November 20th, 2009
Polish your cowboy boots and dust off your bolo ties! Drinkboston, the Independent and Brother Cleve are throwing a big ol’ hillbilly hoochfest on Monday, November 30 at 8:00 p.m. — Barstool Mountain Monday: Country Drinking Songs and Country Drinks. What says “only 25 shopping days ’til Christmas” more than bourbon, Lone Star beer, Georgia Mint Juleps, and “I’m Gonna Hire a Wino to Decorate Our Home?”
Cleve will spin highlights from his vast collection of country drinking songs and “hillbilly noir,” while Evan Harrison — on his last night at the Indo, folks! — doles out the Lone Star, the bourbon and the cocktails. Drink specials ($8 each) include:
- Country Gentleman Cocktail: apple brandy, orange curacao, lemon, sugar. Served up.
- Georgia Mint Julep: fine whiskey, fresh mint (not muddled) and powdered sugar. Served over crushed ice.
- Mississippi Mule: gin, creme de cassis, lemon. Served up.
- Tennessee: Tennessee whiskey, lemon, maraschino liqueur, cherry. Served up.
If you’re ready for solids again after Thanksgiving, there’ll be some pork rinds and shell peanuts to snack on. This is (obviously!) a casual party, so no reservations or tickets required. The party goes ’til closing time or ’til you get tossed out by the belt loops of your Wranglers. See y’all there!
Permalink | 3 Comments | Filed under Cocktails, Events | Tags: country drinking songs, country drinks, hillbilly noir
November 14th, 2009
Finally, last night, I met Seattle legend and internationally renowned bartender Murray Stenson. What a treat. As I’ve said here before, I’m one of many people nationwide who have encountered Murray’s hospitality from afar, by way of a surprise, complimentary drink delivered by a mutual bartending acquaintance. (I first heard about Murray from one of our city’s best bartenders, Scott Holliday, and was flattered to learn that Murray has been a drinkboston reader from early on.)
Acting as ambassador of the Murray Stenson Fan Club, New England Chapter, I presented him with a book on the history of Boston signed by several of our city’s bartenders — most of whom, like me, have only admired him from afar — plus a bottle of Chartreuse milk punch from the staff at Drink. Murray opened the punch right then and there and poured several shots for patrons at the bar. Then he mixed a few rounds of strong, elegant drinks — doling out some rare treats like the above — for me and my companions, West Coast drink writers Paul Clarke and Charles Munat. I’ll tell you more about Murray and my Seattle bar-hop in a later post.
» Save the date for drinkboston’s next event: Barstool Mountain Monday: Country Drinking Songs and Country Drinks, November 30 at the Independent in Union Square, Somerville. Think southern-style cocktails, shots of bourbon and Lone Star beer flowing to a soundtrack of classic country drinking songs spun by Brother “Taco Brim” Cleve. There’ll be well-known faves like “What’s Made Milwaukee Famous (Made a Loser Out of Me),” but also lesser-known gems like “Four on the Floor (and a Fifth Under the Seat),” and “She’s Acting Single (I’m Drinking Doubles).” More details to come soon.
» Also this month, swing by the bar at Clio between the 16th and 22nd, when bartender/mixologist Todd Maul celebrates the birthdays of David Embury and William “Cocktail” Boothby. Embury, born in 1886, is the author of the biblical Fine Art of Mixing Drinks. Boothby, born in 1862, was perhaps the best-known bartender just before Prohibition. He plied his trade most notably at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco and authored World’s Drinks And How To Mix Them and The American Bartender.
“We will be serving the Boothby Cocktail, the Casino and two creations from the Clio bartenders. For 10 bucks you get a drink and some rock shrimp,” says Todd, who provided the recipe for his homage to Embury and Boothby below.
Todd Cocktail
2 oz Rittenhouse 100 rye whiskey
1 oz Aperol
1 oz Dolin sweet vermouth
Dash Angostura bitters
Stir over ice, serve straight up.
Permalink | 3 Comments | Filed under Bartenders, Cocktails, Events, Nips, Seattle | Tags: Clio, drinking songs, Murray Stenson, Todd Maul, ZigZag Cafe
November 9th, 2009
Bankers, you know what I’m talking about: the bottom line is that Fernet Night at the Franklin Southie last Thursday was a good time. As I made my way through the crowd handing out Fernet Branca swag — shirts, aprons, posters — I clinked glasses with a mix of old acquaintances and drinkbostonians I’d never met before, sprinkled with a few bar industry folk. Joy Richard and Peter Cipriani kept the six Fernet cocktails on the evening’s menu coming, along with shots in iced ponies that Joy spent days painstakingly freezing.
This was the first of several upcoming “industry” nights at the Franklin Southie. Generally, the second Thursday of every month will feature drinks with a certain ingredient. Coming up — St. Germain and Chartreuse. See the Franklin’s calendar or connect with them on Facebook for updates.
You asked for recipes? You got ’em.
Work in Progress
Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli – Craigie on Main
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
1 oz Bols Genever
1 oz St. Germain
3 dashes orange bitters
Stir over ice, serve down, flamed orange peel.
Bonita Applebum
Emma Hollander – Trina’s Starlite Lounge
1 oz Applejack
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
3/4 oz Drambuie
Stir over ice, serve down, orange peel.
Jackson’s Night Cap
Jackson Cannon – Eastern Standard
1 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 oz yellow Chartreuse
1 oz Fernet Branca
Dash of chocolate mole bitters if you have them; whiskey barrel-aged work as well.
Stir over ice, strain into a chilled glass, garnish with lemon twist.
Casey Brown
Josey Packard – Drink
1 1/2 oz Sazerac Rye
1 oz green Chartreuse
1/2 oz Fernet Branca
Dash Angostura bitters
Stir over ice and strain into a chilled glass with a lemon twist.
Improved Toxic Moxie
Joy Richard – The Franklin
1 1/2 oz Rittenhouse Rye
3/4 oz Fernet Branca
3 dashes whiskey barrel-aged bitters
Build in a highball glass, fill with ice. Top with Moxie. Garnish with an orange peel.
Villa de Verano
Misty Kalkofen – Drink
2 1/4 oz El Tesoro Platinum tequila
3/4 oz Jarabe de Cacao Ahumado*
1/4 oz Fernet Branca
Stir over ice, serve straight up. Garnish with grated coffee bean.
*Jarabe de Cacao Ahumado
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup cocoa nibs
1/4 tsp Mexican smoked salt
Make a “tea” with the water, cinnamon, cocoa nibs and salt by bringing to a simmer over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in sugar. Allow to cool and strain.
Permalink | 9 Comments | Filed under Bitters, Cocktails | Tags: Fernet Branca, Franklin Southie
November 5th, 2009
I got to thinking about Massachusetts’ peculiar “cordial license” recently after sitting down with Courtney Bissonnette to get a sneak peak at her cocktail menu for Coppa. The latest venture by prolific chef Ken Oringer is set to open in the South End any minute now and amp up the Italian enoteca concept the way Toro has done with Spanish tapas. Bissonnette will helm the bar program at both establishments, in which her husband, chef Jamie Bissonnette, is a partner.
Unlike Toro, which has a full liquor license, Coppa has a beer and wine license with a permit to serve cordials and liqueurs. So Bissonnette, collaborating with head bartender Corey Bunnewith (recently of Drink), devised a list of cocktails based on, yes, liqueurs like St. Germain and Cherry Heering, but also vermouths and other aromatized wines, Italian bitters like Aperol and Campari, and a splash of Plymouth Sloe Gin and Pimms No. 1. It includes an Aperol Spritz (Aperol, prosecco, soda) and a Lenny e Joan (Plymouth Sloe Gin, dry vermouth, Cynar, lime, orange zest, sugar rim). Creative, tasty-looking stuff, and, as Boston magazine recently pointed out, Coppa isn’t the only place making cocktails within the confines of a cordial license.
Which brings us to the question: just what are the confines of such a license? Well … no one really knows. “It was never spelled out in writing,” said a long-time member of Boston’s liquor wholesale industry who wishes to remain anonymous. This source — I’ll call him Stan — says that the license came about because of Italian-American drinking customs. Specifically, North End restaurateurs, who typically had beer and wine licenses, were miffed about getting busted periodically for offering their clientele a customary after-dinner shot of Sambuca or Strega. So, in 1994, the cordials and liqueurs permit was born. Stan connects this development to the growing clout of Italian politicians around that time. While I haven’t done the research to verify that claim, it is intriguing that 1994 marked the beginning of both the cordial license and Tom Menino’s long (and, since Tuesday, getting longer) tenure in the mayor’s office.
Anyway, the thing about the cordial license is that “cordial” and “liqueur” have been liberally defined. Most people — including liquor industry folk, says Stan — first assumed that the license referred only to sugary spirits flavored with various fruits and botanicals. But over the years, outliers snuck in. Grappa? Pisco? Check. Applejack? Check. Flavored vodka? Check. So … if you’re a grape-based spirit, and you want to be served under a cordial license, say you’re from anywhere but France. If you’re applejack, don’t worry; only about three people in the city know what you really are (70% grain neutral spirit — woo hoo!). And if you’re vodka, just infuse yourself with kiwi or something to make yourself seem cute and harmless as a bunny, even though you’re sugarless and 80 proof.
It all adds up to one very grey area, where some spirits attract scrutiny and others don’t. Grappa is an example of the former, and therefore is typically served on the sly, according to Stan. It is actually up to the wholesale companies to decide what they are and aren’t allowed to sell to establishments with cordial licenses. And they all do so individually, says Stan, so there tends to be some variation in product listings. A restaurateur might be able to get, say, applejack through one wholesaler but not another.
While a full liquor license is almost always going to be the most desirable type of license, mixologists can get pretty creative with a cordial license. And, presumably, these licenses are cheaper and easier to get than full licenses, which are strictly capped and therefore so coveted that corruption regularly ensues. Liquor laws are weird in a sometimes cool way. I love that a special provision created to accommodate the customs of an influential ethnic group has spawned creative bars that are mixing interesting drinks with unusual ingredients. And it’s nice knowing that if I go to a place like Coppa and I’m not in the mood for a mixed drink, I can get a nice, civilized, 110-proof shot of green Chartreuse.
Permalink | 6 Comments | Filed under Applejack, Liqueur, Pisco, Vermouth | Tags: Coppa, cordials, liquor license, Massachusetts liquor laws
October 27th, 2009
The eagle has landed. Boston imbibers, you’re invited to a joint drinkboston – Franklin Southie production: Fernet Branca Industry Night.
What: A festive gathering for industry and non-industry folk alike who are curious or passionate about the pungent, dark and mysterious digestif Fernet Branca. A special drink menu will feature Fernet cocktails by bartenders around Boston.
When: Thursday, November 5, 8:00 p.m. – last call.
Where: The Franklin Southie, 152 Dorchester Ave., South Boston.
Who: On the stick — Joy Richard, bar manager and head mixologist for the Franklin Southie and the Franklin Café, and founding member of LUPEC Boston; and Peter Cipriani, longtime bartender on the Boston scene (you may also know him from Silvertone and Stella). Joy’s original Fernet cocktail recipe will be joined by recipes from:
- Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli – Craigie on Main
- Misty Kalkofen – Drink
- Josey Packard – Drink
- Jackson Cannon – Eastern Standard
- Emma Hollander – Trina’s Starlite Lounge
What else: Fernet cocktails $7. Fernet in ice shot glasses: $5. Fernet swag (get it while you can). No tickets or reservations required. Fernet, plus appetizer specials and the company of fellow Fernet fiends and curious cocktailians, are what it’s all about.
Remember to sign up for the drinkboston email list at drinkboston (at) comcast (dot) net to get announcements about upcoming events.
Permalink | 9 Comments | Filed under Bitters, Events | Tags: Fernet Branca, Franklin Southie, South Boston
