April 10th, 2007
My friend Al Capone, proprietor of Capone Foods in Somerville (and the soon-to-open Capone Foods Cambridge on north Mass Ave.), is known to begin a night out with the classic aperitivo Punt e Mes and soda. Punt e Mes is an Italian vermouth called a “quinquina” because quinine, a bitter bark, is said to be among the many botanicals providing the wine’s color and flavor. At first sip, it has the rich, mellow sweetness you get with standard Italian vermouth, but then it reveals its own distinctive layers of flavor, finishing with that medicinal kick.
“Its name (‘point and a half’) in the dialect of Turin, came from the day when an absent-minded stock exchange agent called out the trading floor term in old man Antonio Carpano’s bar, asking for a vermouth with a half-dose of bitters,” according to drinkshop.com. That day was in the late 1800s, so needless to say the recipe caught on.
Now, in the early 21st century, with more and more people on the hunt for “forgotton” spirits, a lot more Boston bars are carrying Punt e Mes and other aperitifs like Lillet (Blanc and Rouge) and Dubonnet. Recently, I urged Al to switch up his usual Punt e Mes and soda, just once, for an Italian Greyhound: half fresh grapefruit juice and half Punt e Mes on the rocks in an Old Fashioned glass with a salted rim. (A standard Greyhound is vodka and grapefruit.) Wow, talk about layers of flavor — and in a drink that doesn’t bonk you over the head with alcoholic strength. No. 9 Park introduced me to this heavenly cocktail, but I have to credit Scott Holliday, the former bar manager of Chez Henri, with first making me aware of the Punt e Mes and grapefruit combo (minus the salt). I have to admit that I tried making it at home once with Tropicana Grapefruit Juice, but it just didn’t work. You gotta go with the fresh fruit.
Oh, and check out the groovy Punt e Mes website. It’s mostly in Italian, but its tagline, written in a “Laugh In” font, says that “Punt e Mes is back,” and each page sports its own funky-lounge music clip and the mashup phrase “L’Appuntamento Yes.”
Permalink | 5 Comments | Filed under Cocktails, Vermouth |
April 6th, 2007
“You hard boil your Easter eggs. We separate and shake ours.” — Misty Kalkofen
Freaked out by cocktails with egg in them? Don’t know the difference between a fizz and a flip? Go to Green Street (280 Green St., Cambridge) on Easter night to confront your fears and educate yourself. Armed with a Boston shaker and several dozen raw eggs, bar manager Misty Kalkofen will offer up classics like the Clover Club, plus modern takes like the Pegu Club’s Earl Grey Mar-tea-ni and Alconomics cocktail guru Angus Winchester‘s Peanut Malt Flip (scotch, peanut butter, and egg yolk). Yeah, Misty thought that one sounded disgusting, too, until she tried one and discovered it was delish.
For those who just can’t make the egg trip, there’ll be other, uh, Christian-themed, cocktails like the Cloister, the Saint Augustine and the Rusty Nail. “There might even be a special guest or two helping us shake things up,” says Misty.
Bar’s open from 5:30 to 1:00. If you think you’ll be popping in to say hello, send Misty an email at “barmaven at gmail dot com” so she’ll be sure to have enough eggs on hand. And, she adds, “bring your patience! It takes a little extra time to make a good egg drink, but it’s definitely worth the wait.”
Permalink | 7 Comments | Filed under Boston bars, Cocktails |
April 2nd, 2007
Made it to the great Somerville pub Tir na nOg Saturday before the place vacates its 366A Somerville Ave. location. Had a couple pints of Guinness, took a good look around and generally soaked up the vibe that I’ve enjoyed over the past 10 years. The nOg has been like a second (or even first) living room for many inhabitants of the Union Square neighborhood. I couldn’t be too sad, though. Owner Robert Elliott is opening up a new nOg in another location in Union Square, reportedly this summer. It can be scary when a beloved neighborhood watering hole changes so drastically, but I’m going to trust in Robert and the rest of the nOg staff to pick up exactly where they left off on March 31st…
Permalink | 1 Comment | Filed under Boston bars |
March 30th, 2007
Bartender profile
Brother Cleve will probably be the only bartender profiled on this site who doesn’t actually work in a bar. File him under Influences. Not to get all hyperbolic, but the contemporary Boston cocktail scene as we know it wouldn’t exist without him. Dylan Black and Misty Kalkofen of Green Street, Patrick Sullivan of the B-Side Lounge, Jackson Cannon of Eastern Standard, John Byrd of the Alchemist, John Gertsen of No. 9 Park and a fair number of other Boston bartenders with a keen grasp of old-school mixology were directly or indirectly influenced by Cleve.
Actually, most people know this guy as a keyboardist, DJ, composer and pioneer of the international lounge scene. Unlike a lot of us, Cleve didn’t suddenly “discover” lounge music in the ’90s. He played the genre in the late 1960s, “when it was still current,” as a teenage keyboardist who sat in with lounge acts around Boston. Later, as a member of Combustible Edison, he toured the country seeking and preaching the Classic Cocktail and living life according to the First Manifesto of the Cocktail Nation, penned by Combustible Edison frontman The Millionaire:
We, the Citizens of the Cocktail Nation, do hereby declare our independence from the dessicated horde of mummified uniformity — our freedom from an existence of abject swinglessness. We pledge to revolt against the void of dictated sobriety and to cultivate not riches but richness, swankness, suaveness and strangeness, with pleasure and boldness for all.
BE FABULOUS.
Hometown
Born and raised in West Medford, currently residing in Dorchester
Past bartending jobs
First bartending I did was when I worked for the Mob … er, well it was a catering company that did a lot of Mob functions, so you always had to make sure you didn’t screw up any drink orders. Sadly, they were not all drinking Godfathers or Godmothers. Lotta scotch on the rocks and that type of thing. This was in the ’70s. I first got interested in classic cocktails in the mid-’80s; I was on tour with a band called the Del Fuegos, and we were in this diner in Cleveland where the menu had a cocktail list with Sidecars, Grasshoppers, Ward Eights, etc. on it. I was fascinated and immediately went out and bought an Old Mr. Boston drink book. A few years later a friend asked if I’d be interested in bartending at his restaurant, the Hoodoo BBQ in Kenmore Sq. I was, and the first thing I did was put classic cocktails on the menu. This was around ’88. Nobody bought them; instead everyone was drinking Woo Woos and Sex On The Beach. I hate peach schnapps. But within a few years there was a new band on the scene — Combustible Edison — who were leading the charge for a cocktail renaissance, calling their fans the Cocktail Nation and selling their own drink recipe books at their shows. They were the most fabulous act I had ever seen. When their first album was about to come out and their keyboard player couldn’t go on tour, they called me and offered me the spot. We spent the ’90s spearheading the cocktail movement in a fury of sound and liquid — we even had a Campari sponsorship. It was during those years that I met Patrick Sullivan, who got interested in the classics and later opened the B-Side Lounge. I designed the first menus there with him and also bartended there for the first few years it was open. I also created cocktail menus for the Lizard Lounge, Bill’s Bar, Pho Republique, Lilli’s, and the late great Lava Bar in Kenmore Sq.
First drink you ever had
My grandmother used to let me have sips of her Manhattans when I was a tot. It’s still one of my favorite drinks.
The drink you most like to make
My current fave at home is one I call the Maharajah’s Revenge: Old Monk rum from India, apricot brandy, and lime juice.
The best thing about drinking in Boston is…
There are some incredible bartenders in this town who know the classics but aren’t afraid to make some new concoctions, ones that aren’t “shots” or comprised of “flavored vodkas,” which are children’s drinks as far as I’m concerned.
The worst thing about drinking in Boston is…
There are still way too many toy bartenders, there’s still too much toy vodka on the shelves, and too many 1:00 a.m. closings.
Your favorite “cocktail music”
Bossa nova — old and new
Your favorite bar(s) in Boston for music
I always hear great music at Pho Republique and Om in Harvard Sq.
In Boston bars, you hear too much _____
Rock and Top 40
In Boston bars, you don’t hear enough ______
I really wish someplace played the kind of nujazz/soul/latin/hip hop/global beat sounds that you hear a lot in European and Asian lounges. It’s something that has never really caught on in America, with a few exceptions in places like San Francisco, LA, DC.
Permalink | 8 Comments | Filed under Bartenders |
March 27th, 2007
If you’re curious about absinthe, aka the “green fairy,” check out the Virtual Absinthe Museum. You could lose an afternoon there as easily as if you were actually drinking the stuff.
“It’s the fruit of many years’ research and is the largest and most authoritative site on the internet devoted to the history and lore of absinthe,” says David Nathan-Maister, who publishes the site and runs Oxygénée Ltd., a U.K.-based business devoted to all things absinthe, including both new and vintage bottles of the storied herbal spirit. The company takes its name from a poster advertising Cusenier’s Absinthe Oxygénée, “one of the greatest brands of the era” — the “era” being the time before absinthe was banned in 1915. The ban (which has been lifted in Europe but not the U.S.) and lots of other fun facts are covered in the site’s Absinthe FAQ. And you can buy nice, Art Nouveau posters there, too.
Permalink | 3 Comments | Filed under Absinthe, Books & resources, Liqueur |
