A no-bourbon Christmas

You can’t buy bourbon in Dallas on Christmas day.

We planned pork tenderloin with apricot/bourbon filling.  Wonderful recipe.

But we needed a cup of bourbon, and when we got to the liquor cabinet, we had only about a quarter cup left in a bottle.

We aren’t bourbon drinkers.  The last time we used bourbon was the last time we cooked pork tenderloin with apricot/bourbon filling . . .

So at about 10:00 a.m. I headed out of our nearly-dry end of the county to a precinct rife with liquor stores.  If any place was selling bourbon on Christmas day, it would likely be among this small city of liquor stores just off I-35, near the sinning areas of Harry Hines Blvd. and a couple of truck stops.

A mile down the road the new quickee mart was open, selling beer and wine.  No hard liquor in this precinct, though.

Liquor store by I-35 near Dallas - photo on Flickr by Futurowoman (Polaroid photo?)

12 miles up the road, past the doomed Texas Stadium, I passed four liquor stores at one exit, all dark.  At the next exit, the gas station at a liquor store was open.  The main liquor store next door was dark, but I was hopeful.

Inside, one man with an obvious need for a hit of something bargained with one employee over the price of a can of malt liquor.  Another customer queried the other counter man about where he could get a ribbon for the can of beer he’d just bought for his girlfriend, sleeping outside in the car.  Merry Christmas, baby.

No ribbons.  It would be an unwrapped, un-beribboned can of beer.

“What are the chances of finding some bourbon?” I asked.   The guy looked at me like I came from Mars.  His store was selling cheap alcohol in tiny amounts to people down on their luck, but of me he wanted to know:  “What are you doing with bourbon so early in the day?”

Cooking, I told him.

“You won’t find any today.  State law.  All the stores are closed.”

The sauce would have been better with more bourbon, I think.  What else would I be doing with bourbon on Christmas morning?