December 4th, 2006
The Frisco – a golden gateway
Are you whiskey-curious? Want to experiment with the amber liquor but aren’t ready to bear the full brunt of its kick? Try a Frisco: 1 1/2 oz rye, 3/4 oz Benedictine and 3/4 oz lemon juice shaken over ice and strained into a stemmed glass. Its prominent citrus and herbal flavors tame the rye into submission, making the Frisco the perfect drink for preliminary explorations. Indeed, this golden cocktail was my first love, a tasty gateway to subsequent adventures with Manhattans, Red Hooks, and Sazeracs. I still love the Frisco and regularly recommend it to all whiskey-curious people I meet. Since the drink has long been on the B-Side Lounge’s comprehensive cocktail menu, and since many bartenders in Boston and Cambridge have completed a stint there at some point in their careers, finding this drink in a local bar isn’t as far-fetched as you’d think.
Note: As is the case with many cocktails, the recipe above (which is the one B-Side uses) is one of many that list varying proportions of rye, lemon juice and Benedictine. Early recipes appear to have only called for a lemon twist. In any case, the recipe here is damn tasty and probably the most user-friendly for the beginner.
January 20th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
friscos are great…..and they inspired me long ago to explore those herbaceous flavors….
carribean specialties are the coolest thing in cocktails and a great one is Jamaica’s “pimento dram” which is an allspice liqueur…. importation has stopped but its not hard enough to make….
its frisco style classics includes the “lion’s tale” and the “none but the brave”
none sold well but all that tried it loved it…. so i re ethnitized it and came up with the “coer d’ obscurite” (heart of darkness) seems to be more francophiles than rastas around boston….
jamaican rum or rye whiskey….or both so they can fight it out….
then a sour made from the pimento dram and balanced with lemon juice….
the chefs i work with keep drinking too much of my pimento dram but a new batch is expected at restaurant Dante soon….. cheers….