville High, there were 697 kids there. Graduating my senior class, and 693 were white. There was four minorities. One girl and three guys. And that's the way things were.

• 10:39Dan Pashman?

  You know, it's interesting because there is like a stereotype. That there's sort of like traditionally Boston Irish community not exactly getting along with African Americans. I think it's pretty great that-

• 10:53Speaker 05

  I don't remember having any problems like that in Somerville. And I got along, we got along. Maybe because it was a very small minority, very, very small. So there was no challenge to things that were going on.

• 11:07Dan Pashman?

  They didn't feel threatened?

• 11:08Speaker 05

  No, not one bit.

• 11:10Dan Pashman?

  George, you've been walking in the front door of this bar for 70 years. What do you feel like now when you walk in the door?

• 11:16Speaker 05

  I don't feel any difference. The same bar. I know all the people in here.

• 11:20Dan Pashman?

  What's the feeling that you get?

• 11:21Speaker 05

  Hey, I came in for a drink.

• 11:23Dan Pashman?

  Well, let's get you a drink. What are you drinking, George?

• 11:27Speaker 05

  I am drinking wine.

• 11:29Dan Pashman?

  Okay. Steve, can we get a drink for George here?

• 11:32Speaker 05

  Oh, you're gonna buy it then?

• 11:33Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, I'm buying you a drink, George.

• 11:34Speaker 05

  All right, then I will take Scotch.

• 11:36Dan Pashman?

  Yeah, get the man a Scotch.

• 11:37Speaker 05

  I drink Scotch in here, they know it.

• 11:45Dan Pashman?

  Well, cheers to Mrs. Connolly, that's what I say.

• 11:47Speaker 05

  Yep, cheers to her, she's a fine lady.

• 11:57Dan Pashman?

  Thanks to George, Corky, Mike, Steve the bartender, and all the guys at Sligo Pub in Somerville, Mass. It felt really good to be back there. Kind of like Mike said, like slipping on an old shoe. Coming up, we'll turn from what makes a great bar to what makes a great bartender and a great drink. I'll meet up with Father Bill Daley. He's a priest, a Notre Dame law professor, and an expert mixologist. He'll mix me a drink and tell me about the time that a nun gave him his first taste of bourbon. I'll tell him about the time they wouldn't let me into the Vatican. Stick around.

• 12:41Speaker 06

  And now, a delicious word from our sponsors.

• 12:45Speaker 02

  It's very good.

• 12:47Dan Pashman?

  When you're cooking, ingredients matter, right? You use higher quality ingredients, you usually get better results. And if you're listening to this show, you're probably the kind of person who puts some thought and effort into your ingredients. But ingredients don't just matter with food, they also matter with laundry detergent. Of course, the cleaning job needs to get done, the odors and stains have to be tackled, and I want to feel good about the detergent and the ingredients in it. Because remember, whatever's in your laundry detergent is essentially in your clothes, and then you're putting those clothes on, you want good stuff in there. And All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients. It's 100% free from dyes, perfumes, parabens, and irritating residues. Check out the label and see for yourself, it lists all the ingredients and what they do. We've been using it in my house, we're very happy with it, and let me tell you, family of four, two teenagers, we do a lot of laundry.

• 13:32Dan Pashman?

  So we have put All Free Clear to the test. It's a powerful clean that you can feel good about. All Free Clear is the number one detergent brand recommended by dermatologists for sensitive skin. When it comes to laundry detergent, the choice is clear: All Free Clear. Pick up a bottle for your next laundry day. Make holiday hosting effortless with Boars Head Sweet Slice Uncured Ham. It's the perfect centerpiece for gathering family and friends around the holiday table. Hand-packed into netting, Sweet Slice Uncured Ham has the look of a traditional holiday ham with rich flavor worth savoring. Slow roasted and delicately smoked, boneless Sweet Slice Uncured Ham delivers classic bone-in flavor made for the moments that bring everyone together. Find Sweet Slice Uncured Ham at your nearest Boars Head deli.

• 14:15Dan Pashman?

  And for holiday entertaining inspiration, recipes, and more, visit boarshead.com. As someone who has been lucky enough to go to Napa Valley, I can tell you, it's everything people say it is: beautiful scenery, quaint beautiful towns, and phenomenal food and drink everywhere you go. I don't even know that much about wine, but I know that every glass of wine I had in Napa Valley was excellent. I mean, there's no bad glass of wine and no bad meal. Choose between hundreds of wineries, tasting rooms, and chef-led restaurants from a low-key lunch on a vineyard terrace to a full tasting menu paired by the winemaker. Plan your trip at visitnapavalley.com.

• 14:52Dan Pashman?

  For a long time, I did not understand the point of vests. Like, why not just have a jacket? That covers your arms, too. But something clicked for me. I think I got gifted a vest, and now I am obsessed with vests. And it just adds that little bit of toastiness. And I got this new Quince Packable Puffer Vest. I love that you can just squish it up and shove it in the bottom of your bag. That way, you have it with you all day. If it gets a little chilly, break out the vest. I also got a Quince Down Quilted Vest. It is so soft and cozy. They make them for men and women. And as with everything you get at Quince, they focus on high-quality staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, 14-karat gold, and Italian leather. These are all timeless, versatile pieces that feel special to unwrap and become everyday favorites long after the holidays.

• 15:36Dan Pashman?

  Give the gift of quality this holiday season. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns, now available in Canada and the UK, too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was The Sporkful. It's the best way to support the show.

• 16:03Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to another Sporkful Reheat. I'm Dan Pashman, and I have a very big, exciting announcement for you. This past November, I took a group of Sporkful fans and some others on a special trip across Italy to eat pasta, to retrace many of the steps I took on my own research trip for my cookbook. And we had so much fun and ate so, so well. We ate spaghetti alla sassina in Bari. We took a cooking class with Silvestro Silvestri in Leche. We ate with Katie Parla in Rome. And the folks at Culinary Backstreets who organized the tour, they added some stops that I didn't even know about, that were new to me, that were incredibly delicious and also fascinating. Point is, it was so great, we're doing it again. This November, we just opened up spots. It's a small group, so space is limited. Bottom line, come eat pasta with me in Italy.

• 16:47Dan Pashman?

  For all the details, go to culinarybackstreets.com/sporkful. Now, back to our St. Patrick's Day show, or at least it's loosely a St. Patrick's Day show. So it's only fitting that the second half also takes place in a bar, The Churchill in New York. Now, The Churchill's an English pub, not an Irish one. More on that later. It's owned by an Englishman named Scott and his wife Sinead, who is Irish. Sinead's lived in the US for 22 years, but I could tell when I talked to her, she still misses home.

• 17:18Dan Pashman?

  When you walk into a pub in the US that claims to be an Irish pub,

• 17:21Speaker 07

  Right.

• 17:22Dan Pashman?

  What are some of the things, the little things that tip you off as to whether it's going to a good Irish pub or some sort of cheesy tourist bar?

• 17:30Speaker 07

  The amount of plastic, I suppose, but um.

• 17:32Dan Pashman?

  Plastic?

• 17:34Speaker 07

  And the TVs everywhere. We don't do that at home. I don't know, it's just a little quieter and darker and it's more about chat and beer and meeting people and I don't know, it's just a different vibe. It's the vibe, maybe.

• 17:47Dan Pashman?

  Right. I was thinking, one of the rules that I might look at is the ratio of chairs per square foot. You know, because like you said, like a good Irish pub, people are sitting down and they're talking. When I go into a bar that claims to be an Irish pub, but it's got like, you know, 500 square feet of empty space because they just want like a dance floor.

• 18:10Speaker 07

  No, I never thought about that.

• 18:11Dan Pashman?

  Right?

• 18:12Speaker 07

  Yeah, but it's true. Yeah, because we have a lot of the soft seating and the little banquettes, you know. The odd painting on the wall or lots of woods. They're, they're just very simple. They're very simple.

• 18:25Dan Pashman?

  But warm.

• 18:26Speaker 07

  Very warm. And sometimes in some of the older pubs in town, there were little fireplaces, but you don't see them so much anymore.

• 18:31Dan Pashman?

  Right. Fireplace and carpeting, that's another.

• 18:33Speaker 07

  Oh carpets, oh my god, there were those carpets and some of them were just so awful, oh my god. You don't see that here, right?

• 18:40Dan Pashman?

  Yeah.

• 18:40Speaker 07

  And that's hotel lounges, no.

• 18:42Dan Pashman?

  That's right.

• 18:42Speaker 07

  No.

• 18:43Dan Pashman?

  So, when it's St. Patrick's Day in the US, a lot of people who aren't Irish

• 18:48Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 18:49Dan Pashman?

  act the way they think Irish people act.

• 18:52Speaker 07

  Yeah. At home, people used to go to mass.

• 18:55Dan Pashman?

  On St. Patrick's Day?

• 18:56Speaker 07

  On St. Patrick's Day. You'd get the shamrock, the fresh shamrock from the plant in the hallway. You'd go to mass. And there might be the odd parade in town or something like that, but these were not drinking days. You know, they weren't, I don't actually think the pubs in Ireland were open on St. Patrick's Day until recent years. You know, it was a very, very different thing. Now, things have changed and there are larger parades and it's more festive and.

• 19:20Dan Pashman?

  But as an immigrant to the US, do you feel like, I mean, on one hand, St. Patrick's Day has become kind of gross and a sort of bastardization of Irish culture. But on the other hand, there is a through line of it that's like an Irish Pride Day parade.

• 19:36Speaker 07

  Oh, yeah.

• 19:37Dan Pashman?

  Like, it's your day in America.

• 19:39Speaker 07

  I was really taken by it when I first came here. I. I think I used to be very emotional about it almost, that all of these people were just walking up Fifth Avenue and they were all Irish or claimed to be Irish. And it was kind of nominal.

• 19:54Dan Pashman?

  So where would you rather celebrate St. Patrick's Day?

• 19:58Speaker 07

  I would always rather be in Ireland, of course. But there is a little bit of sentimental pride standing in New York on St. Patrick's Day and feeling very good about being Irish.

• 20:23Dan Pashman?

  I was joined at the church hill by Father Bill Daly. He's a Catholic priest, a law professor, a Notre Dame, and a guy known to make a mean cocktail. In fact, the Washington DC Craft Cocktail Bartenders Guild made him their official chaplain. They created the role just for him. Father Bill makes me a drink called a Gaelic Flip. I like to have the upper hand in interviews. And so the smartest way to do that is to get the interviewer soused. So let's see. Don't worry, he made one for himself, too. The Gaelic Flip is made with Irish whiskey, sweet vermouth, allspice liqueur, and... And then we need a couple of whole eggs. I love a drink with a whole egg in it.

• 21:03Dan Pashman?

  Shake it, add ice, give it another shake, strain it into a glass, add a sprinkle of fresh nutmeg on top. Fresh nutmeg. And you're in business. Give that a try. All right, well, cheers. Cheers.

• 21:17Dan Pashman?

  Oh, it's really nice. What I like about this is I feel like it's a really good late winter, early spring, around St. Patrick's Day kind of drink, because it'll warm you up a little. If you've got like a chilly rainy St. Patrick's Day, it'll warm you up. But it's also kind of refreshing. Yes. So Father, the first thing we've got to get, get out there for people who, because some people, I told them I was going to come tape this with you, and they were like, wait, priests can drink? They're obviously not Catholics. Forgive the, some of the ignorant setup here, but for people who don't know, priests can drink?

• 21:46Speaker 02

  Priests can drink. It is the case that in the Gospel of John, the very first public miracle of Jesus is the famed wedding at Cana, where he, of course, turns water into wine. It's hard for me to understand how that could be a central first public miracle, and I'm not supposed to drink as a Christian. So, we tend to take the idea that virtue is found in the mean, and obviously alcohol is a danger and a toxin, and has to be respected, like many aspects of human life, but can be enjoyed in moderation.

• 22:19Dan Pashman?

  Can nuns drink?

• 22:20Speaker 02

  They can. In fact, I was, when I was in the seminary, the first time I had Maker's Mark was with a wonderful Sister Lord Sheen. Other than water and the precious blood at Mass, the only thing I ever saw Sister Lord's drink was Maker's Mark. Great woman from Savannah.

• 22:38Dan Pashman?

  Let's delve into the priesthood a little bit more.

• 22:40Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 22:40Dan Pashman?

  How did you come to want to be a priest?

• 22:43Speaker 02

  Arriving at the priesthood is like figuring out, I suppose, how you know whom you want to marry. And I hope that that's not a particularly completely logical answer for most people. Hopefully you say, "Ah, this is the moment when my heart was captured," and there's some mystery to that.

• 22:56Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  My family were devout Catholics, and we always had the priests over for dinner. So, I had an uncle who was a priest. He served in the missions in Central America. So, I thought highly of priests, but it was only when I saw how it was lived at Notre Dame that I thought it might be something that I was called to.

• 23:13Dan Pashman?

  What are some of the similarities between what drew you to the priesthood and what drew you to mixology?

• 23:19Speaker 02

  What is it that brings a person into church? Well, they've just had a baby. So, we have a baptism to solemnize, to celebrate, to bring everyone together to say, "Here's this new life." They've just lost a friend. Some people's only experience of church this year might be that a friend or two has died, and they go to the funeral. They've come to a town and don't really know how to build community, and so the same idea that a priest has to meet a person where they are, assess what is their need. Why have they come to me today? Is it joyous? Is it anxious? Is it sorrow? So a bartender has to orchestrate, as a priest does, this community of people, some of whom are celebrating, some of whom may need a little reapproving, some of whom need encouragement.

• 24:02Dan Pashman?

  It's interesting, I'm thinking about sort of like the life of a priest out there in the world. And I mean, obviously, you seem like a guy who is, you know, very intelligent and intellectually curious, and so you're probably wiser than the average person anyway. But I would think, like, is it sometimes, like, people come to you and they expect you to have wisdom? And I'm sure in some ways you do. But like, is that a hard pressure sometimes, to feel like you're always expected to have the answer?

• 24:32Speaker 02

  You know, it's true sometimes that people think what I have to offer is wisdom. Often, the wisdom that I have is the wisdom to just be silent. And that would be, again, another characteristic of overlap with bartenders, right? Sometimes you just need to go tell your bartender what's happened that day. "Oh, you wouldn't believe what I went through at work today." And a really good bartender doesn't have to tell you how to fix the boss or fix the colleague, but you're glad they're there, they sympathize, they might give a knowing grunt, you know, maybe they've had a similar frustrating experience at work. Very often, the wisdom that the priest offers is really more of the silence that you need

• 25:16Speaker 02

  to get something off of your chest, to process it yourself, but with a person you can trust, who doesn't have a dog in the fight, people can trust when they come to me, as I hope they can trust talking to their bartender, that what they're saying is going to be held in confidence and received with compassion.

• 25:32Dan Pashman?

  You tweeted a photo recently of two cocktails at a bar in Chicago, and you wrote, I'm not going to pronounce this correctly, but "Stat Crox dum vulvitur orbis." What does that mean?

• 25:46Speaker 02

  That is the motto of the Carthusian Order. The Carthusian Order of monks from Chartreuse, France. They were founded in 1085 by Saint Bruno. And since the early 18th century, they've been producing green Chartreuse. And on every bottle of green Chartreuse, there's a cross on an orb, a globe, which is their insignia. The motto, "Statt kruks, the cross stands. Dum volvit orbis, while the globe turns." It's about the stability of the faith and of the cross amidst all that changes in the world that brings us anxiety, that knocks us off our path.

• 26:20Dan Pashman?

  But I'm curious, like with green Chartreuse and the monks, there's the Belgian Trappist monks. What do you think it is? There is this amazing history of religious figures for hundreds of years, creating these amazing alcoholic concoctions.

• 26:35Speaker 02

  Historically, priests were, you know, for many centuries, the most educated person in the village or in the room, just by dint of, they were the only person with such professional training or education. They were also the apothecary in town. Now, medicine was terrible in those days, and green Chartreuse seemed to be as good a bet as anything to make you well. What the heck? If your cousin was sick, take him to the monk, he'll give him some green Chartreuse. At least he'll feel better on some dimension.

• 27:04Dan Pashman?

  Can I tell you the story about the time that I went to the Vatican?

• 27:07Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 27:08Dan Pashman?

  So I was there, I was a college kid, you know, backpacking around Europe, and of course, I wanted to see the Vatican. And so I go to go to Saint Peter's Cathedral. So it's an amazing sight. And I go to go into the church to see it, and they wouldn't let me in because I was wearing shorts. I found it somewhat disappointing. After I was denied entry to the church, I went over to the Sistine Chapel. I don't know if it's still there, but there was a suggestion box at the Sistine Chapel. So I, being young and full of hubris, couldn't resist putting it in the suggestion box. And I wrote something to the effect of, "I thought God loves everybody. If so, why can't I get into the holiest Catholic church based on what I'm wearing? I should certainly hope that Saint Peter doesn't have a dress code at the gates of heaven."

• 27:52Dan Pashman?

  Which may have been an obnoxious thing to say, but...

• 27:55Speaker 02

  I certainly understand that sentiment, but there is another side which says, if you know you're going to a very special place, why wouldn't you expect to... you wouldn't go to dinner at Danielle, right, with cutoff shorts. But it might have been an 80-degree day in Rome, and I think they've relaxed that rule a little bit. And if not, if you left your suggestion with Pope Francis, my goodness, he would probably tweet it and buy you Peroni.

• 28:20Dan Pashman?

  Well, I put the suggestion in the suggestion box, and I went back outside, and a bird pooped on me. So, I don't know if...

• 28:28Speaker 02

  This must have been during the pontificate of Pope Benedict. I love Pope Benedict, that's merely a joke.

• 28:43Dan Pashman?

  That's Father William Daley. Couple more notes on green chartreuse. That's the liqueur invented by those French monks that he referenced. First fun trivia: We get the shade of green that we call chartreuse from the drink green chartreuse. That's how old this drink is. It was a drink before it was a color. As far as how it tastes, like, it's very strong, but also sweet, very herbal, sort of like, it smells like a pine tree. And I mean that as a compliment, because I happen to be on a huge green chartreuse kick right now. Ever since I was on this podcast called Let's Drink About It, they made me a cocktail called a lawn dart that has green chartreuse, gin, tequila, lime juice, agave syrup, and, wait

• 29:23Dan Pashman?

  for it, muddled bell peppers. It is amazing. It's strong and sweet, but beyond that, I can't really describe it to you because it doesn't taste like anything else you've ever tasted in your life. So, just go and make one for yourself. Also, it's green, so it's perfect for St. Patrick's Day. We'll post the recipes for the lawn dart and for Father Bill's Gaelic flip at sporkful.com. My thanks to Sinead and Scott and everyone at Churchill's. The reason why we did this St. Patrick's themed interview at an English pub was that we needed a place where they would let Father Bill get behind the bar and actually make some drinks. Mrs. Sporkful and Sinead are old friends. Sinead was nice enough to make it happen. And I gotta say, the fish and chips at Churchill's? Outstanding. The fries, or chips, alone, I mean,

• 30:08Dan Pashman?

  those are worth a visit. They, they might be in my top five fries in my life. And I don't say that lightly. Okay, so check out Churchill's. This show is a production of WNYC Studios and The Sporkful. It's produced by Anne Sannie and me. We get music help from Black Label Music. Special thanks to Joanna Solotaroff and Paula Schuman. And hey, special thanks, production credit for Mrs. Sporkful, who helped make The Churchill happen. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 30:32Speaker 08

  And I'm Eric Stauffer from Indianapolis, Indiana, reminding you to eat more, eat better, and eat more better.

• 31:15Dan Pashman?

  This reheat was produced by Gianna Palmer. The team that produces The Sporkful today includes me, along with managing producer Emma Morgenstern. And senior producer Andres O'Hara. Our engineer is Jared O'Connell. The Sporkful is a production of Stitcher Studios. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the SiriusXM app? Yes, the SiriusXM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the SiriusXM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 32:04Speaker 09

  Hey, it's me, Teddy Swims. You hear that? That's life. So go grab it. Grab your old friends, grab new friends, grab a White Claw. Grab flavor for everyone in your group. Grab music, laughter, and moments you'll never forget. You'll never regret it.

• 32:23Speaker 05

  Oh, hey, man.

• 32:25Speaker 09

  Grab new friends, grab old friends, grab life by the claw. White Claw.

• 32:30Dan Pashman?

  Please drink responsibly. White Claw Celta Works, Chicago, Illinois. Hey, it's Dan here. Thank you so much, first of all, for tuning into this portfolio every week. We really appreciate it. And I want to let you know, if you want to hear new episodes ad free, subscribe to Sirius XM Podcasts Plus on Apple Podcasts or visit siriusxm.com/podcastsplus to listen with Spotify or another app of your choice. Thanks.