Happy Independence Day!

Feeling Punchy after Burger Night

Fort Defiance kept the holiday weekend going this 4th with a special burger night punch.  We got a big ole watermelon, hollowed it out to make a punch bowl and filled it with watermelon gin punch.  It was good to the last drop!

The punch is from St John and was first published in Fine Cooking Magazine.

Watermelon Gin Punch

One-half small round seedless watermelon (about 3-1/2 lb.), peeled and cut into large chunks
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup simple syrup 
8 sprigs fresh mint; more for garnish
2 cups Hendrick's gin

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Working in batches if necessary, purée the watermelon in a blender or food processor and press the purée through a strainer. You’ll need about 4 cups of juice—it’s fine if there’s some pulp in the juice. Chill.
Put the lemon juice, simple syrup, and mint in a 3-quart serving pitcher or a punch bowl and mash the mint thoroughly with a muddler or the back of a wooden spoon. Add about 4 cups of ice, the gin, and the watermelon juice and stir.
Serve in rocks glasses over ice. Garnish with mint sprigs.

Pop Up Art

So if you have been watching Top Chef this season you know that Pop Up restaurants are all the rage. They are a temporary concept for a restaurant that is bare bones and a bit more fun since they are not tied to permanent idea. The boys form Fatty Crab and Fatty 'Cue decided to do just that with their former Cabrito space in the West Village and open Fatty Johnsons. They also have had the brilliant ideas to get the city's talented bartenders in on the fun. Guest bartending is a lot of hard work but it is also a neat opportunity to show off some of your own drinks and just play in someone else's sandbox.

Tonight Ivy Mix and I are popping up behind the stick at Fatty's. Here is a sneak preview of our menu. Hope to see you all in my old neighborhood!

La Dulce Vida
1.5 oz Chairman's Reserve Rum
3/4 oz Vida Mezcal
3/4 oz lime
3/4 oz Spiced Syrup (Abby's Mix)

Shake serve up in coup with grated cinnamon

Morton Street
1 oz Bourbon
1 oz Wild Turkey Rye
2 oz Fresh Grapefruit
3/4 oz rosemary infused Maple Syrup
Club Soda

Shake, serve on the rocks in a collins glass, top with soda and garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary

7 Steps to Hell
1.5 oz Compass Box Oak Cross
1/2 oz Maraschino liqueur
1/2 oz Cynar
Barspoon of Peat Monster
dash each of Jerry Thomas Own Decanter and Creole Bitters

Stir serve up in a glass spritzed with Peat Monster and lemon twist

Jezebel

1.5 hendricks
1 banks rum
.5 cocchi americano
.5 dolin dry
dash of angostura orange bitters
stir, coupe/martini/up, lemon twist

Collo Rosso

1 appleton VX
3/4 old forester 101
3/4 carpano antica
1/2 campari
stir, dbl rocks, rocks, orange twist

La Sonámula

1.5 jalapeño infused jimador blanco tequila
1 lemon juice
3/4 chamomile syrup
2 dash peychaud
shake, coupe/martini/up, thyme sprig garnish (optional)

Happy Halloween!

Last night at the beautiful Louis 649, Hendrick's brand ambassador Jim Ryan whipped up some tasting drinks for the holidaze.

First he stared out with a tasty punch. According to my brother-in-cocktail's site Punch in the Mouth, a punch is "One of Sour, Two of Sweet, Three of Strong, Four of Weak." Mr. Ryan's was a tart and dry combination of tea, gin and soda. My instructions were to muddle honey and dried cranberries and then added lemon juice to break it up. Then into the bowl goes chamomile tea, Old-Fashioned bitters, Hendricks Gin, and pomegranate soda. Garnish with thinly sliced cucumber and orange wheels with clove studs. It was a very tasty punch that will go on my Holidaze table for sure. He christened this punch, Persephone's Punch so it looks like my Christmas party this year will have a Greek theme! Good thing since I have no room this year and was hoping my Greek neighbor would host in his apartment. Besides..I love feta.

Next he had some delicious Halloween drinks. There is blood vodka, dyed corn syrup etc... but I prefer the classic drinks that have creepy names. And if they are equal part drinks, they are even easier to make when you are blinded by your false eyelashes and sexy costume (sexy balloon boy?)

So while we had Satan's Bloody Whiskers and Corpse Reviver no 2 last night, but I'll throw in a favorite, The Obituary Cocktail in there too.

Mr. Ryan explained that Corpse Reviver's are a whole category of "wake me up" drinks. They usually have some citrus, so think of it as your morning orange juice...with Blood! MoaHa ha ha ha ha!

Satan's Bloody Whiskers
3/4 part Lillet Blanc
3/4 part Lillet Rouge
3/4 part Orange Juice
3/4 part Hendricks Gin
1/2 part Solerno Blood orange liqueur
Dash orange bitters

Corpse Reviver no 2
Equal parts blood orange liqueur, lemon, Hendricks Gin and a dash of absinthe

Obituary Cocktail
2 oz gin
1/4 oz dry vermouth
1/4 oz absinthe