LTHForum.com

The butcher and the bartender rarely work together.

But a drinking ritual from Portland, Oregon, is forging an especially close relationship between beef and booze.

Brilliantly dubbed the "bone luge," the process is simple and, in true 21st-century style, has a Twitter tag and a Tumblr. Take a roasted marrow bone that has been split lengthwise, consume the marrow, and use the emptied furrow to channel wine or spirits into the luger's mouth. Odd? Most definitely. Delicious? Absolutely.

Since devising the luge with friends a little more than a year ago as a tequila-fueled joke, Jacob Grier has heard of lugers sledding at Bar and Kitchen in Los Angeles, Prime Meats in Brooklyn and Euclid Hall in Denver.

Portland's Metrovino, where Grier tends bar, recently added luge-friendly pairings to its menu, though Grier says he'll be surprised if the bone luge receives formal acceptance at many more places. "You're going into a nice restaurant and doing this slightly insane, highly inappropriate drinking ritual," Grier says.

Denver diners luge Manhattan shots; in other cities, options have ranged from reposado tequila to Madeira. But sherry is the big winner: Grier recommends Valdespino "Contrabandista" Amontillado because "sherry has a lower proof and a little sweetness," he says. "It plays really well with the marrow's meaty, fatty flavor."

This is one downward spiral we heartily sanction.

Not exactly the same as a bone luge but created essentially as a joke, which seems entirely appropriate.=R=

I would probably sit by amused while others engaged in such folderol, and I'm not judging (well, maybe a little), but I can't see participating