EMBURY COCKTAILS

2012 Key West Literary Seminar Cocktails: The Neurogibson

I've spent the first couple weeks of this year working on cocktails for the many parties of the 30th annual Key West Literary Seminar. Team Embury and I made drinks in honor of several of the attending speakers including Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, China Miéville and William Gibson. The pickled scallions in the above photo were used as an onion sub in the Neurogibson, inspired by both Gibson's book "Neuromancer" and Jonathan DeLeon of Sorella's Flying V, where the idea for this recipe oringinated. We departed quite a bit from his original formulation but the principles remain similar--gin, picked green onions, an herbal liqueur and Sriracha Bitters. Jonathan went lean and mean for his Gibson riff, tapping Death's Door Gin & Cocchi Americano.

THE FLYING V

2.5 oz Death's Door gin
1/4 Cocchi Americano
Splash scallion pickling liquid
3 dashes Sriracha bitters
Pickled scallion (pickled with rice vinegar and aromatics, mostly ginger).

Rinse a large chilled glass with the Cocchi Americano. Over ice,
combine gin and pickling liquid. Stir well and strain into the chilled
glass. Finish with Sriracha bitters, garnish with the pickled
scallion, and serve!

Once I had the William Gibson/Gisbon name connection light bulb moment I instantly wanted to start with Jonathan's elegant creation and take it someplace a little more far flung, unexpected and audacious-- hopefully something like Gibson's bold work. Briney, piney Tanqueray, herby, swampy Yellow Chartreuese, a little lime juice, even less simple, the nub of a pickled scallion stalk and a dash of the pickling juice. The heavy ginger in the pickles is a nod to the Asian element in Gibson works and indeed in cyberpunk as a whole--I was thinking of Beat Takeshi in the Gibson film adaptation "Jonny Mnemonic", as well as the strong Chinese and Korean elements in the not-too-distant-future of other KWLS guest Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story." 

NEUROGIBSON

1 1/4 oz Tanqueray Gin

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1/2 oz lime juice

1/4 oz demarara simple syrup

1 bar spoon pickled scallion pickling juice

In a pint glass take 2 leaves of lemon balm (I pulled mine from my host and KWLS Board Member Nancy Klingener's garden, check out her blog here) and lightly tap, adding all elements and topping with plenty of ice, shaking vigorously and strain into a rocks glass ( we used stemless wine glasses), topping with a couple drops of Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters to add a little apocalyptic heat.

The resulting cocktail was pretty damn cool, but not one you'd drink all night unlike many that we made for other parties.These considerably more approachable ecipes to come this week. 

Friday Night Cocktails: The Lawn Dart

This kicky number is a potent refresher for the dog days of summer, with a brisk combination of citrus, agave, Green Chartreuse and the vegetal pop of green pepper. The double whammy of Tanqueray and Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila means it fires with both barrels. The Lawn Dart comes from the fertile cocktailing mind of Sean Hoad (right) of  PDT, and  the winning American team at the Cocktail World Cup in New Zealand earlier this year.

THE LAWN DART

1 oz Siembra Azul Blanco Tequila
1 oz Tanqueray Gin
.75 oz Lime Juice
.75 oz Agave Syrup (1:1 Agave Nectar / Water)
.25 oz Green Chartreuse
(1) .75’’ thick slice of green bell pepper

Add lime juice, agave syrup and pepper to mixing tin and muddle.  Add tequila, gin and chartreuse.  Shake with ice.  Fine strain into ice filled Collins glass.  Top with 1 oz soda.  Garnish with cocktail umbrella skewered through lime wheel.

Wednesday's Cocktail: The 6th Borough

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.

Rock You Like A Murricane

"But the good news is, the whiskey works." So says Bill Murray in Lost In Translation, with his trademark mixture of mirth shot through with a certain ennui or resignation (or is it the other way round?). The man has some important drinking moments in films, from taking a swig from a bottle on the steps of Columbia in Ghostbusters while giving one of the best, most reckless pep talks in cinematic history to his melancholy poolside scotch in Rushmore. Murray the man knows his way around a bottle too, or so his tale of a late night ride on a golf cart across Stockholm would seem to indicate.

In his Shaken and Stirred column for the New York Times, Jonathan Miles writes about The Anchor, a Soho bar that has distinguished itself by naming drinks after celebrated guests-a bit of naked P.R. strategy that's clearly worked. The cheesiness of the gimmick appears to have been transcended, however, with the creation of The Murricane. Apparently Bill Murray stopped into The Anchor where they, naturally, were keen to create a drink in his honor. Amenable, he suggested something with chartreuse, a nice challenge and an interesting indicator of his taste. The Anchor folk came up with this decidedly chartreuse-free drink that redeems its arrogant origin (ignore Bill Murray's request?) by being quite good. And Murray suggested calling it the Murricaine, a nickame SNL co-star Dan Akroyd gave him in light of his reputed moodiness. One more reason that it's Bill Murray's world, and we just live in it.

2 ounces fresh watermelon
4 or 5 basil leaves
1 1/2 ounces bourbon
3/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
3/4 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur
Freshly ground black pepper and watermelon wedge, for garnish (optional).

Combine the watermelon and basil leaves in a mixing glass or shaker and muddle until the watermelon is crushed and juicy. Add the bourbon, lemon juice and St-Germain, along with ice, and shake vigorously. Strain into a cocktail glass and garnish, if desired, with a sprinkling of black pepper and a wedge of watermelon.

You've got to imagine some bourbon reps are kicking themselves for not getting in on branding this one.

Shaken and Stirred in the NYT
The Anchor

Missed Flighty

 When I was working on my Asian Influenced Cocktails story for the February OUT, I asked my friend Alberta Straub , a.k.a. Miss Flighty (above, and below, at Bourbon Fest), to contribute some original recipes. Alberta's a madcap scientist behind the bar, wildly inventive and unbound by anything as drab as conventional wisdom, and  she has a level of erudition that her zany manner might not indicate to some. Take, for instance, a recent e-mail from her in response to an invitation to a Verdita party (I've written about that magical tequila drink here):

Cool party !!! I just did some fun tequila like enhancements...sorta that might be good for your shots..I made a coriander salt..I re constituted the salt by making a super saturated mix and letting it recrytalize..it had chilis in it..to I also did these sugars for tequila...where I took fresh herbs in a mortar and pestal and pouned them add suger till it absorbed the flavors then dried it in the over and sifted..oooo!

That's how she rolls. She'd contributed a couple ideas for the article, good ones, but our choice, The Woo Hoo, got cut when OUT's editor had a Manzana at Dressler that John Byrd created and it had to go with the story. Here are Alberta's recipes that didn't make the magazine, which I'm delighted to feature on Embury.

THE WOO HOO (after the 5, 6, 7, 8's song from Kill Bill)

In a mixing glass add:

1.5 Kissou Rice Vodka
3/4 oz Plum Wine
1/4 peeled Asian Pear
Muddle vigorously, shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass
Add a splash of lemon bitters and a twist of lemon

Another idea she threw my way:

The Bijou is classic but I make a variant.
 

THE CUCKOO BIJOU

1 1/2 part Plymouth gin

1/2 Noilly Prat Dry Vermouth

1/2 part Green Chartreuse

Handful of Thai Basil

Add ingredients to a mixing tin, muddle gently, add ice and stir, strain into a chilled cocktail glass garnish with a basil sprig.

Alberta's breezy, smart how-to clips on the On Networks are here. Her four-part guide to making  Bloody Marys is quite inspiring, as you can see from her segment of infusing your own vodka below.