Author Archive
October 17th, 2006
There are a million old cocktail recipes out there. Sometimes, you’ll stumble upon one that’s really intriguing, as I did recently with the Marconi Wireless. It’s not only tasty, it’s got all sorts of cool historical and cultural connections.
I was flipping through a 1957 paperback that my significant other, Scott, picked up at a flea market recently: The Art of Mixing Drinks (“Based on the famous Esquire Drink Book” exclaims the book’s cover). I was looking for a recipe using applejack; luckily the book has an entire section on applejack cocktails. The Marconi Wireless caught my eye: 2/3 applejack, 1/3 Italian vermouth, 2 dashes orange bitters. ‘Hmm, I bet that’s good. And it’s so simple!’ I thought. Sure enough, it was a snappy, satisfying drink, and we had to find out more about it.
Part of our excitement about the Marconi Wireless had to do with the fact that we visit Wellfleet, Cape Cod frequently and always pass Marconi Beach, the stretch of sand where Guglielmo Marconi transmitted the first transatlantic wireless message from the U.S. in 1903. Cocktails, Wellfleet, historic events — that combination jazzed us. We thought, ‘Man, every bar in Wellfleet should be serving Marconi Wirelesses!’
With a little digging, we found a 1992 New York Times article that William Grimes wrote on historic New York City hotel bars. It turns out that the Marconi Wireless was among several potions invented at the Waldorf-Astoria, and it is listed in the Old Waldorf-Astoria Bar Book. When was the cocktail invented? Perhaps when Marconi was feted by the American Institute of Electrical Engineers at the Waldorf in 1902 for his role in pioneering radio communication. Or maybe later, in 1912, when Marconi gave testimony at the Senate hearings at the Waldorf on the Titanic disaster. One of the things he was questioned about was how Marconi Company wireless operators who survived the wreck came to receive payment from the New York Times for their stories. In 1902, the cocktail would be an homage. In 1912, a jeer. Thoughts, anyone?
Fun sidebar: our research also led us to the term “cocktail party effect.” The term emerged in the early days of air traffic control, when the difficulty of discerning the intermixed voices of pilots over one loudspeaker was compared to that of zeroing in on one conversation amid the loud chatter of a cocktail party.
Posted in Applejack, Cocktails | 2 Comments »
October 7th, 2006
I love gin, especially Bombay Sapphire gin, especially when it’s free. That’s why I decided to don my club clothes and go to the Bombay Sapphire “Perfect Pairings” night at District this week. The event, co-sponsored by GQ magazine, involved an Iron Chef-style cookoff between chefs Andy Husbands (Tremont 647, Sister Sorrell) and Marc Orfaly (Pigalle, Marco). Teaming up with the two chefs were two bartenders — Candace Smith of Excelsior was paired with Husbands, while Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard was paired with Orfaly — who concocted Bombay Sapphire-based cocktails to accompany each dish. The chefs had a weird array of ingredients to work with, including cucumbers, steamed clams, Frosted Flakes and Minute Rice, and 20 minutes to whip up three dishes. Truth be told, the dishes smelled wonderful, and the cocktails Jackson and Candace mixed looked cool and mouthwatering. If only I could have been the judge!
Instead, I stood amid the crowd, sampling little phyllo-and-goat cheese thingies and drinking “Inspired Cocktails” that were being liberally distributed by attractive waitresses in short, strapless dresses the color of the Sapphire gin bottle. The girls were nice, but the drinks were warm. Was there an ice shortage? The bartender who made my first drink, a Martini, stirred the mixture over about five cubes for 10 seconds. The temperature of the resulting cocktail was perfect … if I had been drinking red wine. I also tried a Strawberry Basil cocktail. The flavors were nice, but again, the drink was tepid. Bombay’s official mixologist, Jamie Walker, was there. But he didn’t seem horrified by District’s lackadaisical production of his creations as, say, chefs Husbands and Orfaly would be if their dishes languished under a heat lamp before being served.
Look, I’m not an idiot. I understand the persuasive powers of plentiful free booze. And Bombay certainly doesn’t need to convince me to drink their gin. I already do. It’s really good stuff. But if they’re going to promote their brand of gin as a worthy complement to top-notch cuisine, shouldn’t they bother to show their potential customers the beauty of a properly made cocktail?
Posted in Boston bars, Cocktails, Events, Gin | No Comments »
October 3rd, 2006
Drinkboston is brimming with pride over a local brewery’s triumph. The Cambridge Brewing Co. (1 Kendall Square, Cambridge) recently won its latest medal — a gold — at the Great American Beer Festival in the Herb and Spice Beer category for its Scottish heather ale, The Wind Cried Mari. This rendition of an ancient ale is brewed with heather — you know, that pretty purple grasslike flower you see growing on the side of the highway sometimes — grown locally, in Westport, MA. The Herb and Spice Beer category was one of the most crowded at the GABF, with 64 entries. The Cambridge Brewing Co. has also won GABF medals for its Charles River Porter, Tripel Threat Belgian-style tripel, Benevolence specialty strong ale, and Blunderbuss Barleywine. It just so happens that drinkboston’s creator once worked as a brewer at the CBC. (Alas, no medals were won during the time I worked as assistant to head brewer Will Meyers.) Clearly, then, this post is biased, you say. Nuh uh. If my own mother was the head brewer there, and she made mediocre beer, I wouldn’t give the place the time of day. Of course, you shouldn’t take my word for it. Go there and taste Will’s beer for yourself. The next CBC Brewer’s Dinner, featuring the heather ale, is November 11.
Posted in Beer, Boston bars | No Comments »
September 28th, 2006
Established: 1998
Specialty: Cocktails, wine, beer
Prices: High
Atmosphere: The small, low-ceilinged bar area is lively in a low-key, sophisticated way. The decor is sleek and subtle to a fault, but the lighting is warm and the drinks, food and service are so good that your surroundings fade into the background.
See Best Boston bars for address and contact info.
Chef-owner Barbara Lynch deservedly gets a lot of accolades for her food (she’s consistently rated among the Northeast’s top chefs) and her business acumen (her No. 9 Group now includes two other successful restaurants, B&G Oysters and the Butcher Block, plus catering and produce outfits). But no one has trumpeted the way Lynch advanced mixology in this town by staffing No. 9 with bartenders who are as serious about cocktails as she is about food. Until now, that is.
It seems that a lot of chef-restaurateurs try to foodie-up their drink menus to match a style of cuisine. “Hey, I’m doing pan-Asian food, so I’m going to have my bartenders mix cocktails with lemongrass and ginger.” This practice tends to involve a lot of drinks made with vodka, which serves as a blank canvas for trendy flavorings. Instead, Lynch hires talented people and lets them do their thing. The bartenders are well versed in the wide world of classic cocktail ingredients — spirits, liqueurs, bitters and vermouths, plus egg whites, juices, syrups and other mixers — and they know how to combine them to create a drink that can stand on its own and complement your Gorgonzola Fondue.
Other perks of No. 9: you always get a taste of wine before you commit to buying a whole glass, and there are some fine items on the beer list, like Boon Gueuze from Belgium, Trois Pistoles from Quebec and Schneider Weisse hefe-weizen from Germany. The service is attentive but not overbearing, and the bartenders know the trick of creating a sense of community at the bar without intruding on any party’s privacy. The drawbacks of No. 9? You will drop some pretty serious cash here, but what did you expect for this level of quality? Cocktails range from $9-$12, wines by the glass from $7-$16, and beers from $4-$10. So, for a couple of cocktails, an entrée from the bar menu ($17-$24), and a glass of wine with your dinner, plus a 20-percent tip, expect to spend around $70. The other drawback? The bar has only a dozen seats. Find something to celebrate on a Tuesday night and get there early.
Posted in Boston bars | 1 Comment »
September 25th, 2006
I ordered Mai Tais at two different places this week: first at Eastern Standard (Kenmore Sq.), then at Peking Tom’s (Chauncy St. near Downtown Crossing). A Mai Tai would be just another sweet rum punch if not for two mysterious ingredients: Orgeat and falernum. What and what? you ask. Read on.
The milky-colored orgeat (pronounced OR-zha) is a “generic syrup of almonds, orange flower water and sometimes barley water often used in tropical and other cocktails,” according to the Cocktail Database. You may have seen orgeat at one of those coffee houses where they mix flavored syrups with soda water. The database describes falernum as a non- or lightly alcoholic sugar syrup with a “subtle sweet/tart/spicy character” and “used almost exclusively in rum-based tropical drinks.” These ingredients elevate the Mai Tai — otherwise made of light and dark rum, lime juice, orange curacao and grenadine — from a drink for girly-girls to a drink you’d buy for the Girl from Ipanema.
Both bars serve the Sweet Tart-pink cocktail on ice in the traditional double rocks glass. The Peking Tom’s Mai Tai ($7) was yummy, but Eastern Standard’s ($10) was better. I suspect that the former omits the falernum, as that ingredient is hard to find and usually must be mail-ordered. Eastern Standard mail-orders several hard-to-find ingredients, like orange bitters. Its Mai Tai wasn’t as sweet as Peking Tom’s, but it had more going on, including a candy note that reminded me of Smarties.
Posted in Boston bars, Cocktails, Rum | No Comments »
