EMBURY COCKTAILS

On Drinking: The Courteeners

We caught up with The Courteeners hours before their U.S. debut at the Mercury Lounge and days before they kicked off their plum gig opening for Morrissey on tour. They filled us in on what to drink pre-show (chilled red wine is good for the vocal chords) and where they drink back home in Manchester. Like The Hot Melts, these rockers from the North seem to have a fondness for the pub chain J D Wetherspoons, their local branch being The Moon Under Water. (I neglected to direct them towards the rather posher-than-Wetherpsoons bar at Harvey Nichols Manchester, where my man Matt Fairhurst is performing absolute wizardry.) If you haven't heard The Courteeners you can preview their album St. Jude on lala.com here. J.R.

Big Hands
The Moon Under Water.
Marble Beers Ltd

The Courteeners
Visit Manchester

Welcome The Manchester

On a recent trip to Manchester, England to do a piece for Genre's Travel Issue I met up with Matt Fairhurst, Head Barman at the Harvey Nichols Manchester . Largely self-taught rather than a product of the U.K. mixology mill that can be a bit Draconian and arch, he delighted in making  riffs on classics and in inventing purely original creations. An incredible boon to his creative impulses was the proximity of the Harvey Nicks' spirits section, which lay about twenty feet past the entrance to the restaurant. Matt has access to an impressive selection of specialty spirits and other ingredients there, and when he's working on marvelous new inventions all he has to do is pop round the other side of the place to grab, say, cherry bitters or Marsaca, the  Croation cherry liquer. As with so many autodidacts I've met in the bar world, Matt's unfettered enthusiasm yields wondrous results-he hasn't been told what he can't do, and so believes he can do anything, concoction- wise--and thus he can. Here are his notes on this drink on the left--his variation on a Manhattan, dubbed The Manchester:

 

"With respect to the Manhattan I made you guys, it was in between sweet and perfect.  Usually bartenders will make a Manhattan - sweet, dry or perfect (as I'm sure you are aware). I've been playing around a lot using different types and quantities of both bourbon/rye and vermouth. This means you can be so specific and creates a larger scale when making or ordering a Manhattan, which I think customers a quickly catching on to.  In addition to the vermouth I like to add 5 ml of glace cherry syrup this adds; texture, flavour and gives the drink a real shine, I think the first sip is with the eye.  The recipe was;

 

3 drops Angostura Bitters (quite good with aperol bitters as well)

15 ml Antica Formula sweet vermouth

10 ml Noilly Prat dry

50 ml Old Rip Van Winkle 10yr old

5 ml Glace cherry syrup

Garnish with a lemon twist- when making the twist if you use a potato peeler rather than a knife, you just get the zest and none of the white pith which will add a bitter flavour to the drink, twist the lemon rind over the surface of the drink and rim the glass before dropping it in."

Let me assure you, it is sublime.  I'll have more of Matt's recipes here in the near future as he's contributed some of his inventions to my piece on Asian-influenced cocktails for the January issue of OUT. Below are some Harvey Nicks signature drinks, as well as another Fairhust orginal, The Gentleman Zombie.

Decadent Opulence

40ml Baileys

15 ml Cream

15 ml Blackberry puree

10ml Cacao

10ml Caramel

Titan Cosmo


35ml Orange vodka
40ml Strawberry puree
5ml Gomme
10ml Lemon juice
10ml Frais de bois

Blackberry Cascade

12.5 ml Chambord

12. 5ml Vanilla

3 Blackberries

Champagne float

GENTLEMAN ZOMBIE

 
Matt's version of a zombie--lethal!!!!!!
 
20ml Havana Club
20ml Doorly's
20ml Appleton XN
15ml Gooslings
10ml Wray And Nephew Overproof 63% abv rum
35ml Lime juice
20ml Taylor's velvet falernum
Dash French absinthe
5ml Maraschino
10ml Apricot brandy
5ml Gomme
30ml Orange juice
50ml Pineapple juice
squeeze of fresh pink grapefruit
 
Do not drink more than two!