Notorious B.I.G. Inspired a Cheesy Gin Fizz at Popular Charleston Bar Paddock & Whisky

Late lyricist Christopher George Latore Wallace, also know as Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or Biggie, serves as the inspiration for a creative new cocktail at the Park Circle location of Paddock & Whisky. The libation named A Foolish Pleasure combines ingredients from Biggie’s 1994 hit “Big Poppa.” Paddock & Whisky head bartender Caroline Woodruff pulled from the lyrics “A T-bone steak, cheese eggs and Welch’s grape” to create the drink.

Woodruff makes a cheddar-washed gin and combines it with grape soda, Sacred Bond brandy, egg white, maple, and cream to make a purple-hued gin fizz. Woodruff says the drink has been popular with customers willing to try out a non-traditional cocktail. She says that with the new location of the bar, she was given freedom to get a “little weird” with the menu.

Ever since “Big Poppa” was released, fans have pondered whether Biggie was rapping about cheesy eggs, cheese and eggs, Welch’s grape jelly, or Welch’s grape juice. This debate was put to rest in 2016 in a Pigeons & Planes interview with Robert Cagle, aka Zauqael, a close friend to B.I.G, who confirmed the rapper’s Waffle House order:

In North Carolina they got Shoneys and Perkins… And you know the funny thing? Remember when [B.I.G.] wrote that rhyme [in “Big Poppa”] about taking the girl to the hotel and eating “a T-bone steak, cheese, eggs, and Welch’s grape?”

We used to go to this place called the Waffle House and they used to have the steak and eggs and all that. And then another thing, we used to go to the House of Pancakes that was located near NC State. And we used to get a carafe of grape juice with the cheese and eggs and the T-bone steak.

So, not grape jelly, but grape juice — just like in the A Foolish Pleasure cocktail.

• Paddock & Whisky [Official]
• Before Biggie [Complex]