The Bon Vivant’s Companion

I’ve been working on this blog post since March.  Not because it’s so special, but because life happened, and then death did.

Originally, my plan was to write about the St. Francis Hotel’s newly opened Clock Bar and their best selling cocktail, the Persephone — a new drink done in a classic style by mixologist Marcovaldo Dionysos (who, unless he’s using a nom de plume, was clearly born to be a bartender.)

The Clock Bar, run by Chef Michael Mina, features world-class bar snacks and a cocktail menu that thinks it’s 1935.  But it’s not 1935.  It’s not even March any more, and this blog post has lingered unwritten long enough…

I’m a sucker for all things mythological and the Persephone, a cocktail made with Charbay vodka, homemade grenadine, and pomegranate juice, struck me as clever (and made me wonder why more libations aren’t named after Olympians…the Hephaestus anyone?)

Persephone, the goddess of spring, and daughter of Demeter (harvest) and Zeus (everything) was a hottie, devil-may-care kind of Olympian until Hades fell for her, dragged her to the underworld, and made her his queen.

Demeter, unable to find her daughter, rendered the earth barren while Persephone was missing.  Needing live people to worship him, and seeing no upside to mass starvation, Zeus stepped in and forced Hades to release his new bride.  Persephone was returned to her mother, but having eaten several seeds from an underworld pomegranate, she was tied to Hades forever.

(Travel advisory – skip the roadside snacks in hell.)

In a rare compromise, the gods decided to share, and Persephone spent the rest of her days splitting time between her mom’s house and her husband’s kingdom.

Mythology meets modern mixology. That was the concept.  That’s what I planned on talking about back in March, but as I said, life happened, and then, ironically, death did.

Shortly after I got home, and busy, and sick, my cousin Jamie died.  She was more than the word cousin implies, she was my little sister, my friend.  Jamie died suddenly, and young, and without much explanation.  Reeling is what I’ve been up to since it happened. In general, mornings have not been seen, work has not been done, and blogs have gone unwritten.

In dealing with the loss of Jamie, and my aunt’s grief, the myth of Persephone has taken on a whole new meaning.  I understand it better.  I know first hand that, if she could, my aunt would make it snow every day until someone gave her Jamie back.

So as the weeks have passed, and the fog has lifted, I’ve decided to revisit the Persephone.  After doing research, and discovering that there isn’t a definitive version of this cocktail (all apologies to Mr. Dionysos) I decided to come up with my own.

Because it’s summer now, I turned to gin as my base spirit.  I added homemade grenadine, pomegranate juice, and a little muddled mint.

Turns out, mint is a sacred plant closely tied to Persephone.  As the story goes, Hades cheated on Persephone with a nymph named Menthe.  When she found out, Persephone trampled on Menthe until she became a sprig of mint.

Maybe I find retribution funny, but I get a kick out of that story.  I think Jamie would too.

Here’s the recipe:
The Persephone
1 ½ oz Plymouth Gin
1 oz Pomegranate Juice
¾ Homemade Grenadine (I chose a recipe created by Jeff Hollinger, owner of Absinthe and author of “Art of the Bar”)
¼ Fresh lime Juice
3 or 4 pieces of mint
Fever Tree Bitter Lemon to taste
Mint for garnish
Put 3 or 4 pieces of mint in a Boston shaker, cover with Grenadine, and muddle ingredients until completely mixed.  Add gin, pomegranate juice, and ice, and shake until chilled.
Pour entire contents of shaker into a rocks glass.  Garnish with mint.

Jamie

In the Midwest, ice the size of a golf ball is something you run from as it falls from the sky, in LA it’s something you swirl in a cocktail.

At Bar Centro, part of the newly opened SLS Hotel near Beverly Hills, ice is the centerpiece of their “Ultimate Gin and Tonic”.  Floating in edible flowers, herbs, and your choice of tonic, is a perfect, frosty sphere.  No clunky rocks, nothing from a 1,000-pound machine, just an elegant, crystal-clear ball of ice.  Thick and round it melts slowly, chilling the cocktail without diluting it.

Throw in cucumbers, spices, and greenery, and you have a garden in a glass; a deconstructed gin and tonic if you will.  Perfect for a party, and with the right tools, easy to recreate at home.  A trip to the produce department, and a spherical ice mold is all you need.

I recommend the mold from the MoMa store. Its thoughtful design is compact and doesn’t require an engineering degree, although filling it takes a little patience.  Running water slowly through a pour spout (the kind you put in a bottle of spirits) inverted over the mold’s tiny hole helps it fill faster.  The resulting little ice balls are fun and worth the time.

Having survived an icy Chicago Christmas, these cocktail spheres are the closest I’m getting to snowballs or ice for the rest of the winter.  Home in LA, I will gladly sip my perfectly chilled gin and tonic in 75-degree weather, and think fondly of friends and family stuck in subzero temperatures.  (Those suckers are going to need all the good thoughts they can get…)

If you are in the LA area, Bar Centro is worth a visit.  The bar is filled (almost exclusively) with Sex and the City-type women, and has been designed by uber hipster Philippe Stark.  The lounge buzzes and whirs with a modernity that will go out of style quickly, but be remembered fondly (like disco lights and Halston jumpsuits) so catch it while it’s hot. There are two restaurants and a sweet shop on the bar level as well.

Bar Centro @ SLS Hotel
465 S. La Cienega Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (310) 247-0400
Monday-Wednesday, Sunday 6pm-12am; Thursday-Saturday 6pm-2am
Map

When life gives you lemons – put them in booze.

You know the economy is bad when Confederate dollars are worth more than GM stock, and Monopoly money is up 2 to 1 against the US dollar. (Apparently, Monocle Guy did not get into sub-prime mortgages. He stuck to a strict “four houses for one hotel” policy.)

What are the rest of us to do? Sell a railroad? Learn Hobo code? Hope someone lands on Baltic Avenue and pays rent on our one mangy house?

I suggest we do what they did during the last Great Depression – drink copious amounts of American gin (minus the still in the bathtub).

In my search for an American solution to an American problem, I came across a small batched gin called Leopold’s. Handcrafted by Master Distiller Todd Leopold, this gin has a smooth blend of floral and citrus flavors. It impressively rivals Hendrick’s (a top notch British import) in complexity and character, and features nicely in my “Bailout Lemonade” cocktail.

To build yourself a Bailout, combine homemade ginger syrup with lemon juice in a Boston shaker. Muddle mint and cucumbers into the mix. Add Leopold’s Gin and shake.

For fun (and blatant social commentary) serve the Bailout over ice in a mason jar (a handy bit of glassware no depression era household should be without).

Bailout Lemonade

2 1/2 oz Leopold’s Gin

1 ¾ oz Ginger Simple Syrup

½ oz Fresh Lemon Juice

Soda Water

1 Slice Cucumber

2 Sprigs of Mint

Extra Cucumber and Mint for Garnish.

Put ginger simple syrup, lemon juice, mint and cucumber into half of a Boston shaker, and muddle ingredients together. (Muddling is the act of crushing ingredients together to release natural oils and flavor. The bar tool designed for this purpose is conveniently called a muddle or muddler. In a pinch, use a wooden spoon.) Add ice to ingredients and shake. Pour entire contents of shaker into a small mason jar. Add additional ice if needed. Top with soda water. Garnish with sprigs of mint and small pieces of cucumber.

Ginger Simple Syrup:

1 cup sugar
1 cup water
One small piece of ginger cut into slices.
Combine sugar and water in a small pot. Slowly bring up the temperature dissolving all of the sugar. When the mixture begins to simmer add slices of ginger to taste. Simmer for 5 minutes.

This will make about 1 1/2 cups of syrup that can be stored in the fridge for up to a week.

*Cocktail Notes:

This recipe calls for a lot of lemon juice. I want every drink to be consistent so I use organic Lemon Juice from the bottle. Juice squeezed from lemons can be hit or miss in amount and intensity. If you miss the real thing, add some to the garnish.

*No-Bartender, Party Friendly Version:

In a pitcher pour in a quart of the highest quality lemonade you can find. The lemonade will have sweetness so add ginger syrup to taste.  Stir in cucumber and mint (you can give this a little muddle before you drop them in). Make the lemonade mixture first, put the Leopold’s and soda water on the side.  Your guests can help themselves.