EMBURY COCKTAILS

Discretion Is The Better Part Of Street Drinking & FIDI Iced Tea

A friend and I stepped into line outside the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater in Chelsea recently and found ourselves standing next to the two fellows above who were drinking out of plain white paper cups with the requisite adult sippy lips, the kind one gets on a Starbuck's coffee.  Instinct told me it wasn't coffee in these cups however, and as we chatted with our neighbors the conversation further aroused my suspicion. The gentlemen were waiting to see bracingly dark comic Anthony Jeselnik, whose jokes run to the extremely black: "Someone asked if I would watch their houseplant while they were out of town and I'm like, I can't even keep a baby alive".  While Joren Hodel (L) engaged in some sort of lively text exchange Jason Lewis (R) ran more of Jeselnick's jokes for us. The gentlemen were friendly, witty and charming, and a bit irreverent and cool and even ribald, all without laying it on too thick. That's one of the most optimum states that drinking can escort you to, and if they were aided in their journey by something a little Irished up in those cups, it was working.

Lewis would later provide the recipe for the impressively well R & D'ed cocktail that they, in fact, were drinking. The "FIDI Iced Tea" turned out to be swell but what was most interesting at that moment were these stealth cocktail containers. Hodel pulled himself away from what I'm pretty sure was  lively sexting session and declaimed his master strategy with the cups. He'd ordered them in bulk from Whole Latte Love, 1,000 Commercial Solo Single Poly Paper Hot Cups at a cost of $56 cups and Commercial Travel Lids to match at about $50. For their swinging ventures out at night Hodel had learned to double up the cups to avoid seepage or condensation, and added an ingenious touch to thwart giveaway moisture--a layer of paper towel between to two cups. True commitment to the bit.

Well done. And later, in response to a query as to what exactly was in those cups Lewis texted back: FIDI Punch. Our drink (which we christened as the FIDI Iced Tea and took a month to perfect) is a combination of 3 shots vodka (after trying 20+ vodkas the only that work are Svedka, Grey Goose, Wodka, and the little known dirt cheap Ruskova) canada dry (do not go with Schweppes) lemon lime club soda, and a few squirts of lime juice from the plastic limes in the produce section (Grateful Harvest is best if you can find it).  Is not this sort or erudition and strategizing to make life more elegant and harmonious the very definition of being a true modern gentleman? So keep drinking on the streets: just keep it discrete.

Tanner's Punch

The newest member of Team Embury, Tanner Sarff, taking a testing whiff of a punch he worked up for Justin Violinis' party for the launch of his Fearless Project. Milagro gave us some bottles of Silver to work with,requesting that we do one batch of their signature Milagro Freshest Margarita (2 parts Silver, 1 part lime juice, 3/4 part of their own branded and really quite good amber agave-makes a foolproof, perfectly sweet margarita) and left us to come up with one of our own. While kicking around ideas I was reminded of a classic soda pop-y Mexican approach to margaritas using Squirt instead of fresh citrus, and when I mentioned it to Tanner he perked up--being from Arizona where Squirt is quite popular and had some ideas right off the bat. In New York, as events would prove, it is quite hard to find. (Eventually I found litre bottles at a D'Agastino on Christopher Street.) We had a batch of Mark Buettler's one-of-a-kind home made Sriracha bitters that we really wanted to take out for a spin, and Tanner set out to create something working with these elements.

 

Muddling up some strawberries was a brainwave that proved successful.

When trying out ideas that will eventually be made into a punch it's extremely useful to make individual serving sized drinks first, and to use a jigger to keep track of your ratios. This makes fine tuning far simpler, and allows you to easily replicate the recipe on a large scale by simply recreating that ratio, using a measuring cup instead of a jigger. Using a 1 ounce/2 ounce jigger works well when your bigger measuring cup is a 2 cupper.

 

Pouring little amuse bouche size servings in shot glasses is a very civilized way to taste each iteration as it evolves, and you're not stuck with a full cocktail that sort of demands to be consumed--when trying recipes there's no need to drink the whole thing, as you may easily lose track of your results after a few. This method keeps your consumption at a more moderate, manageable pace. Until you give in and go all Cookie Monster when you hit the winning combination. Which is okay too.

 
Again, the ace in the hole here (aside from the hard-to-find Squirt) were the most-likely unique sriracha bitters.

 

Tanner added a little extra citrus to sort of freshen up the Squirt's tangy grapefruit flavor profile, just a bit of lemon and lime. Sometimes you get it right in just a couple tries and this time it happened-the second batch was pretty much spot on and rather than further mess with it we just went ahead and built a punch size batch in a Montana Jar.

 

2 cups.

Smelling and tasting as you build the punch is key--while you follow a ratio, you still adjust and tweak as you go.

Naming a drink can be incredibly easy or incredibly hard--and often I find really good drinks that you'd like to share can be quite tricky--stakes are high, as you think this one might actually become popular in some small way. This time we got a great drink but a safe fallback name.

TANNER'S PUNCH

2 Parts Milagro Silver
1 Part Squirt
1/4 Part Lime
1/4 Part Lemon
Muddled Strawberries
Sriracha Bitters
1 slice of Jalapeno per serving

You get this great pink punch, with a layer of slightly ominous strawberry protoplasm. The slice of jalapeno mans up what could otherwise be a bit pretty, and a pinch of Murray River Pink Salt on top of the drink makes it pretty bad ass. So we packed up our punches and headed down to the party-photos in the second half of the post.

Wednesday's Cocktail: Will Foster Double Bill

Will Foster, proprietor of Casita Bar in East London's Shoreditch District and the man who turned Embury onto The Verdita, was recently in Florida at the same time as I was in Key West, so he and Mrs. Foster came down for a visit. Naturally, we had to have a little drinks get-together. Will had some pretty grand ambitions that were amended due to lack of availability of a couple of key ingredients, and his ability to change it up and adapt is instructive to the home bartender who doesn't have access to all ingredients under the sun.  Will and I had been chatting about bourbon since his arrival and when I asked him what we might serve at the party he ruminated on it over the next 24 hours. He arrived on a riff on the Bossavelha, a cachaça based drink he'd created for Sagatiba Velha: 

BOSSALVELHA

50ml Sagatiba Velha
20ml Creme de Peche,
25ml lemon juice
1 bar spoon accacia honey
3 quarters of a peach,

Muddle the peach, cachaça and honey add the rest,  shake very hard and strain into a coupe. W.F.

Will planned to adapt it to a bourbon base, and was dead set on Buffalo Trace: "Buffalo lends itself well to cocktails because of its deep flavour and smoothness - one can still taste it through mixers and other elements."  Will asked for fresh peaches, creme de peche, lemon and white honey, and while he and Mrs. Foster were out enjoying the Key West sunset our host Haven and I were driving all around town trying to source the ingredients.  Key West is one of the great drinking towns but that's great in the volume sense, not in quality or variety. After hitting almost every liquor store in town with no luck, at our last  stop we did find the Trace, and big bottles too. No creme de peche was to be found, but there was some peach brandy, situated next to racks of the peach schnappes Will had explicitly warned against, and after some soul searching I grabbed it. So the key ingredient was covered-or was it? Three grocery stores later and there were no fresh peaches to be found. So we hit the frozen aisle and grabbed bags of frozen peaches.

Back at Haven's we rendezvoused with the Fosters and brought him up to date on the near misses, a bit   hesitant-the man's an artist behind the bar and you want an artist to have his weapons of choice. No fear. As Will wrote to me later, "When winging it, it is always essential to remember that there's always a way and the show must go on!" So a muddled drink became a frozen one, as the peaches would only work that way, really, and the peach brandy was in fact an acceptable substitute in our pinch.

THE BOSSY BUFFALO

50 ml Buffalo Trace
20 ml peach brandy
1 teaspoon honey
25 ml lemon juice
4 frozen peach slices,
3 ice cubes, blended

Of course, these proportions were quadrupled by Will as he made blender-size batches of the Bossy Buffalo, and it all worked out perfectly.

Mr. and Mrs. Foster, impressed by the massive jug of Trace, dutifully document it.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Foster picking mint for the batch of Mint Juleps they served.

Some guests were a little taken aback by how strong they were: essentially just bourbon, mint and sugar, and crushed ice. As they chill up in the glass and the ice melts they become much more manageable for the bourbon novice. Will advises infusing  the bourbon with the mint at least overnight to achieve a very saturated flavor. Our resident Kentuck native Jenny (left) approved of the Juleps, which was doubly nice as the mint came from her garden. J.R.

Casita Bar

Sagatiba Velha,

Buffalo Trace

And everyone was quite happy at the end of the party.

Wednesday's Cocktail: The Seelbach

As we approach the Kentucky Derby on May 2nd, we'll be talking about bourbon here at Embury. One of my favorite drinks for daytime, and a wonderful one to turn someone onto is The Seelbach. If you've never heard of it it could sound sketchy--a dining companion at Union Square Cafe on a recent Saturday afternoon was extremely dubious at the thought of bourbon and champagne together, but he smiled when he tasted it.

THE SEELBACH (from Gary and Mardee Regan’s New Classic Cocktails)

1 oz bourbon
1/2 oz Cointreau
7 dashes Peychaud’s bitters
7 dashes Angostura bitters
5 oz Champagne
Pour the liquor and bitters into a Champagne flute and stir. Add Champagne and stir again. Garnish with an orange twist.

Lauren Clark of Drink Boston offers this slight, very sensible variation on the Regans' recipe: I prefer to stir the liquor and bitters lightly over ice and then strain them into the Champagne flute before adding the Champagne. It makes a pleasantly chilled drink that is not so cold or watered down that it dulls the spirits’ character.

One's choice of bourbon is always key, of course, but The Seelbach is quite versatile and can be adapted to what's on hand. I'm always a fan of the delicate Basil Hayden but the malty honey of Makers Mark more than compensates for a less than glorious champagne, and knocks a Seelbach out of the park every time. Peychaude's bitters are great to mix with Angostura, but either will do. On a recent Saturday afternoon at Union Square Cafe the bartender doubled up the Angostura due to lack of Peychaudes-to no ill effect.  fact, I'd consider the Seelbach to be marvellously flexible-just stick to bourbon, bitters and something bubbly on top and a litle something sweet and you'll acheive the same response. The one in this photograph was sourced over a long day in Key West, pulling Pechaudes from friends at the Island House, Angostura from Bad Boy Burrito, Martini & Rossi Proseco from Fausto's and Evan Williams Bourbon from my dad's liquor cabinet. An Exacto knife in the toolshed (same toolshed I'd made so many other drinks in) proved to work fine to cut twists, in this case lemon twists-heresy to some as orange is called for, but the lemon added a nice kick. When my dad looked a little wary even after he'd taken a sip, I remembered this was missing something sweet. With no Cointreau or simple syrup around Ijust spooned in some raw sugar, stirred it up and handed it back to him. That got the smile.

Drink Boston

Gary and Mardee Regan

New Classic Cocktails 

The Lord Ottenbottom welcomes The Carte Blanche to the Thanksgiving Cocktail Toolshed

 
Year two of cocktail toolshed in Key West for the annual potluck at my family's house. Last year saw the debut of the Lord Ottenbottom (see previous post here) as I requisitioned my dad's toolshed for a bar. This year I decided to add The Carte Blanche, a seriously refreshing mix of Hendrick's gin, fresh cucumber juice, lime juice, sparkling brut and orange bitters.  I'd gotten the recipe from Jim Ryan, Brand Ambassador for Hendrick's--the original recipe was for a single cocktail, a shaken affair, but given that I was planning on serving up a few dozen of these I decided to go with the punchbowl approach. It's not an exact science, but after experimenting with single drinks the night before my friend Rob and I felt we had the gist of it down and freehanded the mixture, adjusting to taste. This is one that almost works better as a punch, actually, so if you're serving a large group I'd recommend making some according to the recipe beforehand to get to know the taste, and then going freehand on the day.

The Carte Blanche:

1 1/2 oz. Hendrick's Gin

3/4 oz. Lime juice

1/2-3/4 oz. Simple syrup

3 Cucumber wheels

2 dashes Regan's Orange Bitters #6

Brut sparkling wine (Jim prefers Cava, as we were doing Ottenbottoms already we used a dry proseco with no ill effect)

In a mixing glass place 2 cucumber slices, lime juice, simple syrup and orange bitters and muddle well. Add Hendrick's Gin and ice and shake. Strain into a cocktail glass and top with sparkling wine, garnishing with the third cucumber wheel. Serve.

We varied this a bit for the punch, the main difference being that I peeled and juiced about 30 cucumbers, much more efficient for bigger batches--it takes a while but it's well worth it when it comes to the party. Rob theorized that if you started with the gin in the bowl and then added the cucumber first, rather than the lime, it seemed to disperse that nice floral flavor of the cucumber more throroughly, making it more likely that that note would come through more in each batch than the lime. The limes we had were super tart as well, which meant we went easy on that. So after some experimentation our building sequence went: Hendrick's, cucumber juice, lime juice, simple syrup, proseco and then a few slugs of orange bitters on top--again, all to taste. The Carte Blanche was a big hit--it's a surprising combination of elements (I'm sure it was the first time many guests had experienced the fruit/vegetable cucumber in a cocktail) and extremely refreshing, getting the party kicked into gear in the most pleasant way.  One of the secrets to good hosting is finding ways to bypass the awkward initial phase of the party where guests don't quite know what to do or how to be--the Carte Blanche neatly addresses all concerns, giving them a lively, fast-acting cocktail that gives them something in common to discuss while immediately giving a little mood boost-and I'm convinced all the cucumber makes this drink good for you. One thing to note: cucumbers should be peeled for this, as the skins can add an unwelcome bitterness. This includes juicing at ton of 'em, as I did Thanksgiving morning--you'll have to clear about an hour for that project, but it's worth it.

 

THE DEBUT OF LORD OTTENBOTTOM

I was in Key West for the annual Rowan family and friends Thanksgiving potluck. I'd actually intended to leave a few days before the big day but the work I was down for stretched on a little, and after a week of  everyone saying, “you have to stay for Thanksgiving.” I caved.  The contrarian in me wanted to resist, but the timing sort of worked itself out and there I was.

The back of my folk's house is set up like an open-air pavilion, a large living platform surrounded by a dense wild garden that my mother keeps watered and even occasionally pruned. Every year a broad cross section of people come for Thanksgiving, pulled in from my family's various worlds'-sailors, architects, artists, and  perhaps most relevant to the occasion, chefs. Married friends and surrogate cousins Chris and Erin have been longstanding mainstays-Erin handles some of the set dressing and Chris-well, Chris cooks. A lot. He's the chef at a restaurant called 915, and each year the bounty of roasted root vegetables and mole sauce and turkeys in big pans gets more and more over the top. Other chefs come too, and it's become a bit of a cook-off, with some dazzling results. But everyone has specialties—a lot of organic types in the mix who bust out some crazy mushroom pilaf types of dishes, and this year there was a particular emphasis on pies. And Argentinian Ernesto always makes these crazy empanadas. There were about 50 people this year, with a pulse of the under thirty set as my two youngest brothers were in town and had invited a lot of their friends. A fun crowd, and big drinkers. It is, after all, Key West.

In the past I've made some kind of showy  salad for my contribution—moscatel vinegar, olive oil, arugula and citrus one year, or parsley, romaine , garlic and dijon another, but my salad making skills seem to have waned in recent years-around the time that I started getting paid to write, which makes me think talent (at least mine) isn't an endlessly renewable resource. There are only so many things I can do well, or even competently, at one time, and salad making fell behind. Plus I was reticent to even throw my hat in the ring with these pros. I'd just done a champagne story for OUT and had researched (by which I mean tried) quite a few champagne cocktails while working on the story, often under the capable hands of Jim Ryan. He'd given me a couple recipes that I'd used in the article, and a few more that got cut for space. Chris, Erin and I decided to try some out the night before.

I'd wanted to make the bourbon and champagne number The Seelbach, but my efforts to find a bottle of Basil Hayden's in Key West were seriously thwarted. I got some funny looks from some liquor store proprietors, as though I was some highfalutin' city slicker asking for the most obscure caviar in a fish 'n' chips joint. When I asked for St Germain they really rolled their eyes;  the fashionable liquer hasn't made it this far south, and my aspirations to do La Bicyclette were dashed. "Damn,” I said as we walked out of the third place empty-handed, “I'm getting tired of being treated like I'm Lord Autumnbottom,”, a phrase that I've heard applied to someone putting on airs. Eventually we settled on Makers and a case of Proseco and as the sun set we headed back to the little house I was staying in, a sweet place tucked away from the road with an excellent front porch that seats 3.

Fortunately I had been able to turn up both Peychaud's bitters and Orange bitters  at the Restaurant Store and had grabbed some Angostura bitters at the grocery store. Some  Turbanado sugar cubes too. I dropped nine bottles at my parent's, pulled three and we headed over to my place to try out some mixtures. Chris was immediately fascinated by the Peychaud's--”Fennel and Allspice,” he thought. Of course, the mysterious ingredients of bitters (labeled only 'herbs and spices') lends itself to such flexing of the taste muscles. While  the classic-with sugar cube and Angostura-was friendly, Chris immediately fixed on a combo of orange and Peychaude's—we arrived at 7 dashes of each, soaking the cube, topping with Proseco and a long orange twist. Sweet start, dry finish, flavor duality: “Lord Ottenbottom,” Chris dubbed it, a  malapropism of my Autumnbottom crack and his own last name, Otten. While I did make one or two trial Seelbachs we deemed them a little too dangerous for pre-feast, but we polished off the rest of wine in Ottenbottom form while listening to the new Radiohead, leaving us high and happy. We called it a night early as we had a big day the next day, although we all reported waking up in the middle of the night quite, quite awake-something about all the sugar and perhaps also the power of bitters.

The next morning rolled around and we all felt pretty good. I'd hit on the idea of using my dad's tool shed for the champagne cocktail station. Guests would pass it on the way into the backyard and I could offer them my oh-so-soignee cocktails, dazzling with my big city sophistication. So maybe the liquor store owner was right about me-I was being a bit of a ponce. It was still fun. By one p.m. I had rows of champagne glasses with sugar cubes in them lined up next to an array of bitters, drill bits and caulk, ready to be transformed into liquid gold.

The plan worked, a bit too well, perhaps. The pre-feast section of the day runs from one one til around three, when the food table is opened, and I'd planned to shut the champagne shack down at  that point. I'd also imagined that people would just have one, possibly two cocktails and move on to  wine. No dice.  As people showed up I caught them with Lord Ottenbottoms and they were a big hit-the setting of the too shed was just too good. People would take the drinks, mingle, and then come back for more, again and again. I had to send out for, in the end, six more bottles of Proseco, and other guests had brought them as well, so all in all we went though a couple cases. I was in a flurry of bitters-tossing for a little too long, however—by the time supper rolled around I really didn't feel like eating-although I did, and it was all amazing. But intensive cocktail preparation for two or three hours can put you off your food a bit. Next time I'll prep a little more thoroughly—I'll have to try to pre-soak the cubes next time, or recruit a co-barkeep. That shed was jumping.

After dinner we whipped up some Seelbachs; Maker's Mark packs more punch than Basil Hayden--I missed the delicate, fragrant BH--but it did the trick. That euphoria that the champagne cocktail produces washed over everyone-the party moved to the street, Little brother Ian busted out the gorilla suit after dark, the party moved to the street where the younger set smoked and drank until 1:30, a record for Rowan Thanksgivings. Quite exhausted the next day, but as Bill Murray said about the product he was hocking in 'Lost In Translation', “The good news is, the scotch works.” The Lord Ottenbottom most definitely works. But whether it's the sugar or the bubbles or the bitters—it's potent, and perhaps more of  a New Years selection than a Thanksgiving one.

Lisa's dad Dom came to dinner; he'd been an entertainer at Catskills resorts, and he wandered around the party noodling on his clarinet, which was awesome. He played 'The Night They Invented Champagne' when he saw my setup in the shed.

You could serve right through the window of the toolshed.

 

The Lord Ottenbottoms helped with the very merry mood--the more, the merrier, too .

Ma Rowan dishing up. The amount and quality of the food was absurd.

Erin and the man who put the Otten in Lord Ottenbottom, Chris. Otten.

The kids table, with the biggest kid of all Pa Rowan at the head.

Esme-and yes, she will nod and smile politely if you say, "As in 'For Esme, With Love And Squalor'?", which is good news for the Salinger-knowledge dropping crowd.

Our boy Cheech, fresh back from Iraq and out of the Air Force for good. I hadn't seen him since he joined up five years ago, so having him there, safe and sound, was truly something to be thankful for.

And the party spills out into the street, to the neighbor's horror. Imagine how they felt at 1:30 a.m.

Why leave? Everything-and everyone-you could want was right there.

When the gorilla suit comes out, the civilized part of the evening is over.

THE RECIPES

A special thanks to Jim Ryan from Dressler for his help on my OUT champagne cocktail story, and by extension my Thanksgiving.

LORD OTTENBOTTEM

In a tall flute, drop

1 Turbanado Sugar Cube
7 dashes of Peychaude's Bitters
7 dashes of Fee Brothers' Orange Bitters

Soak the sugar cube with bitters, the top slowly with sparkling wine-Proseco or Cava are both good choices. A long orange twist sets it off nicely-twist it over the flute before you drop it in. 7 dashes of Peychaude's may be a lot for some tastes-try 4 or 5 to start. But there should be a dynamic balance between the sweetness of  Orange and the mysterious bitter-ness of Peychaude's.

LA BICYCLETTE

Even though we failed to make this one it's so lovely and light.

1.5 oz st germain elderflower liqueur
1/2 oz lemon juice

Combine above in a flute; top with brut sparkling wine. Garnish with a sprayed lemon peel, but discard the peel before you serve.

PIMM'S ROYALE

I was set up to do this one, but somehow it never happened-I think I lost the cucumber.

A splash of Pimm's Cup
Top with sparkling wine
Garnish with a fresh cucumber spear.

THE SEELBACH

Not to be consumed on an empty stomach (as in: not before lunch, or Thanksgiving dinner)

In a champagne flute add
One sugar cube
Seven dashes each on Peychaud's and Angostura bitters
1/2 oz Cointreau
1-1/5 oz Basil Hayden's Bourbon
Top with sparkling wine
Add an orange peel if necessary (and if you have to sub Makers as I did it will definitely be necessary-you'll need the citrus and the zest-plus it looks lovely.)