When not professing his inability to drive at posted speed limits — usually 55 mph — pop-metal wailer and erstwhile Van Halen front man Sammy Hagar is quite a fan of the sauce. So much so that in 1996, he brought to the world his own brand of tequila, christened Cabo Wabo Tequila.
Lou & Harry's Five Star Deli, 245 Ann St., took a page from The Red Rocker's book while naming its own blue-green rocker, Wobbly H.
Matt Bush, bartender and accounting graduate student, talks about how this explosion of fruit and booze got its name …
"'H' for Harry, and it's a drink, so it makes you wobbly."
Like Van Halen, whose lead singer revolving door has let in David Lee Roth (twice), Hagar (twice), and Extreme's Gary Cherone — that's right, the dude that sang "More Than Words" — Wobbly H has been through many forms, starting as a scrappy three-piece with Blue Curacao, Bacardi Coco Rum and pineapple.
But unlike fans who prefer "Van Halen" to "Van Hagar" — nobody heard "Van Halen III," so the jury's still out on "Van Cherone" — those who ordered the yet-unnamed Wobbly H demanded a change.
"People would come and order it and like it, but say it was missing something. So we kept trying new things," Bush said.
Bush and his LouHa cohorts eventually settled on the current six ingredient mix, adding the normally-noxious Bacardi 151 Rum, which, like Roth, added an unexpected flying scissor-kick to the drink.
Meanwhile, the rest of the drink has a tropical feel that would jive well with Hagar's current boozy Caribbean rock image.
And it might get you drunk enough to think that Extreme was actually a good band.
Bush picked the wrong writer to make an off-the-cuff Van Halen reference to.
