The Nectar of Angels

Cognac.  Luxury.  Elite.  Deliciousness.  Silkiness.   Angels.  Ferrand.  Word Association.  Try it.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Alexandre Gabriel, the founder of Cognac Ferrand.  The man is a wealth of knowledge, and a self-described cognac geek.  We (and when I say we, I mean Guillaume and Francois from Pierre Ferrand, as well as…wait for it…Gary Regan), sampled the Ferrand Selection des Anges, a cognac that glides on the palate, and exudes rich vanilla, nuts, and spices.  What a treat this was!

Hey, guess what?  These guys have other products, too?  Ever heard of Plantation Rum - or Citadelle Gin - or Mathilde Liqueurs?  We tried the delicious Mathilde XO Orange Liqueur.  If you think you’ve had the best Sidecar you’ve ever tasted in your life, you’ve no doubt tried it with Mathilde as the orange liqueur.  Try it - you WILL NOT be dissapointed (recipe below).

The things these Frenchmen have up their sleeves is amazing: secret recipes and ingredients, new products…Stay tuned, ’cause the French are back in town!

Ferrand Sidecar XO

1 oz. Cognac Pierre Ferrand Selection des Anges

1/2 oz. Mathilde XO Orange Liqueur

1/2 oz. Fresh squeezed lemon juice

Directions:  Shake briskly and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish: Flamed orange twist

I got my Knickerbockers in a Bunch

The Manhattan and Knickerbocker cocktails were flowing last night at the first U.S. Bartender’s Guild New York Chapter meeting held at Devin Tavern. It’s been a long time in the making, but it finally happened. We gathered 30 or so bar and cocktail luminaries for some drinks and hors d’ouerves. I’m going to be serious now for a moment (it’s tough) and say that this was a very special event. I think I can speak for everyone in saying that we all felt very honored and excited that we were getting this chapter going again. Whenever you’re surrounded by the entire DeGroff clan, you know you’re involved with something truly spectacular.

If you’d like any more info on the USBG New York chapter, feel free to email me here.

Thank you so much to Michael Waterhouse at Devin Tavern, and to K., the great barman who served us. Here’s K’s recipe for a Knickerbocker cocktail. It’s tasty…and strong…

K’s Knickerbocker Cocktail

1 1/2 oz. Bluecoat Gin

3/4 oz. Dry Vermouth

1 tsp. Sweet Vermouth

Directions:  Stir all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.  Strain into a chilled martini glass.

Garnish: Lemon peel

The Glen Lounge, where we had our little shindig, at Devin Tavern.

Mojitos & Hotcakes

What do the two have in common?  Well, at the party that I worked and staffed last night at Astor Center’s Gallery space, the specialty Mojito that I came up with went like hotcakes.  I figured I had to talk about the evening and include the recipe for this drink so as to share the wealth with all of you folks. 

Myself, along with a couple of my talented mixology mavericks, slung drinks and muddled mint for a 30th birthday gathering.  Let me tell you, if any of you are thinking about an event space that is a) conveniently located in Downtown Manhattan, b) seems like you’re in your rich investment banker-friend’s loft apartment, c) as well-staffed with the most likable and hard-working folks you’ll ever meet - then look no further than  Astor Center.  Their event space, encompassing perhaps 1/2 of Astor Center’s square footage, is full of exposed brick, loft details, and bright airy windows.  It’s always a pleasure to work there.

I created 2 signature cocktails for this party, as is my specialty for all events that I do.  They both faired equally as well, but the one that seemed to stand out in the crowd was my Rosemary-Elderflower Mojito.  The Mt. Gay silver and St. Germain Liqueur were flowing off the shelves, and my bartending partner and I thanked God for our trusty Pug! Muddlers, without whom we’d be mere serfs hauling boulders uphill.  (Not sure where that  analogy came from, but we’ll just run with it, ok?

In conclusion, I’ve spent my entire day today wanting to go see Batman in Imax (Yes, I haven’t yet seen the film), and instead I’ve included the recipe for this nectarous mojito, and so here ’tis:

Rosemary-Elderflower Mojito

1 oz. Mt. Gay Silver Rum

1/2 oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

1/2 oz. Fresh squeezed lime juice

1/2 oz. simple syrup

handful mint leaves

pinch rosemary leaves

1 oz. Prosecco

Directions: Muddle the mint and rosemary in the lime and simple.  Add ice and remaining ingredients and shake.  Pour into collins glass.

Top with Prosecco.

    +        =    

Mar-Tea-Nique Daiquiri

I recently was introduced to a new breed of Iced Teas.  Didn’t know iced teas had breeds?  Well, neither did I.

We all know Lipton Iced Teas.  Full of HFS (industry lingo for High Fructose Corn Syrup) and artificial flavors.  So what happens when Lipton comes out with all-natural, no HFS anywhere, iced tea flavors.  We change our perspective.  Enter Lipton Pureleaf.  I heard about it, asked for samples, and voila - came up with a nice little cocktail using the Red Tea with Pomegranate and Blueberry.  They also have Green Tea and White Tea flavors.

A while back I created an entire list of tea cocktails for T-Salon here in NYC.  Don’t get me wrong, the tea flavors at T-Salon are incredible!  But if you’re looking to make tea cocktails at home, this may be a good alternative.

Want to make that cocktail I came up with for yourself at home?  Here’s the recipe:

Mar-Tea-Nique Daiquiri

2 oz. Lipton Pureleaf Red Tea with Pomegranate and Blueberry

1 1/2 oz. Rhum Clement Premierre Canne

juice of 1 lime wedge

1 tsp. superfine sugar

Directions:  Shake all of the above in a mixing glass with ice.  Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Garnish: seasonal berries

Toasted at Tales

Recovered yet?  Not a chance.  That will take days, perhaps ’til next year’s Tales of the Cocktail (which has already been set, by the way, for July 8th) 

Bigger and better than ever is an understatement.  I heard mixed numbers:  some claimed 5,000 people, others, the more reasonable ones, said around 2,000.  I’d have to go with the latter, although at times, in the small, 19th century bars that lined the French Quarter that hosted some of the Tales events, with the heat topping out at 100 degrees (indoors even, at times), it sure as hell felt like 5,000 people.  Nevertheless, the event was superb, and the chance to mix and mingle with my peers and mentors left me in the clouds the entire time.  Or was it the Vieux Carre cocktails I sucked back at the Hotel Monteleone’s Carousel Bar?  Who knows…

My seminar with the legendary Brian Rea occurred early on, Wednesday, the first day of the festival.  I spoke about researching drink recipes, he on collection old cocktail books.  Thanks Jack, Brian, Jeff, and Greg for speaking on my panel.  Greg has made these great repros of old cocktail books that he premiered at Tales.  He sells them here.

Photos of the entire escapade, you ask.  Yeah, well, my camera didn’t have a chance to peek itself out of my bag this entire trip.  I’m hoping to get some photos from other folks to post, so you’ll just have to stay tuned.

Lookie here! I’m on the small screen.

You can see my mug talking about wedding cocktails here. 

It’s pretty neat, I think.  Let me know what you think…

I’ll be in New Orleans at Tales of the Cocktail this week, so expect some up-to-the-minute blogging direct from the Hotel Monteleone.  That’s what I say now, but who knows what happens when one goes on a diet that includes Sazeracs and Brandy Crustas.

As you await the exciting news from New Orleans, enjoy this deliciously refreshing drink from Jerry Thomas’ 1862 “Bar-tender’s Guide.”

Brandy Crusta

3 or 4 dashes of Gum Syrup (simple syrup)

1 dash Boker’s Bitters (use 2 dashes Angostura bitters)

1 wine-glass brandy (use 2 oz. Cognac)

2 dashes curacao (1/4 oz.)

dash lemon juice (1/4 oz.)

Before mixing the above ingredients, prepare a cocktail glass as follows:

Rub a sliced lemon around the rim of the glass, and dip it in pulverized white sugar (superfine sugar), so that the sugar will adhere to the edge of the glass.  Pare half a lemon the same as you would an apple (all in one piece) so that the paring will fit in the wine-glass.  Put the above ingredients into a small whiskey glass filled one-third full of shaved ice, shake up well and strain the liquid into the cocktail glass prepared as above directed.

(image from the Museum of the American Cocktail)

If you don’t get enough of me on this blog…

You can catch me thrice more (that means 3 times) this week in various capacities.  Now folks, this is very important stuff and please listen up carefully.  If you live in the New York metropolitan area, you’re in luck for two of these.  If not, please make an effort to visit somebody in the New York metropolitan area so you can see me.  But, if you live in or are planning on visiting New Orleans next week for Tales of the Cocktail, you get brownie points from me, and I beg you to say hi to me and make me look like I have many friends.

Okay, here’s the deal:

1) Tuesday, July 8 in Manhattan’s East Village:

Tomorrow I will be helping out my good friend H. Joseph Ehrmann, Square One Vodka Brand Ambassador, in making some signature Square One cocktails at the Indy Spirits Expo at Astor Center in Manhattan.  It should be fun, with booths set up by wonderful artisanl spirits brands to taste and sample their products.  I will be making one of my newest summer creations, The Vanderbilt Avenue Martini, served at The Campbell Apartment Terrace (recipe below). 

Vanderbilt Avenue Martini

1 oz. Square One Organic Cucumber Vodka

1/2 oz. St. Germain Elderflower Liqueur

1/2 oz. Pineapple Juice

2 sage leaves (1 for muddling, 1 for garnish)

Directions: Lightly muddle the sage leaf in the bottom of a mixing glass.  Add remaining ingredients and shake very well.  Strain into a chilled, vanilla cane sugar-rimmed martini glass.

Garnish: Sage leaf

2. NBC’s “I Do” - A wedding reality show

What does this have to do with me, you may ask.  I will be appearing in this Saturday, July 12th’s episode as the wedding cocktail expert.  A bride-to-be will be visiting me at one of my bars, The World Bar, in search of her perfect wedding signature cocktail.  Be sure to catch me at 7pm on NBC (channel 4 - only broadcast in NY metro area for now - nationally later in August, I think).  Oh yeah, you may catch some guy who claimes to be my father as the Wine expert in the same segment, too.

3. Dinner Cocktail Pairing at 7 On Fulton in New Orleans

On Thursday, July 17th, the second day of the 5-day long Tales of the Cocktail celebration, I will be ‘bar cheffing’ it up at a wonderful NOLA restaurant called “7” at 8pm.  Enjoy traditional cajun food, as well as cocktails that I’ve come up with to complement these culinary flavors. 

Check out the menu and the cocktail pairing that I’ve come up with and to make reservations, click here.

Enough with the barage of opportunities to see me, right?  Truthfully, all 3 of these events are worth checking out.  Not just saying that. 

 

 

The typical “It’s Been a While…”

I’ve been around, trust me.  Ambiguity has done me well as of late.  I’ll have more to say - that is, more substantial stuff to say - very shortly. 

Visit the Tales of the Cocktail website in the meantime, and sign up for fun and educational seminars.  You WON’T be dissappointed!

 

 

I See Green Fairies

The other evening you would have found me behind a short bar in the middle of a stark white art gallery in SoHo with none other than Damon Dyer of Death & Co and Flatiron Lounge by my side.  Paintings of fairies and green liquid-filled bottles adorned the walls, and the invited industry-only crowd seemed to be having a better time than usual.  Oh, right, they were drinking Absinthe, that’s why. 

The official US launch of La Fee Abisinthe (pronounced “La Fay”) was held at OpenHouse gallery on Mon. evening and boy was it a night to remember - well, hopefully those in attendance could at least recall how delicious the Sazeracs and La Fee Sea Foam Fizzes they were drinking were. 

Bet you’d like some photos from the evening, now wouldn’t ‘ya?  Funny thing is, when you’re slinging drinks for nearly 150 thirsty spirit industry barflies you rarely have a moment to take photos, let alone breathe.  So photos you’ll have to simply do without.  Just imagine La Fee.  She’s very nice.  Won’t bite.  May nibble, though.

La Fee Sea Foam Fizz

1 1/2 oz. La Fee Absinthe

1/2 oz. Fresh Lemon Juice

1/2 oz. Simple syrup

1 egg white

Club Soda

Directions:  Dry shake the egg white to emulsify.  Add remaining ingredients, except for club soda, with ice and shake very well.  Strain over ice into a highball glass.  Top off with the club soda.

Garnish: lemon wheel

No Huckleberries at Huckleberry Bar?

It may be a bit infantile of me to think that huckleberries would make an appearance somewhere on the cocktail list at Billyburg’s hot new cocktail lounge, Huckleberry Bar. 

Well, call me little Jimmy.  Nada - no huckleberries, or berries of any nature, for that matter.  Just classic, well-mixed, prohibition-era-inspired drinks, (like an Amerigo Vespucci, or an Edward Bulwer-Lytton) and those classic standby’s (like Sazeracs and Sherry Flips).  I chose the latter of the original cocktail creations, the one that starts with the word Edward…  For a drink that had Gosling’s Rum infused with ginger, the ginger flavor barely came through, a bit over-crowded by the creme de cacao.  I enjoyed it as I kept drinking it - which tends to happen with a lot of dark spirit cocktails. 

Huckleberry Bar’s dark spirits collection is impressive, but isn’t that the norm nowadays?  What was fairly unique were the panini sandwiches that were being prepared to order right there behind the long bar.  I enjoyed my Prosciutto Pressed Sandwich with aged gouda cheese and rhubarb butter. 

The DJ was pumping, and the late-night hipster crowd seemed a bit tame for a Friday night.  My friends and I would have loved to sit outside on their outdoor patio (which seemed nice and laid-back, and quite expansive), but alas they close it around 1am.  And 1am is when we arrived.  Oh well, I’ll save that for next time - and I’ll make sure to bring the huckleberries with me.