EMBURY COCKTAILS

Winter Whiskey Sour from Zach Patterson at Melrose Umbrella Company

Had to do some fancy footwork to get this last minute assignment for Douglas Elliman Magazine pulled together--not as fast as I made Zach Patterson come up with a wintry, holiday-esque cocktail on a sunny October day in Los Angeles, but I did manage to turn the whole thing around in about 48  hours. That I had to hang out in Melrose Umbrella Company for most of a Thursday afternoon, shooting the drink, snacking my way through the bar menu, interspersing sips of the cocktails-in-progress with macchiatos--not a bad way to bang out a story and photo. Great afternoon light there, in the wood-lined bar, with reflected sunlight bouncing off of Melrose Avenue outside.

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 I did have to corral the forever-in-motion Zach pretty hard to get him to commit to a finished version of the recipe, but he nailed this one in just a couple attempts, allowing me to file photo, copy and final recipe by 6 PM as promised. He then put on a Bram Stoker's Dracula-style vamp costume and went and pulled a guest shift at Big Bar in Los Feliz. He's like the Terminator Bartender...he will never stop.....

 

 

Coming Soon: Cocktails from Baccarat Hotel, NYC

I recently shot some quite glamorous cocktails for the opulent Baccarat Hotel in NYC.  Above, L'Avant Garde: Casa Dragones Tequila, Chartreuse, Capelletti, lime, orange bitters & activated coconut shell charcoal.

Way Back Wednesday: The Gunshop Fizz from Kirk Estopinal at Cure, 2009

I've just moved to New Orleans, and in reviewing my New Orleans coverage over the years I came across this video we did with Kirk Estopinal at Cure, soon after it opened, in 2009.  This improbably successful mostly-Peychaud's fizz is from Kirk and Maks Pazuniak's book, Beta Cocktails, for which they set themselves the challenge of making the most unlikely ingredient combos work. Since then Kirk and his Cure compatriots have opened a now-gone (and sorely missed) Bellocq, as well as my favorite new-ish spot (as opposed to historical) in the French Quarter, the rum-centric Cane + Table. 

In a poorly considered bit of scheduling, I'd lined up this shoot for the Monday after Tales of the cocktail, and I think we were all a bit shaky. But the video, which had Chad Mumm behind the camera and on the lovely edit, doesn't show the signs of our Tales hangover too badly, I think. And the drink remains a delight, particularly for lovers of cocktail bitters.

GUNSHOP FIZZ

2 oz Peychaud's bitters
1 oz lemon juice
1 oz simple syrup
2 strawberries
3 cucumber slices
3 swaths of grapefruit peel
3 swath of orange peel
Sanbitter

Add all the ingredients except Sanbitter into a mixing tin. Muddle and set aside for two minutes to allow the flavors to blend.

Add ice, shake and strain over fresh ice in a collins glass; top with Sanbitter. Garnish with a cucumber slice.