Posts Tagged ‘Evan Harrison’
March 17th, 2010
As we witnessed Sunday night, all that Boston imbibers need to lure them out of the house when it’s raining sideways is the promise of a well-made cocktail and a good party. I applaud our hardiness — not to mention the emerging bar talent that made the evening possible.
Green Street, the venue and co-host for Boston Bartenders on the Rise, made the savvy decision of removing all the tables and chairs from the dining room to accommodate the sell-out crowd. We were warmly welcomed with a beer cocktail by Green Street proprietor Dylan Black called De Stella Nova: Pretty Things Jack D’Or Belgian-style farmhouse ale, 2 dashes of orange bitters and a candied citrus star flavored with coriander.
We then moved on to the four original cocktails created for the occasion by our featured talent (recipes and creators listed below in serving order). I circled the place again and again to say hello to everyone while sneaking the occasional fried oyster, chicken rillette, grilled shrimp on a skewer, or juicy slider (thank you for the lovely apps, chef Greg Reeves!).
Many, many thanks to those who traveled both near and far to join in on some drinkboston-style fun. Thanks also to Sean Frederick for the photos and the entire smooth-operating Green Street staff. Let’s do it again soon!
Loose Translation
Carrie Cole, Craigie on Main
1 1/4 oz Scorpion mezcal
3/4 oz Aperol
1/2 oz Mathilde XO orange cognac
1/2 oz pineapple syrup
1/2 oz lime juice
Pinch kosher salt
Dash Allspice Dram
Quick shake over ice, pour entire contents into a highball glass, and top with a splash of ginger ale. Drinkboston: We need something fruity on the menu. Carrie: I’m thinking of using mezcal. Result: a loose, tiki-inspired translation.
Peralta
Evan Harrison, Deep Ellum
1 1/2 oz Old Overholt rye
1/2 oz Cynar
1/2 oz green Chartreuse
1/2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
Dash grapefruit bitters, Deep Ellum orange bitters
Shake over ice and serve straight up with grapefruit peel garnish. Inspired by skateboarding legend Stacy Peralta.
Saving Daylight
Bob McCoy, Eastern Standard
2 oz Plymouth gin
1 oz McCoy’s homemade golden vermouth
1/4 oz St. Germain
1/8 oz Cointreau
Dash McCoy’s aromatic bitters
Stir over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with orange peel. Sip as winter turns to spring.
William of Orange
Emily Stanley, Green Street
1 1/2 oz Bols genever
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Punt E Mes
1/2 oz Aperol
Dash orange bitters
Stir over ice and serve down (i.e. strain into a rocks glass). Named for the English king who ushered in the era when Dutch genever became English gin.
Tags: Bob McCoy, Carrie Cole, Dylan Black, Emily Stanley, Evan Harrison, Green Street, mixology
Posted in Bartenders, Beer, Boston bars, Cocktails, Events, Gin, Whiskey | 4 Comments »
March 1st, 2010
Join drinkboston and four of the Boston bar scene’s rising talents at a cocktail party at Green Street on Sunday, March 14. Boston Bartenders on the Rise will showcase some of the men and women around town who are making a name for themselves with a combination of drink-mixing prowess, hospitality and character.
Each bartender will mix a favorite cocktail and spend some time mingling with the crowd, talking cocktails, spirits, bartending and matters of similar importance. Bios and recipes below. Call Green Street today to make your reservation. Here’s the lowdown:
- Green Street, Sunday, March 14, 7:00 p.m.
- Four cocktails, plus a special welcome punch
- Passed appetizers
- Tickets: $40
- Reservations strongly suggested. Call 617-876-1655.
Carrie Cole of Craigie on Main started working in Boston restaurants when she moved to the Hub from Portland, Oregon, to attend Boston University. She started as a bartender, moved to cooking, became a pastry chef, then returned to the bar. After a stint at Sibling Rivalry, she was scooped up by Craigie on Main, where she is now senior bartender. Her cocktail is the Loose Translation: Scorpion Mezcal, Aperol, Mathilde XO Orange Cognac, pineapple syrup, lime juice, Allspice Dram and Angostura orange bitters. Rocks, splash of ginger.
Evan Harrison of Deep Ellum hails from Sherman, Texas. While studying literature and philosophy at UMASS, he began learning classic cocktails and craft beer as principle bartender at the Independent in Somerville. Late last year, he crossed the river to join the staff at the cocktail/beer bar Deep Ellum in Allston. His cocktail is the Peralta: Old Overholt Rye, Cynar, green Chartreuse, fresh grapefruit juice. Straight up.
Bob McCoy of Eastern Standard grew up in Middleton and started cooking in his uncle’s Malden restaurant when he was in high school. In college, he spent summers tending bar on Block Island, then moved to the Wild Horse Cafe in Beverly. After six years there, Bob was “looking for another opportunity, one that would take my profession to another level, and found it at Eastern Standard.” His cocktail is the Saving Daylight: Plymouth Gin, homemade “golden” vermouth, St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur, Cointreau and homemade bitters. Straight up.
Emily Stanley of Green Street entered the industry as soon as she turned 18 and left her hometown of Westford to study briefly at Suffolk University. She worked at Fire and Ice, Bukowski Tavern in Cambridge, Deep Ellum and Trina’s Starlite Lounge before nabbing her current position as bar manager of Green Street. Along the way, she went to school for esthetics and to be a personal trainer. Her cocktail is the William of Orange: Bols Genever, Benedictine, Punt E Mes, Aperol, orange bitters. Straight up, orange oil.
Appetizers include tuna tartare on tostones, Swedish meatballs and house-made charcuterie among other delights. This is gonna be fun. I’ll publish the full recipes after the event. Hope to see you there!
Tags: Bob McCoy, Carrie Cole, Emily Stanley, Evan Harrison, Green Street
Posted in Bartenders, Cocktails, Events | 4 Comments »
February 18th, 2010
Put March 14 on your calendar, imbibers. Drinkboston and Green Street are teaming up for another event: Boston Bartenders on the Rise. The night will showcase four of the Hub’s emergent talents behind the bar, each of whom will serve a favorite cocktail:
- Carrie Cole of Craigie on Main
- Evan Harrison of Deep Ellum (recently of the Independent)
- Bob McCoy of Eastern Standard
- Emily Stanley of Green Street
While more familiar names in the Boston bar scene still command a lot of attention, the above individuals represent the up-and-coming generation of sharp personalities who know how to mix a killer drink and take good care of their guests. More details on this event in a later post.
Speaking of events, you’ll never guess what I’m doing this Sunday, February 21: judging a vodka cocktail contest. The Cocktail World Cup is put on by 42 Below Vodka and the U.S. Bartenders Guild and takes place at Bond, in the Langham Hotel, starting at 8:00 p.m. Bartenders in Boston and several other American cities are competing to go on to the national competition in New York on March 7. Three national finalists will then move on to the international competition in New Zealand, where they are expected to mix cocktails while bungee jumping and riding in speedboats. I’m not kidding. Hey, if a Boston barkeep gets to fly across the world for that kind of adventure, I’m happy to play a part.
Tags: 42 Below Vodka, Bob McCoy, Bond, Carrie Cole, Emily Stanley, Evan Harrison, next-generation bartenders
Posted in Bartenders, Events, Vodka | 5 Comments »
May 1st, 2009
Evan Harrison (invented at the Independent)
2 parts Old Overholt rye
1 part Punt e Mes
1 part Strega
1 dash each Angostura bitters and Regan’s orange bitters
Stir over ice until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
Tags: Evan Harrison, Independent
Posted in Cocktails, Liqueur, Recipes, Vermouth, Whiskey | No Comments »
January 31st, 2009
Something about the Boston bar scene really hit home for me recently: there’s a bunch of cute, young guys in this town creating spectacular drinks. Evan Harrison’s Nonantum, Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli’s Northern Lights and Casey Keenan’s Bohannon, to name a few. I’m besotted.
Take Harrison of the Independent — only a year or two out of college, and already he’s figured out how to use the herbal, day-glo-yellow Italian liqueur Strega (a.k.a. “witch”) in a cocktail. Check this out:
Nonantum
2 parts Old Overholt rye
1 part Punt e Mes
1 part Strega
1 dash each Angostura bitters and Regan’s orange bitters
Stir over ice until very cold and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
“It’s a pretty clear take off of the Green Point cocktail, just substituting Strega and bitters for the Yellow Chartreuse,” Harrison says.
“I came up with this in an attempt to find something to do with Strega apart from dust the bottle and answer questions about it. Strega is a cool little spirit with a cool history, but it’s too sweet to shoot or even sip on its own, and I’ve never seen it called for in any recipe. Surprisingly, it draws out the bitter orange flavors in the Punt e Mes while letting the rye do its work. And also to Strega’s credit, it gives the drink a cool, thick viscosity that kind of lingers in your mouth.”
Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. The upshot is that this drink is worthy of distinction among its many rye-liqueur-vermouth brethren, including Drink’s Fort Point.
OK, but the Nonantum? “The name comes from that village in Newton, where I was once stranded after a bizarre Catholic festival. I mistook the name for being Latin and thought it had something to do with their odd form of civic organization. I was wrong, but I still like the name.” As Harrison later learned, Nonantum is in fact a Native American word meaning, appropriately, “rejoicing.”
Schlesinger-Guidelli has barely cracked the quarter-century mark, but he already has some stellar cocktails to his name, notably the Jaguar and the new Northern Lights. The NL is one of those drinks where each layer of flavor shines on its own but contributes to a greater whole, like dance sequences in a great MGM musical.
The story behind the drink? “I took a week off between starting at Craigie and ending at Eastern Standard. I went down to Westport, MA, to work on the upcoming venture. One night of mixing with some of my best friends, this drink just came together. The late-night mixing and watching the stars, in cold New England … it reminded me of the vibrant Northern Lights.”
Northern Lights
1 ½ oz William Grant & Sons Scotch
¾ oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur
½ oz. Fresh lemon juice
¼ oz. Clear Creek Douglas Fir Eau De Vie
¼ oz. Fresh orange juice
¼ oz. Demerara syrup (1:1 demerara sugar and water)
2 dashes Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters
Shake very well over ice, strain into a cocktail glass, and garnish with a lemon twist. Notes: Find demerara sugar (or sugar in the raw) at specialty stores like Christina’s in Inman Square. Also, S-G is pretty insistent on the brand of scotch: “I think the honeyed nature of Grant & Sons is really beautiful here.”
I admit I have yet to try Casey Keenan’s Bohannon, but it came to my attention via a trusted source. When he’s not playing drums for the Major Stars, Pants Yell! and other outfits, Keenan can be found at Deep Ellum. Recently, he took the Swedish Punsch that Ellum bar czar Max Toste made and created a cocktail with it that enamored Imbibe magazine enough to appear in the January/February issue. If you know Keenan and his love for 1960s and ’70s music, you’ll be amused but not surprised by the fact that he named the drink after disco producer Hamilton Bohannon.
Bohannon
2 oz gin
½ oz Green Chartreuse
½ oz Swedish Punsch
Pinch of fresh black pepper
Shake very well over cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with black pepper.
Tags: Boston cocktails, Casey Keenan, Evan Harrison, Tom Schlesinger-Guidelli
Posted in Bartenders, Cocktails, Liqueur, Whiskey | 8 Comments »
