Boothby’s World Drinks And How To Mix Them (1934)
1 1/2 oz gin
1/4 oz Italian vermouth
1 tbsp sweet & sour syrup
1/2 tbsp fresh-squeezed orange juice
mint leaves
Crush mint and muddle with juice and syrup. Add liquor, shake with ice and strain into cocktail glass.
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Eastern Standard recipe
2 parts Wonderful POM pomegranate juice
1 part sugar
orange flower water
Heat POM and sugar in a saucepan until boiling. Turn heat down and let mixture simmer gently for 5-15 minutes. Let mixture cool, pour into a sealed container. Add a drop or two (literally — the stuff is strong) of orange flower water and store in fridge. To preserve the grenadine for more than a week, add a little high-proof vodka. You can also freeze the grenadine.
Alternate recipe: Combine 2 parts POM and 1 part sugar in a sealed container and shake until sugar is dissolved. Store in fridge.
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Josey Packard (homage to the Marconi Wireless created for the 2009 James Beard awards)
1 3/4 oz Laird’s Bonded Straight Apple Brandy (Applejack)
1 oz Lillet blanc
1/4 oz Drambuie
1/8 oz honey syrup (1:1 honey/hot water)
2 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
Stir all ingredients very well over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
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Things to drink and places to go:
I have happily been following Dann Paquette’s brewing career since about the mid-’90s, when he was at the Northeast Brewing Co. in Allston. Numerous brewing stints later, including a recent couple of years in Yorkshire, England, Dann started his latest venture: Pretty Things Beer and Ale Project. Look for Pretty Things beers in your local bar or packie, and drink them. They are really good. I’m partial to the American-style saison, Jack d’Or (left). It’s distinctive and delicious, yet versatile enough for everyday use.
Downtown Wine & Spirits in Davis Square, Somerville, has fairly recently expanded the “spirits” part of its name with hard-to-find bourbons, liqueurs, rums, etc. It also has the best combination website/blog of any liquor store in greater Boston. And they have regular tastings.
Scott opened the June Esquire, featuring the annual Best American Bars list, and asked me, “Which Boston bar do you think they picked?” “Drink,” I said. No brainer. (There’s also an RIP sidebar that bids farewell to the B-Side.) Speaking of Drink, on a recent visit I tried Josey Packard‘s homage to the Marconi Wireless, the WiFi: Bonded Laird’s Applejack, Lillet Blanc, Drambuie. Strong, complex, stunning.
Todd Maul has rather quietly been insinuating craft cocktails into the Boston fine-dining scene. He recently moved from Rialto in Cambridge to Clio in Boston, where he has livened up a cocktail menu based largely on vodka and sake infusions with classically inspired mixtures using gin, tequila, whiskey and rum. As you can see from the pic, he also makes a helluva Ramos Gin Fizz. Go check this guy out.
Finally, an observation and a question: remember when people who patronized bars and restaurants were called “customers?” In the last few years, in some establishments anyway, they have become “guests.” What’s the origin of the switch? I suppose it’s nicer to be considered a guest than merely one end of a cash deal, even though being someone’s guest has traditionally implied that you enjoy their hospitality without having to pay for it.
Tags: Pretty Things Beer & Ale, Todd Maul, WiFi cocktail
Posted in Beer, Boston bars, Drinking supplies, Nips | 10 Comments »
"Lauren Clark takes readers on a supremely sudsy tour of New England ales, lagers, pilsners, and porters. This is the New England the Puritans warned everybody about, but few have chronicled."
– Wayne Curtis, And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in 10 Cocktails
Drink sites
For club kids
Friends
Trader Vic’s Bartender’s Guide (1948 edition)
1/2 oz brandy
1/4 oz Jamaica rum
4 oz Madeira
4 oz shaved ice
1 egg yolk
3/4 tsp powdered sugar
1 cup milk
Beat egg and sugar together. Add remaining ingredients except milk; shake, and strain into a large bar glass. Top with milk, stir, and dust with nutmeg.