The Case Of The Missing Wine Coolers

Wine Coolers Make the Party, originally uploaded by La Pauline.

Last night after picking up some dinner, I had a strange craving for wine coolers. Wine coolers, of the 1980s, Bartles & James persuasion. Those fruity, sweet and sugary treats that have led many a high school girl to make poor choices at weekend house parties.

Up and down Third Avenue I went, looking in bodegas and grocery stores. Nothing. I went home empty handed, well, with my salad, wondering why it was so hard to find them.

Do wine cooler distributors think that the denizens of Murray Hill are too sophisticated for wine coolers? Let me assure you, we're not. On humid evenings when El Rio Grande and Caliente Cab are too crowded for margaritas, taking a few home to go is a nice alternative. Given the demographics of Murray Hill -- young, professional, perpetually festive -- I submit that a bodega that sold nothing but wine coolers would do quite well.