Winter

— 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. 125 —

Absente Video

Are the in-laws com­ing over to your place for a lit­tle hol­i­day get togeth­er? The North Star is the per­fect way to turn an awk­ward hol­i­day par­ty around, loos­en­ing every­one up and get­ting the vibe a bit more fes­tive. The North Star is a cock­tail I came up with for Cril­lon Importer’s prod­uct Absente, Absinthe Refined. As you may already be aware absinthe and cream go togeth­er nice­ly. The kirschwass­er adds a cher­ry note to this cock­tail and of course …

— 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. 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 …