Hail Columbia!

This is part of Ben Paris Cocktails Vol I.  These were some of the drinks on our opening menu almost a year ago.  I just had my workaversary with Columbia Hospitality and though this first drink I created for Ben Paris would be a good place to start.

In 1798, Joseph Hopkinson rearranged and wrote new lyrics to "The Presidents March", itself written and performed at George Washington's inauguration, for the song Hail Columbia!  Hail Columbia was one of the unofficial national anthems of America until "The Star-Spangled Banner" was named so in 1931. Hail Columbia is still played upon the entrance of the Vice President of these United States.  

This one is for Uncle Joe.  

Buzzing with local Rosemary infused vodka, this sour unifies locally made Italian Amaro and limoncello and tangles it all up with Oregon Iris liqueur till you are floating on a cloud tufted with Seattle's own Sun Liquor Rhubarb bitters.  All Hail Columbia!

Vodka, Rosemary, Citrus, Iris, Limoncello, egg white 

2 oz Oola Rosemary Vodka

.75 oz Iris liqueur

.5 oz Letterpress Limoncello

.5 oz Amaro Amarino

.75 oz lemon juice

1 egg white

Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.  Garnish with Rhubarb bitters

Gentleman Caller

My handsome Gentleman Caller

My Eve app is telling me I am fertile right now.  I guess that is why I wanted to devour this handsome fella at the dog park today.

Alas, no man has come a calling in a while so I'll just have to drink my sorrows in this Gentleman Caller.  

This is one of those drinks that has classic specs and can be quite versatile.  In fact, I originally made it with the rhum agricole, but changed it to gin when I saw we had too many rum drinks on the menu. Is that possible?  I think not. 

This drink has been names one of the best cocktails of 2016 and has been published in a St-Germain cocktail book called How To Drink French Fluently.  In the book I subbed out the hard to find genet for St-Germain.  See?  I told you it was versatile.

Aperitif and digestives are an essential part of the ritual for eating and drinking.  We are a restaurant/bar and our cocktails are tailor made to go with that experience of eating and drinking in harmony.  The Gentleman Caller is a light aperitif cocktail consisting of Aperol, Fino sherry, Genepy and gin.  The bitter full brightness of the Aperol and Genepy (an herbal French liqueur) prepare the mouth and belly for food, opening up all your flavor receptors.

The Gentleman Caller was inspired by one of my favorite sherry cocktails, The Adonis, from the Savoy Cocktail Book.  A fine dry sherry like a Fino or Manzanilla is so elegant and complex.  This drink manages to enhance and balance that elegance with other equally complex ingredients. Its a sexy drink too.  Served in a Nick & Nora glass, so named for Nick & Nora Charles in the Thin Man Movies of the late 1930's and 40's.  Nick Charles was a scoundrel but a gentleman all the same.  The Gentleman caller...I like the name as men order the cocktail because they want to be one, and women because they want to have one.

Gentleman Caller

• 1 oz Fino sherry
• 1 oz Gin
• 3/4 oz Aperol
• 3/4 oz Genepy

stir and serve up in a chilled Nick & Nora glass.  Garnish with a twirly mustache of a lemon twist.  I love mustachioed gentleman.  LeSigh!

Andromeda

Bunny in all her glory

Far and away our most popular cocktail at Compere Lapin is the Andromeda.  When Ricky set our bar in motion he was determined to have an egg white cocktail be our vodka cocktail.  I will admit.  I was skeptical at first.  After three years in the French Quarter, I lost some of the fight in me to challenge guests to go outside their comfort zone.  But a Vodka cocktail is inherently approachable and that is in my wheelhouse.  So we set to work on a vodka egg white cocktail.  The first one, delicious Fontanarosa, had beet juice too!  Talk about throwing uneasy vodka drinkers under the bus! 

The next one used the new bartender ketchup, Gifford's Pamplemousse Rose (Grapefruit), El Guapo Rose Cordial, honey syrup and a near split base of Pisco and St George Green Chili Vodka.  I love that sometimes when you create a complex drink, it has very simple origins.  This, to me, is essentially a pisco sour variation.  But it is so much more.  The 50/50 sugar/salt rim mixed with the green chili makes it reminiscent of a margarita.  The rose and grapefruit are unique and all the flavors come together to be a sum even greater than its parts.

And when Ricky carved out that rabbit stencil, all bets are off.  This cocktail is a showstopper.

Now we have to have back up quarts of egg whites to get through a night of service.  Andromedas go flying out all night long.  My pisco guy loves me.

Oh and the name?  Andromeda is the galaxy closest to our own and is known for bumping into other galaxies so look out!  It is also the only name I wanted to change mine to when I was a child.  I was really obsessed with Clash of the Titans at the time.  Harry Hamlin.  Still would.

Andromeda

1 oz Pisco
3/4 oz St George Green Chili Vodka
1/2 oz Gifford Pamplemousse Rose
1/2 oz El Guapo Rose Cordial
1/4 oz Honey syrup (2:1)
3/4 oz lime
1/2 oz egg white

Stake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass with a 50/50 sugar salt half rim
top with Peychauds bitters.

Charbonneau Way

This drink got the seal of approval from many folks at the bar tonight.  And, more importantly, it was approved by the Bossman to go on the new menu at Fort Defiance.  I wanted to honor my French Canadian roots with a Rye drink with french influence.  Suze is a light floral French bitter and it used to only be available in Europe.  Many a bottle has been brought back from trips across the pond.  Now that Suze is available here in the states, I have had so much fun working it into cocktails at the bar.  Naturally, I had to put some maple syrup in it too.  Charbonneau Way is the name of the the road where our sugar house lies.  The Sugar House is where we make sweet Catskill maple syrup.


Charbonneau Way
2 oz Rye
1/2 oz Maple Syrup
1/2 oz Lemon juice
1/2 oz Suze
Absinthe rinse on the glass.


Shake all ingredients with cracked ice and strain into a chilled cocktail coup rinsed with absinthe.