by Will on May 17, 2012
Chartreuse is a bit of an obsession around here. A persistent question is whether there is any mixed drink with Chartreuse that is as good as taking the elixir straight. I have found the Alaska Cocktail and the Last Word both to be very good. This is another recipe, one that I came across recently. It is of the family of tropical drinks, such as were made popular by the Trader Vic’s bar chain in the post-war era. The sort of thing that you’d presumably have at an island resort. This is a family with which I have but little acquainted myself.
The Chartreuse Swizzle:
1 1/4 oz. Chartreuse
1/2 oz. Falernum
1 oz. Pineapple juice
3/4 oz. lime juice
Stir on ice with a swizzle stick, serve on ice in a tall glass.
The result was pleasing. But I don’t if it justifies the use of so much precious Chartreuse!*
Cheers!
*Chartreuse is much cheaper in Germany. Go figure.
by Will on May 12, 2012
One of my favorite series of plays is the Fanny trilogy by Marcel Pagnol, who was one of the most popular French writers and filmmakers of the 20th century. It is also a series of 1930s movies. Even though some of Pagnol’s other movies have been popular in the US (Jean de Florette and Manon des Sources, most notably), the Fanny trilogy has been out of print for a long time. It is only available on VHS, and good luck finding a rare VHS title. There is an American adaptation that was made in the 50s, removing much of the dialogue and altering the story, but it is not as good.
(It would appear that Alice Waters is also partial to this series, as she named restaurants after three of its characters: Cesar, Fanny, and Panisse.)
The trilogy also has never been published in English. Or rather, there exists one manuscript translation of it, in a university library in Utah. I tried producing a translation myself, but found it too time-consuming to attempt without remuneration.
Consequently, I have not been able to share it with my girlfriend. We watched the 50s adaptation together and she liked it, but I’ve never been able to show her the real deal.
What I can share with her is the Pernod Cocktail. Because the characters of the Fanny trilogy spend their time at a bar on the Vieux Port of Marseilles, drinking Pernod and Ricard, I have a certain affection for the stuff. However, neither my girlfriend nor I enjoys drinking it straight. Even in France, it is usually served with water to dilute it. But I find the Pernod Cocktail is an even better vehicle for it.
The Pernod Cocktail:
1 1/2 oz. Pernod
One cube of sugar
1/2 oz. water
4 dashes Angostura bitters
Stir on ice and serve straight up.
Cheers!
by Will on May 12, 2012
We made a number of disturbing discoveries while traveling abroad. One was that people in Europe take their Campari neat or else mixed with tonic water. Another is that young people, even those of the greatest refinement and most unimpeachable grooming, can be relied upon to purloin all the cans of tonic water from the refrigerator, and to drink them as if they were soda. Consequently, we found ourselves more than once in possession of gin but lacking any mixer for it.
We remembered that in the classic film The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart’s character takes his Gordon’s gin without tonic. He prefers to have it mixed with African river water. Katharine Hepburn’s character doesn’t like this one bit, but the sentiment doesn’t seem to be on account of the water.
Anyhow, we found that a half-and-half mix of gin and water, on ice, was reasonably refreshing. That is not to say that we’ve repeated the experiment since the scarcity of tonic water has abated.
The Gin and Water:
1 1/2 oz. gin
1 1/2 water
Serve on ice, with a lime wedge
Salut!
by Will on January 30, 2012
This is a drink that always pleases, albeit at the cost of some precious, precious Chartreuse.
1 1/2 oz. gin
1/4 oz. Chartreuse
1 dash orange bitters
Stir on ice, serve straight up
You can use either green or yellow Chartreuse. I generally go with green, which is available at more stores.
Do you know who got the state up north to be called “Alaska” in the first place? It was allegedly General Henry Halleck, the great military author and blunderer. You didn’t see that coming, did you?
I am unable to locate a fascinating story relating when and where this drink was first mixed, and by what manner of people, but no doubt one exists, or could at least be fabricated.
Cheers!
by Will on November 16, 2011
The people at the Lagunitas Brewing Company want us to know that there is little if any holiday cheer warming their hearts or glowing in their faces this holiday season. It seems that this year they were unable to produce any of their famed Brown Shugga’ seasonal ale. They have instead had to make do with a stopgap seasonal ale, the “Lagunitas Sucks Holiday Ale Brown Shugga’ Substitute”. The copy on the bottom of the package takes an interesting approach to promoting the product:
This sad holiday season we didn’t have the brewing capacity to make our favorite seasonal brew, the widely feared Brown Shugga’ Ale. You see, we had a couple of really good years (thank you very much) and so heading into this season while we are awaiting the January delivery of a new brewhouse we are jammin’ along brewing 80 barrels of IPA and PILS and such every 3 hours. A couple months back we realized that since we can only brew a mere 60 barrels of Shugga’ every 5 hours, that we were seriously screwed. For every case of Shugga brewed, we’d short 3 cases of our favorite daily beers. It’s a drag. This year, we brewed something that we think is also cool and brews more like our daily brews. The new brewhouse will help insure that this kind of failure never occurs again. It’s a mess that we can not brew our Brown Shugga’ this year and we suck for not doing it. There is nothing cool about screwing up this badly and we know it. Maybe we can sue our own sorry selves. There is no joy in our hearts this holiday and the best we can hope for is a quick and merciful end. F$@& us. This totally blows.
The front artwork features their mascot dog saying, “we suck.”
Nevertheless, I was curious enough to buy the beer, and it was the last six-pack at Safeway, so apparently I wasn’t alone.
by Jen on November 10, 2011
Not only do you give an unforgettable hour with the Lushes in Love, but we provide you with a beautiful gift certificate boxed with a martini glass to put under the tree.
by Jen on November 8, 2011
Our great friend and neighbor Jeremy hosted the first ever Oakland Nights LIVE!
Hosted by Jeremy and Julia, the show was part talk show and part variety show. We were honored to be featured as guests among such local stars as Christi Ginger, Chris Garcia and Yesway.
Here we are preparing to go on.
Before we knew it, we were live. Check out the awesome set!!
Jeremy offered us a glass of scotch. What a host!
We made Jeremy and Julia our best Sidecar
And chatted a bit about the history of maraschino cherries and the such.
It was a blast. Thanks for having us, Jeremy and Julia!
For those of us now wishing we had a Sidecar in front of us, learn how to make a Sidecar.
by Will on November 6, 2011
Weeks ago Jen said that we ought to have people over to “salons” on the first Friday of each month. The idea was that we would share delicious cocktails, catch up, and then walk down to Art Murmur. In theory, this should work.
Our first “salon” last month was too successful. We had a huge number of attendees, and my drinks were a hit. But I spent the whole thing frantically making drinks for people! I hardly had time to chat with anyone. Also, we didn’t leave and go to Art Murmur, because everybody was having a good time and getting free drinks at our apartment.
In preparation for the second salon, we assumed that it would go exactly as the first had. I thought it would be smart to make whole pitchers of three cocktails. That way I could just mix them the one time and could relax. (The three cocktails: the Income Tax, the Manhattan, and the Whiskey Sour).
But this time, fewer people wanted cocktails. Most of the guests were fine with beer or wine. One guy drank nothing but water! One day later, we still have three pitchers of drinks in the fridge. D’oh! This is clearly the most ill-fated instance of backward-looking planning since the Maginot Line.
The experience made me think: what is it that people like about bartenders? It is not merely the drink that results from his or her skill and labor, it is the attention. People like the spectacle of the drink’s preparation, just for them, and they like that as far as the bartender is concerned, their own preferences have absolute sovereignty. Appearance is often in contradiction to what is actually going on, and thus the pitcher of Manhattans — which objectively should have the same value as an equal quantity of Manhattans prepared individually — is treasured less than the specially prepared drinks. Go figure!
by Jen on October 31, 2011
Our great friend Rosalie hosted a pumpkin carving party last night complete with our favorite holiday drink, Hard Cider.
Can you guess which pumpkin was ours??
(Hint: it’s not the honeydew though Tammy’s boobies really stole the show!)
by Jen on September 30, 2011
Maybe I shouldn’t call this drink a disaster. I’m not much of a rum fan, so it was unlikely that I’d like it from the get go. But I’ve been hanging out with some new friends who prefer rum, so I decided to give it a go.
We acquired some Meyer’s Dark Rum awhile ago to provide to those friends of ours who prefer rum. I have very fond memories of Meyer’s Dark Rum, as it was the bottle that was dark enough for me to steal out of without Mom and Dad’s noticing back when I was in high school. I’m pretty sure I filled it back up with water. Luckily for me, Mom and Dad weren’t rum fans either, so it went unnoticed (or so I believe…).
My friend Brian suggested that Meyer’s Dark Rum and orange juice is a classic cocktail. We didn’t have orange juice, but we did have some of Trader Joe’s Sparkling Clementine beverage. I love that beverage. It’s great with champagne for a twist on the mimosa.
So we gave it a try. I poured an ounce of Meyer’s Dark Rum over ice and added Sparkling Clementine beverage to fill the glass (probably a 3 to 1 ratio). My compatriots Aimee and Brian — the rum fans — raved, but I choked it down out of polite necessity.
Rum fans, have at it. The rest of us will keep our Meyer’s in the pantry for teenage girls to smuggle.
