The Bon Vivant’s Companion

Candy Dominoes, delicious treats that won’t threaten your relationship with blue jeans.

I discovered these little guys in the toy section of Jonathan Wright and Company (my favorite stationery shop), and used them as decorations at an adult birthday party.  The nostalgic images are retro in a way that makes grown-ups want to play with them (and play with them), but sturdy enough for a two year old to smash (and smash).

As a game, match the bright, candy tiles end to end until a player wins.  As party decorations, sprinkle them all over the table to whimsical effect.

Can’t get to Jonathan Wright’s in LA?  You can find Eeboo Candy Dominoes at Amazon.com.

To keep the game interesting, play while sipping on a grown-up Root Beer Float.  This cocktail was inspired by the soda fountain feel of the dominoes, and is a great example of how a small design choice can influence the overall theme of an event.

Root Beer Float Cocktail
1 ½ oz Original Grey Goose Vodka
1 oz Root Beer Schnapps
¼ oz Bailey’s Irish Cream
¼ Crème de Cacao
Vanilla Ice Cream
Splash of Cream Soda

Put Vodka, Schnapps, and Root Beer Schnapps in a Boston Shaker over ice.  Shake until chilled. Pour entire contents into a tall glass.  Finish with a splash of cream soda, and a small scoop of vanilla ice cream.  (A cookie dough scoop, or melon baller creates the perfect sized scoop for this cocktail.) Add a straw and enjoy!

The Manhattan is a sexy supper club cocktail. I always imagine it being served in low-lit, wood paneled bars behind heavy, green velvet curtains. The kind of place where poets and debutants sip chilled cocktails straight up while a heartbreaking jazz singer croons on stage alone.

The Manhattan was created in the 1870’s at the request of Lady Randolph Churchill (Winston’s mom). Apparently, she needed a new libation for a very fancy shindig. As the legend goes, guests enjoyed it so much they took to ordering it around town by name dubbing it the Manhattan, in honor of the nightclub in which it was born.

Recently, I came across Hudson Manhattan Rye Whiskey. Produced by Tuthilltown Spirits, it’s specifically tailored for use in (surprise, surprise) a Manhattan cocktail. Hudson is the first whiskey (legally) distilled in New York’s Hudson Valley since prohibition. Their whiskey is pot-distilled in small batches (which means heat is applied directly to the still’s pot to warm the mash), and each beautifully rounded bottle is hand marked with a year, batch, and bottle number.

Thought a romantic cocktail, the Manhattan is a pretty stiff drink. Using Tuthilltowns’s warm and flavorful new Manhattan rye, I worked on a version for those who might be intimidated by a big glass of whiskey. Keeping my recipe as succinct as the original, I replaced the vermouth’s sweetness with St. Germaine’s Elderflower liqueur, matched the brightness of the whiskey with orange bitters, and garnished the finished cocktail with a maraschino cherry.  (Because some things are sacred.)

I call my version “The Manhattanite”.  A cocktail that resides on the Upper East Side, but buys all of its shoes in Paris.

Here’s the recipe:

The Manhattanite

2 oz American whiskey, such as Hudson Manhattan Rye

¼ oz Orange Bitters

1 oz St. Germaine Elderflower liqueur

Pour all the ingredients in a Boston shaker. Add ice, and shake until cold. Strain into a chilled martini glass, or pour entire contents of shaker into a rocks glass. Garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Punch was a THE drink in early America.

I’m not referring to the sherbet laden slushy stuff your great-aunt pours sprite and “sparkling wine” into.

Early American punch was serious business. Every tavern served it, and every barkeep had a special way of preparing it.  Punch was the “martini” of the 1860’s, a deceptively simple combination of spirits, juice, and ice.

Tavern owners (America’s first bartenders) tossed anything into their punches, but much like today, skillful blending separated boys from men.

The execution of a perfect punch was mixology in its earliest form.

Jerry Thomas, our blog’s muse and author of How to Mix Drinks: or The Bon Vivant’s Companion, opens his tome with recipes for punch and a statement that reads:

“…Thoroughly amalgamating all the compounds, so that the taste of neither the bitter, the sweet, the spirit, not the element, shall be perceptible one over the other, is the grand secret, only to be acquired by practice.

…. as scarcely two persons make punch alike.”

Mr. Thomas’ original Brandy Punch recipe calls for brandy, a dram of sugar, and wine glass of water.

Right.

After much experimentation, this is my version:

Brandy Punch
1 ½ oz Christian Bros. Brandy
(I think brandy gets a bad rap. It’s kinder and gentler than you remember – or think you remember.)
¼ oz Chambord
½ oz Morin Raspberry Syrup
¼ oz Fresh Lemon Juice
¼ oz Fresh Orange Juice
Fresh Fruit for Garnish

Pour all ingredients into a Boston Shaker.  Shake until cold.  Empty the entire contents of shaker into rocks glass.

Garnish with slice of pineapple, raspberries, or lemon – or all of the above.

My youngest sister Megan, who recently completed the Chicago Marathon, commissioned this cocktail to mark the occasion. 

Personally, I can’t run from my front door to my car. (Even if one, or both, of those things were on fire.  Even if I was on fire.) So congratulations Megan, I’m very proud of you.

Meg ran the marathon with her husband Matt in a show of sporty/adorable togetherness.  (Something else I’m incapable of.)  Steve (my boyfriend) and I rarely go on a hike that doesn’t end in emotional tumult and tears.  He hikes; I’m emotional tumult, and tears.

Anyway, Meg and Matt wanted a cocktail they could serve other “sporty” people during their “we ran a marathon and are still talking to each other” party.  

Megan’s description of life after mile 21 inspired the drink’s theme “passion, blood, and sweat”.  Tasty.  Chambord gives the cocktail its red hue, passion fruit is the main mixer, and it’s finished off with a splash of Izzy, the user-friendly energy drink.  Shake it until it sweats.

Here are the results:

Megan’s Milestone

1 ½ oz Grey Goose Vodka

1 ½ oz Passion Fruit Juice

½ oz Simple Syrup

¼ oz Chambord (raspberry Liquor)

¼ Lime Juice

Izzy Pomegranate Juice Drink

Lime garnish

Pour ingredients from vodka through limejuice into a martini shaker. Shake until beads of sweat form on the outside of the shaker.  Pour the contents of the shaker (including ice) into a rocks glass.   Top off with Izzy (just enough to make it fizzy and blood red).   Garnish with a lime wedge.

As a displaced Chicagoan I take my hot dogs very seriously. They have to be Vienna Beef with neon green relish. Sport peppers, celery salt, and poppy seed buns, need to be involved too. I’ve had zero luck replicating this experience in Los Angeles.

Don’t even talk to me about Pinks – it’s a lovely place – but I’m always the yahoo holding up the line while acting out what a sport pepper is. I’ve given up. Now I order take-out from Chicago — yes — the City of.

I get my fix from Lou Manati’s Tastes of Chicago, a nation wide delivery service wittily named for the city’s renowned food festival. Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria is famous for deep-dish and they’ve partnered with legends like Portillo’s Hot Dogs, Carson’s Ribs, and Eli’s Cheesecake to deliver Chicago delicacies anywhere — overnight. Think about that. You could be eating authentic Chicago deep-dish tomorrow.

I’ve ordered from Lou’s for birthdays, holidays, Valentine’s Day, and recently had them cater my Presidential Debate party. (We gorged ourselves on the food pictured above while throwing back Biden Beer Bombs.)

Tastes of Chicago is an amazing party resource. They employ the most helpful service people to ever work an 800 number, have packages to feed 2 or 20, and their food will flip your guests out — especially the Chicagoans.

Lou Malnati’s packages ship quickly with the contents safely nestled in dry ice to keep them cold, and printed on the outside of their red white and blue boxes is the sentiment “Someone must love you.”

Lou — right back at you.

Order online at:

http://www.tastesofchicago.com/

Pizza by the month, and Holiday Specials are available.

Barack Obama’s running mate (can I call him Joe?) inspired the Biden Beer Bomb, my fourth “Candidate Cocktail”.  Friends and family came over for the final Presidential debate and dined on delicacies from Chicago (My hometown, and Barack’s base of operations).  With comfort foods like Portillo’s Hot dogs and Lou Malnati’s pizza, the Biden cocktail needed to be simple and go down easy with cheesy deep-dish.

Basically, it needed to be beer.  I chose Sam Adams Cherry Wheat, added a shot of Woodford Reserve Bourbon, and to convert women whose first choice would never be beer, a splash of Cherry Brandy.  The result? The Biden Bomb is an elder statesman of a cocktail with cherry undertones and a warm smooth finish.

Folks might consider the use of the word “bomb” a gaffe, but I stand behind it as the right name for the right cocktail at the right time.

Here’s the recipe:
The Biden Beer Bomb
½ bottle of Sam Adams Cherry Wheat Beer (or beer of your choice.  Wheat beer or hefeweizen works best)
1½ oz Woodford Reserve Bourbon
½ oz Cherry Brandy
¼  oz simple syrup

Run water over beer mug and put in freezer while preparing cocktail.
Place bourbon, cherry brandy, and simple syrup in a Boston shaker with ice.  Shake until cold.
Pour mixture into the bottom of an ice-cold mug.  Add beer to taste.

Other Partisan Pours:

The Obamartini

McCain’s Cocktail: The Maverick

The Yukon Sarah

Finished cocktail with mixers

In 1919 an American officer stationed in England concocted the French 75 and named it after a 75mm howitzer gun.  Quaint.  The cocktail wasn’t made ring-a-ding  famous until it appeared at the Stork Club in the 1930’s.   And I must say — looks awfully good served in their champagne coupes (pictured left).

The French 75 is a gin-based drink topped off with champagne, and while there are many versions of this cocktail (apologies to the Stork Club) my favorite is based on the one found in The Art of the Bar:

French 75
1 1/2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce simple syrup
1/2 fresh lemon juice
Top off with champagne
Garnish with maraschino cherries & lemon twist

Cocktail Notes:
I recommend using Hendrick’s Gin. It’s a floral tasting gin with hints of cucumber, and doesn’t have the tinny, juniper berry, finish common in lesser gins.  Hendrick’s blends easily into classic cocktails without overpowering them.

Shaken or Stirred?
A decision to make before adding champagne, which is carbonated and will do bad things to the pressure inside your Boston shaker….

Shaken:
When you shake a drink a couple of things happen:
*ingredients become thoroughly mixed
*cocktail gets very cold
*ice melts rapidly diluting the drink (it’s little less boozy tasting)

Stirred:
Stirring has a slightly different effect:
*chills drink  (not as cold as shaken)
*blends without diluting, spirits shine through
*creates a nice foamy texture

When combining flavored mixers and citrus to a cocktail I lean toward shaking, but experiment and see what you like best.

Slight Variations:
These are mine, and unofficial, but give the drink a little blush color and another hint of flavor.

In addition to the recipe’s simple syrup you can add:
*a touch of pomegranate simple syrup
or
*a little of the marachino cherry juice

It has gotten a little cocktail-centric around here, so I thought we’d stop for a snack and talk about Gyenari, a new Korean BBQ in Culver City.

Korean BBQ holds a special place in my heart.  Steve (the boyfriend) took me to one of these restaurants on our second date (in the year 400 B.C.).  He cooked, and served, and at one point failed to notice a sugar snap pea was still white hot from the grill. He spit that sucker across the table and made cartoon-like pain noises for about five minutes. No pause. No break in conversation.  No apologies.  The snap pea was hot–what else could he have done?  His unabashed commitment to the “spit-take” convinced me I really could date this guy, and date him, and date him….

The restaurant closed soon after and life has been a little darker ever since.  Then Gyenari opened in Culver City — like — five minutes ago.

Read the rest of this entry »

There is a certain romance about classic champagne coupes.  They conjure up images of movie stars in swank lounges having more fun than you will ever have—ever.

But, a girl can dream.

Which was my thought when I came across replicas of the grand coupes that once graced the tables of New York’s legendary Stork Club.  I bought four and sat by the door every day until they arrived — in eco-friendly cornstarch based packing peanuts no less.

Upon arrival I had those babies out of their boxes and filled with champagne in minutes.  Perfect.  Each saucer is wide and its walls are high, holding more than 16 ounces of liquid — an insane single serving of champagne—and you’d only ever fill it to the brim for serious personal reasons or fear of a sudden champagne shortage.  Point is—the saucer’s deep.  This design feature (once lost to the ages) keeps champagne from sloshing around, allowing you to sip standing upright,  not by craning your neck like a giraffe grazing low hanging leaves.  Through the wonder of technology you are now free to wander about without losing the entire contents of your glass — something that should never be attempted with a flimsy wedding-land coupe.

The Stork Club coupes are ideal for champagne cocktails, kir royals, and my new favorite —  Death in the Afternoon. 

Yes, critics will tell you that champagne bubbles will dissipate faster in a coupe due to the large surface area.  So I recommend you drink that cocktail instead of staring at it.

If you want to feel like Cary Grant or Katherine Hepburn — for just a moment — these are the glasses for you.  They can be purchased online through New York First, a company that specializes in all things related to the Big Apple.  The site is laid out like a department store, and it’s a very nice place to wander around.

Retro Champagne Coupes:
$24 (set of two)
$44 (set of four)

I had a cocktail called the Hemingway at The Edison in downtown LA.  Loved it, and began a quest to find just the right types of absinthe and champagne to recreate the drink at home.

(And to impress my friends with how swanky and sophisticated I am.  Which, by the way, takes smoke, mirrors, and research.)

I quickly found out that this cocktail is traditionally called Death in the Afternoon made famous by Hemingway (hence the artistic license at the Edison). “Death in the Afternoon” is taken directly from the title of Hemingway’s non-fiction book about Spanish bullfighting, and according to Harold McGee of The New York Times, a cocktail Papa contributed to a collection of celebrity recipes in 1935.

Hemingway’s instructions:

“Pour one jigger absinthe into a champagne glass.  Add iced champagne until it obtains the proper opalescent milkiness.  Drink 3 to 5 of these slowly.”

While jackassedly funny — as directions go — not so good.  Neither was the resulting cocktail.  Even though Death is a simple mixture of champagne and absinthe, the trick (as always), is in the balance.

So I took Hemingway’s recipe and added some notes.  (Thus editing Hemingway’s original work which is, at best, unchartable hubris)…

Death in the Afternoon
1 ounce absinthe.
1 sugar cube
Top with champagne.

*Drop the sugar cube into the bottom of a champagne saucer (or martini glass), pour 1 oz absinthe slowly over sugar, add ice cold champagne to taste.

Cocktail Notes:
*Moet Chandon was my hands-down favorite champagne in this cocktail,  but unless you’re making it for a party, buy Moet in small bottles.  A 187 ml bottle easily makes two drinks.  You get a high quality champagne without worrying about the bottle going unused — or drinking your face off.

* Unless you adore black licorice, I recommend Bohemian style absinthe for mixed cocktails.  Bohemian absinthe has very little anise (licorice) flavor and, even though it typically comes from the Czech Republic, I found a French brand called Le Tourment Vert (pictured below) that exhibited bohemian qualities. It has a lower alcohol content than most other absinthes (50% compared to 53% or more), and a slight sweetness that mixes beautifully with champagne.  (Think of it as a kinder gentler absinthe that plays well with others.)

*Stick the absinthe in the freezer before making this cocktail.  Room temperature absinthe will warm up, and flatten, the champagne.  Not fun.  Keep it cold and you’ll get a cocktail that is bubbly and crisp.  Cold ingredients also give the cocktail the “opalescent milkiness” Hemingway speaks of.

Drinking 3 to 5 of them is totally up to you….