Spirited Cocktails

Earlier this week, I was fortunate to join many of New York’s cocktail twitterati for a celebration of Mardi Gras at one of my favorite new bars, Rye House. At an event hosted by the Time Out Dining & Libation Society, we were lucky to find proprietor and master mixologist Lynette Marrero behind the bar furiously shaking and stirring the classic cocktails of New Orleans, including the Sazarac, the French 75, and my favorite of the evening – the Vieux Carre.

I was introduced to this cocktail during my trip down to New Orleans last year for Tales of the Cocktail – it’s a mainstay at the Carousel Bar in the Hotel Moteleone (which is where Tales takes place).  As Ted Haigh tells it in his book Vintage Spirits and Forgotten Cocktails, the name comes from the local term for the French Quarter – le Vieux Carre, meaning “the Old Square.” The cocktail was invented sometime prior to the 1937 publication of Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix Them, by Walter Bergeron, who worked behind what would eventually become the Carousel Bar. It fell out of favor for years, but I loved the one I had in New Orleans last year, and I really loved the… let’s just say more than one… I had at Rye House this past week.

Here’s what you’re going to need:

1oz rye whiskey
1oz cognac
1oz sweet vermouth
1/4oz Benedictine
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 dashes Peychaud Bitters

The preparation is simple: combine all the ingredients in a mixing glass with ice, stir well, and strain over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a simple lemon twist.

The result is a smooth yet complex cocktail, sure to transport you directly to Bourbon Street.

Cheers!

-Josh

A little while back, I told you about my trip to Eleven Madison Park and my decision to go with my Bartender’s Choice. That evening, my bartender selected a cocktail for me off the Eleven Madison Park cocktail menu called the Silhouette. I’m so glad I let him choose!

The Silhouette is a Rye-based cocktail, but it has a very light profile compared to straight Rye thanks to the addition of sweet vermouth (Vermouth de Chambery Rouge at EMP) and Aperol, an orange-flavored liquor. That lighter profile makes this cocktail a great place to start for those who aren’t traditionally Rye drinkers, but would like to be (you know you want to!)

Here’s what you’re going to need:

2oz Rye whiskey
3/4oz sweet vermouth
3/4oz Aperol

Simply add all three ingredients to a mixing glass along with a healthy does of ice, and stir well with your bar spoon. You want to stir this for probably at least 20-30 seconds so that you get the cocktail nice and cold (doing so by stirring takes a bit more time than by shaking, since there isn’t quite as much agitation.)

Once the cocktail is nicely chilled, simply strain into a chilled martini glass, and garnish with an orange peel. At Eleven Madison Park, they used a flaming orange peel, which we haven’t really covered yet. If you want to learn more though, check out Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s video on the subject.

This is a very refreshing drink, with a nice complex but subtly sweet flavor. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Cheers!

If you do any reading at all about the art of cocktails (and I assume you do, since you’ve ended up here!), you’ve probably come across the name Dale DeGroff. If you haven’t, you need to read more! And you should start with Dale’s book, The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks.

Anyway, Dale is commonly known as the King of Cocktails (rightfully so), and you really can’t go wrong mixing one of his recipes. Among my favorite is his take on the classic Gin Sling.

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 1/2oz gin
1oz fresh lemon juice
3/4oz simple syrup
1/2oz sweet vermouth (the Italian kind)
A dash of Angostura bitters
Club soda

Mix all of the ingredients except the club soda in your shaker and top with ice. Give a good hard shake. Strain into a Collins glass over fresh ice, and top off with club soda.

Generally you’ll want to garnish this with a lemon twist or a spiral lemon peel.

The end result is refreshing, and simply delicious.

Cheers!