Naming cocktails after songs is a noble tradition--Jeffrey Morgenthaler regularly mines the 70s rock catalogue for titles. But In an attempt at some reverse engineering mixology, I asked Bartender Of The Month Mark Buettler to make a drink actually inspired by the Booker T. & The M.G.'s song "Booker's Notion." I suggested using prior bar manager Jim Ryan's recipe for the Peter Pan Punch as a jumping off point: elegant Basil Hayden's, Luxardo Maraschino liqueur, lemon juice, simple syrup and pixie mandarins, shaken, strained and poured over rocks. Mark thought the song was "a little grimy, a little dirty," and set about roughing up the original which was delicious but, like its namesake, a bit precious, a tad jejeune. The first step was leaving out the the Luxardo and muddling two brandied cherries in the glass instead, leaving clumps of the dark fruit to float about in the drink. Ramazattti and Blood Orange Bitters, grown-up tangerines and of course the 121-127 proof power bourbon Booker's completed the transformation from pretty boy cocktail to down-and-dirty man drink.
BOOKER'S NOTION
Add rest of liquids, shake with ice, strain over cherries in glass
I like to think that Mark took Peter Pan out to a dive bar on this one, getting him drunk and laid. When Peter wakes up in the morning in a strange bed with no idea where he is and no money, he's nonetheless happy. Everyone's gotta learn sometime.
As
I snapped the photo above at Dressler a school bus entered the frame,
and I instantly thought of a line a friend likes to drop when he gets up to leave a
bar: "That school bus isn't going to drive itself." That seemed fittingly grimy for this drink, and for this song, which you can hear below, and download below that.
