Amaro

— No. 153 —

Lil Snickers

Lil Snick­ers, a cock­tail that reminds us to nev­er take our­selves too seri­ous­ly, fea­tures a local­ly sourced Snick­ers Mini gar­nish that’s for­aged from the Rite Aid across the street from the bar at Wet City. Some peo­ple, when read­ing a cock­tail menu, might feel that ingre­di­ents like Car­damaro or Capalet­ti Aperti­vo might be a tad pre­ten­tious. How­ev­er, throw a Snick­ers Mini into the mix and wham­mo you have one hell of an approach­able and humor­ous drink for the mass­es.  And that’s why Lil …

— No. 152 —

Despacito

Yes, this cock­tail is named after Luis Fon­si’s song Despaci­to. After the staff at Wet City had been asked to play the song for the mil­lionth time they decid­ed to name a drink after the request. Yeah, it’s an inside joke, but it’s a great name for a great drink too. Recipe 1 1/2 oz apple & gin­ger infused vod­ka 1/2 oz Lunazul reposa­do tequi­la 1/2 oz lime 1/4 oz gin­ger syrup top with 2 oz Fever Tree Cit­rus gar­nish with edi­ble flow­ers …

— No. 151 —

Loss Leader

This drink, the Loss Leader, was cre­at­ed by Reed Cahill at Wet City for a week­ly event we’ll be hav­ing togeth­er where we cre­ate a spe­cial cock­tail menu each Mon­day. The “Loss Leader” name comes from a cou­ple of drinks that Miles Mac­quar­rie did at Kim­ball House in Atlanta. He dubbed these cock­tails “Loss Lead­ers” due to their use of ingre­di­ents that were unchar­ac­ter­is­ti­cal­ly expen­sive or rare for use in cock­tails. With that said, the star of this recipe is Coc­chi …

— No. 144 —

The Bearcat

This cock­tail is a fiery lit­tle num­ber so it seemed fit­ting to call her “The Bearcat” — a 1920’s slang term for a feisty, hot-blood­­ed gal. The Bearcat has quick­ly become a favorite com­pan­ion dur­ing the sum­mer thun­der­storms, and I’m already look­ing for­ward to bring­ing her back out in the autumn and win­ter months. The veg­e­tal attrib­ut­es of Cynar, matched with the sweet heat of the Ancho Reyes Chili Liqueur, come togeth­er here for a unique and entic­ing fla­vor pro­file. The mez­cal rinse draws you …

— No. 122 —

A Sound & Pristine Health

It’s no secret that amaro and liqueurs like Zuc­ca have been con­sumed for their med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties. Zuc­ca’s fea­tured ingre­di­ent rhubarb has been known to be used in medieval pre­scrip­tions and is the inspi­ra­tion behind this cock­tail’s name. In Mac­beth (Act V. Scene III), Mac­beth says to his doc­tor: “If thou coudst, doc­tor, cast the water of my land, find her dis­ease and purge it to a sound and pris­tine health, I would applaud thee to the very echo, that should applaud again. …

— No. 109 —

Manly Deeds Womanly Words

Beer cock­tails are a pop­u­lar trend right now. As you may have noticed from my events, when sum­mer comes around I like to focus my cre­ative juices on a few beer cock­tail recipes. This one stood out from the rest. If you think you’re get­ting off easy on the alco­hol per­cent­age, don’t fool your­self. This cock­tail packs a man­ly suck­er punch. It’s sneaky, hid­den by all those pret­ty flo­ral and herbal tones. This is exact­ly why I named the cock­tail …

— No. 108 —

Justice For All

Jus­tice For All is a cock­tail I was com­mis­sioned to cre­ate and serve for a Baltimore/DC adver­tis­ing fir­m’s client par­ty. This recipe is a twist on the clas­sic Side­car. I ramped up the fla­vor pro­file and added my own per­son­al touch with a home­made hon­ey syrup that fea­tures notes of chamomile, clove and black pep­per­corn. To bal­ance the addi­tion­al sweet­ness I also includ­ed a bit­ter­ing-agent in Mon­tene­gro Amaro. Side Note: Wash­ing­ton D.C.‘s mot­to is “Jus­tice For All”, so it seemed …

— No. 104 —

Elephant Flip

As you may know, I great­ly admire the Franklin Mort­gage and Invest­ment Co.‘s cre­ative cock­tails. Dur­ing my last cou­ple vis­its, a cer­tain cock­tail stole the show. It had my whole par­ty ques­tion­ing the foun­da­tions of log­ic and rea­son. I present to you (insert drum roll) The Ele­phant Flip. When I first tried this cock­tail, I knew I had to seek out its cre­ator. The bar­tender who devel­oped this beau­ty is the Franklin’s own Christi­na Ran­do. She has giv­en birth to …

— No. 101 —

Pressure Drop

The Pres­sure Drop, a cock­tail cre­at­ed by Man­hat­tan’s Death and Com­pa­ny, is undoubtably a wor­thy addi­tion to my series fea­tur­ing the best cock­tails from my trav­els. New York City boasts some of Amer­i­ca’s best cock­tail bars. If you’re in the Big Apple, seek out Death and Com­pa­ny and pull a stool up to the bar. The Pres­sure Drop was eas­i­ly my favorite cock­tail on their menu. It’s such an out­stand­ing cock­tail it even made it on Syl­vain’s menu all the …

— No. 98 —

The Six Inch Gold Blade

One of my favorite speakeasy style cock­tail bars is The Franklin Mort­gage and Invest­ment Com­pa­ny in Philadel­phia. Their cock­tail menu is the best I have come across in my trav­els. Yup, I said it… the best. They even have a sec­tion in the menu quot­ing a Howl­in’ Wolf song called “I asked for water and she gave me gaso­line.” The menu is very coura­geous and their exe­cu­tion and style is flaw­less. A few of their cock­tails are fea­tured in this mod­ern cock­tail …