About 2 months ago, I went with my brother to Springfield, Mo, for a wedding of friends of ours that I hadn't seen in, well, about 10 years. My mother's family is all from the South (Arkansas, to be embarrassingly exact), so in some ways I feel a sense of comfort in many things southern: biscuits, sweet tea, fried okra---well, ok, mostly with food. But, whatever. Anyway, when my brother and I went to the beautiful wedding of our beautiful friends, I was quickly whisked away to the free booze table, where, to my surprise, there stood before me a liquor that I have always regarded with disdain and skepticism: Bourbon. Eight huge bottles of Knob Creek loomed before me, and I quickly flashed back to all the brown liquor misadventures I had faced in my early drinking life:

• There was the first time I ever drank, at the ripe age of 15 (tsk), and got tipsy from a mixture of Dr. Pepper and Whiskey. Barf.
• There was the other time in high school when I was dared to drink a shot of Southern Comfort and was certainly not made comfortable by my choice.
• There were also the countless attempts at sipping my friend's Jack and Cokes, Whiskey Sours and SoCo Lemonades, all of which ended with a scrunched up face and a request for water or gin to wash the taste away.

But here I was, faced with no real alternative, and so I inquired, politely as to the bartender's recommendations for how to drink Knob Creek.

"Um, how can I drink this?"

"Well, you can either have it straight up or you can have a Mint Julep."

A Mint Julep? Well La Di Da! Simple Syrup, crushed mint and Bourbon, this drink is simple, and, um, totally fucking delicious. In the balmy Missouri weather, I was quickly acclimated to the Weeping Willows and Seersucker suits, and became, well, downright genteel. About, well, a dozen Juleps later, I had made a new friend in brown liquor. I was a changed woman.

After my liquor-changing experience in the south, I was ready to venture out into the world and try my hand at new brown-liquor experiences. There was the Knob Creek Sour at Mickey's that was quite delicious and refined, if not completely out of my budget (that was when I realized that Knob Creek is, you know, classy). But when my brown booze bounty came to a new point was at The Paradise Lounge, a fantastic bar downtown that offers one of the best drink specials of all time.

Now, I know that up until this point, I have reviewed drinks that might be a bit refined or upscale, and let's be honest; that's not really the kind of person I am most of the time. Sure, I like a martini now and then, but really, when I come to drink, I come correct. And The Paradise (or 'Dise, when you're drunk and lazy) allows the public to fulfill all their alcohol-based dreams. Just listen: on Tuesday nights, for those of you not in The Know, The 'Dise has $1.50 rails and this is where and when I made my great discovery (or where my boyfriend shared his great discovery with me) of the Whiskey 7. Rail Whiskey and 7-up, mixed together in a harmony that I have not been able to recreate anywhere else in Madison. For some reason, the cheap Whiskey 7s on Tuesday nights at the 'Dise are better than anywhere else I have ever tried to get them, so now, it's the only place I go to drink them. They taste like candy: beautiful, warm, candy. So go there; tonight, or next Tuesday, or the Tuesday after that; and make a new friend with brown liquor, just like I did.