Fall

— 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. 150 —

Dandy

Did you know that Bal­ti­more defied Pro­hi­bi­tion and still served alco­hol? It’s true, Bal­ti­more was a wet city dur­ing Pro­hi­bi­tion. When the rest of the nation went dry dur­ing Pro­hi­bi­tion, Mary­land was the only state that refused to pass an enforce­ment act to sup­port the fed­er­al restric­tions. Thanks to stub­born, free-think­ing Mary­land rule-break­ers, the Chesa­peake Bay became the prime port of call for the nation’s boot­leg­gers, mak­ing Mary­land the wettest state in the union. Ok enough with the his­to­ry lessons. …

— No. 145 —

The Sparrow

This recipe is a twist on a clas­sic cock­tail known as The Old Pal. If you’re not famil­iar with it, you might be famil­iar with its sib­ling — the Boule­vardier — which has over­shad­owed it in pop­u­lar­i­ty for years. Both drinks are 1920’s cre­ations by Har­ry MacEl­hone — cock­tail pio­neer and founder of the infa­mous Har­ry’s New York Bar in Paris. Har­ry attrib­uted the Old Pal to a writer known as William “Spar­row” Robert­son, who called any­one he talked to his “old pal.” Turns out Spar­row Robert­son has …

— 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. 138 —

Les Paul

When the leaves start to fall I get a crav­ing for Cynar. It’s hard to explain, but Cynar has a veg­e­tal, har­vest-like attribute that calls to me. So I made a sim­ple recipe that’s a twist on the clas­sic Man­hat­tan recipe. I serve my fair share of Man­hat­tans and it’s nice to change it up for my guests every once in awhile. This cock­tail fits the bill. Get a bot­tle of Cynar and give it a shot. You won’t be dis­ap­point­ed. …

— No. 126 —

Old Faithful

Are you hav­ing peo­ple over for the Raven’s game this week­end? The last thing you’ll want to be doing while your Ravens are tak­ing it to the Patri­ots in the AFC Cham­pi­onship game is mak­ing drinks for every­one. The best way to keep your guests hap­py and liquored up while main­tain­ing fives on your seat is to pre­pare a punch. I got this recipe from Dan Sear­ing’s book The Punch Bowl. The Old Faith­ful is a recipe by Gina Cher­se­vani …

— No. 123 —

Hidden Charms

This cock­tail is named after one of my favorite Howl­in’ Wolf songs Hid­den Charms. It’s the Nux Wal­nut Liqueur, how­ev­er, that’s the hid­den charm in this recipe. It’s hard not to fall in love with the com­bi­na­tion of wal­nut and whisky. I usu­al­ly enjoy this smokey lit­tle trea­sure dur­ing the cold­er months, but don’t let that stop you from sip­ping one when sum­mer comes back around. Recipe 1 3/4 oz blend­ed scotch whisky 1/2 oz Carpano Anti­ca Sweet Ver­mouth 1/2 oz …

— 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. 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 …