Booze & Vinyl Book Tour Spins Through Indy

What’s the perfect drink to go with The Cure’s Disintegration? How about Radiohead’s OK Computer? Or the Smiths’ The Queen Is Dead? These are the cocktail conundrums that sister-and-brother duo Tenaya and André Darlington seek to put to rest in their hip new book, Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music & Mixed Drinks, published this spring by Hachette Book Group. The food and travel writers based on the East Coast grew up listening to the hisses and pops of the LPs spinning on their father’s turntable, and they’re hoping to rekindle the love of listening parties—groovy evenings of cracking open a new album and whiling away the hours on pitchers of Manhattans and Negronis. Who wouldn’t love a mug of milk punch inspired by Max’s Kansas City, the unofficial home of New York’s underground music scene in the ’60s, while drifting off to The Velvet Underground & Nico? Or maybe a “Campfire Sling” with maple syrup and chocolate bitters to go with Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush?

The Darlingtons hit all the audiophile classics with recipes to accompany 70 albums, guides to essential “bar merch,” and suggested nibbles such as Punk Rock Tea Party Sandwiches (lox with cultured butter and smoked turkey with sage) or Booze Chicken Sandwiches with honey and avocado slaw (to feast on while listening to Robert Johnson’s King of the Delta Blues Singers). As much a carefully curated list of the last 60 years of great music as it is a recipe book, the Darlingtons guide is a coffee-table tome you’ll want to reach for again and again and that will have you cracking open that dusty bottle of cocchi or curaçao. Tenaya Darlington is a graduate of Indiana University’s Master of Fine Arts program in creative writing, and she’s made her name with the blog Madame Fromage and with cheese-tasting parties throughout the Philadelphia area and beyond. So you know she can whip up a tasty party. Need even more inspiration? The Darlingtons are bringing their slow-sipping show through Indy this Friday, April 27, along with Crosley Record’s mobile record store at two local listening parties. First stop is Indy CD & Vinyl (806 Broad Ripple Ave.) from noon to 3 p.m., with a twilight tasting to follow from 6 to 9 p.m. at Hotel Tango (702 Virginia Ave.). You might just win your own retro-style Crosley player for hosting your own tasting parties. So you’ll need a little help with your playlist.