In a fast-food nation like ours, what does it take to slow down the hip urban crowd? Booze. At least that’s what the Boston Slow Food Convivium was banking on Monday night at the organization’s first local event.

Begun 16 years ago in Italy as an antidote to a global McDonald’s culture, this grassroots movement makes a case for leisurely and celebratory meals. God love ’em, these cultural vanguardists even have a printed manifesto, which proclaims that “sensual pleasure and slow, long-lasting enjoyment preserve us from the contagion of the multitude who mistake frenzy for efficiency.” Of course, a manifesto isn’t worth the glossy paper it’s printed on if nobody reads it, and there’s no better way to attract attention to a noble cause than to make a drink or two part of the deal.

And these weren’t just any drinks, but a series of six period cocktails tracing the rise of Prohibition and its repeal. The 1920 constitutional amendment limiting consumption of alcohol may seem like a strange theme for an organization dedicated to improving society through an embrace of sensual delights. Yet as bar manager Tom Mastricola pointed out, liquor was one of the defining features of American culture even at the height of the 13-year Prohibition era.

Apparently, nothing has changed: appreciative thirtysomethings in fabulous shoes and clunky chic glasses swarmed around waiters carrying trays loaded with shots of the pre-Prohibition Ramos gin fizz and the Palmyra, a vodka-based cousin to the Cuban mojito.

As Indy Rathnicam of the South End sipped a Gibson (that’s a martini with one onion and no olive, thank you), he admitted that he’d never heard of Slow Food before. But he’d taken the cocktail bait, and had been exposed to the movement’s message in the process.

The Boston Convivium hopes to win more converts in June, when it holds a Turkey dinner — celebrating the country, not the fowl — at Ana Sortun’s Oleana in Cambridge. From there, who knows — maybe a full-scale local movement is in the works. If Monday night was any indication, Bostonians will drink to that.

To join Slow Food, call the national office at (877) SLOW-FOOD. To learn more about the next event, call Oleana in June at (617) 661-0505.

Issue Date: May 24 - 31, 2001