Name that Flyover City! – Oct. 13, 2022

Here’s a review of this week’s questions:

1. What southern city is home to Auntie Betty’s Gin and Absinthe Bar, the unique “craft cocktail lounge with a focus on gin and absinthe”?
2. Movie star Brad Pitt grew up in what midwestern city?
3. What midwestern city is home to Drake University, one of the nation’s most prestigious private colleges?

And here are the answers:

1. Raleigh, NC. Located in the Morgan Street Food Hall, in the heart of Raleigh’s bustling downtown, Auntie Betty’s Gin and Absinthe Bar is the brainchild of restaurateur and entrepreneur Greg Ewan. Ewan’s partner, Niall Hanley, named the bar after his Irish aunt, and is happy to point out that it is “Raleigh’s first gin-focused bar.” In addition, its unique style as a “botany bar” separates Auntie Betty’s from its culinary neighbors in the Morgan Street Food Hall. Showcasing different styles of gin as well as absinthe, vermouth, and tonic from local and international suppliers, the drink menu has unique and diverse offerings, including “Obituary,” “4^th Street Flip,” and “The Crushinator.”
2. Springfield, MO. Brad Pitt was born in Oklahoma in December of 1963, but grew up with his parents and two siblings in Springfield, MO. He attended Kickapoo High School in Springfield, where he showed an interest in sports, debate and theater. He attended the University of Missouri in Columbia but left school two weeks before graduation to move to Los Angeles and pursue a career as an actor. His breakout role in “Thelma and Louise” in 1991 came after several years of lower-profile roles in commercials, soap operas and sitcoms. His career hit its stride in the 1990s with starring performances in “A River Runs Through It,” “Fight Club,” and “Seven.” By the time “Oceans 11” premiered in 2001, Pitt was a bona fide superstar, and has celebrated one success after another since then, culminating with his first Oscar for playing stuntman Cliff Booth in the 2019 film, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”.
3. Des Moines, IA. With famous graduates like actors Jeremy Piven and Michael Emerson, and former “Tonight Show” host Steve Allen, Drake University has a rich history and an even more renowned reputation as one of the best colleges in the Midwest. Founded in Des Moines in 1881, its first graduating class of 77 people attended all classes in one building. Its law school predates the founding of the university and is among the 25 oldest law schools in the United States. Today’s Drake University consists of seven colleges and schools, including a College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Journalism and Mass Communications, and the John Dee Bright College, which offers two-year programs for students who prefer something “other than the traditional college experience.”