Willi Sheller at Liberty

8-1/2. Oil on panel, 12" x 12". $595. [buy now.]

During our first trip to Liberty on Seattle's Capitol Hill, we had the experience of meeting Willi Sheller. "Meeting" is probably not the right word. "Being entertained by"? Not sure how to explain it, but the minute I mentioned the book project to him, he disappeared behind the bar for about twenty minutes, then reemerged with this:

Meet Tikitty. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the cherries in the lime adorning this tiki drink are on fire. When I could stop laughing long enough to try it, I found it was delicious. 

After that Willi brought out some more serious original libations, including the 8-1/2 (illustrated above), which he said he named for his favorite Fellini film that he'd never seen. Then, he killed my cucumber phobia with his Pimp's Cup, a twist on the Pimm's Cup using local BroVo Jammy vermouth. Here is the painting, which is an homage to what happened next:

Pimp's Cup. Oil on panel, 12" x 12". $595. [buy now]

So, what happened next was that I tried to figure out how the hell Willi had made the intricately woven garnish on my 8-1/2. I couldn't do it, so he went to the bar, grabbed a cutting board, some tools, and a few pieces of fruit, and proceeded to spend several minutes demonstrating garnishes.

Please keep in mind that, a) I am not a videographer, and b) I was at least two drinks in at this point, and not expecting to make a video. I did my best under the circumstances, and here are the results:

For another video and an actual photo of Willi, join me after the jump.