The first question I was asked upon my return from overseas was, 'what was the best drink you had in Australia?'. I debated for a moment but there was never really any doubt--it was my final drink of the journey, and it came from the nimble hands and mind of Phil Gandevia at Eau de Vie, the tucked away bar where I ritualistically, almost superstitiously in the end, enjoyed my first drink of each evening during my entire stay in Sydney. This night I began and ended there, appropriately, and Phil was planning to make me a Brooklyn or a Red Hook, in honor of my home city and all those Manhattan homages that have developed over the last several years. When it came time for that final drink, however, Phil got that funny look in his eye of a bartender with a hunch, and he whipped up this further flung riff on the Manhattan using Basil Hayden's. "Basil Hayden's loves Lillet Blanc," he confided, and proceeded to build a simply sublime drink. I found it so sublime, in fact, that, doubtless affected by the knowledge that the end of a charmed trip was imminent, brought tears to my eyes.
"The 6th B0rough", enters the pantheon of Red Hooks, Greenpoints and all the rest as Phil posited Sydney as a sort of extension of New York City, at least for the moment of this drink. Served in a coupe. I'm awaiting confirmation on whether it was shake or stirred (suspect stirred, can't quite recall for certain, remember: this was not only the last drink of the evening, but of an epic trip exploring bars in both Melbourne and Sydney). I'm off to a train, bus and ferry journey to Martha's Vineyard to attend to the Rhubarb Bellinis for friends wedding, and I'll post a more formal version of the recipe, but for now, this note in Phil's own handwriting will do.
I had to post this note in case something should happen to me on the next leg of my journey and its mysteries be lost forever. The world must know. Those seeking deeper meaning such as philosophers, The Super Hadron Collider Team, and a thousand chanting Suffi mystics--can call it a day. True harmony has been achieved, and it's called The Sixth Burough.
Comments