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Barmoire

Cocktails of the Year 2012

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The DFW cocktail scene has come a long way in the last two years, and as many a bartender knows, I’ve been no stranger to it. Restaurants now launch with bar programs no longer a second thought, the qualities of ice and citrus oils are strongly considered, and drinkers once keen on vodka-and-Red-Bull are growing more adventurous palates.

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Some of the local drinks unveiled in 2012, these ones at Dallas’ Five Sixty. At middle left, Rolling Fog Over Mount Fuji; at middle right, Locked and Loaded.

Our craft cocktail architects have, in the last year, designed menus built on the shoulders of the past – reintroducing old classics, embellishing and remodeling, thinking up creations of their own.  Luckily, I have taken it upon myself to sample many of these libations on behalf of the greater good. I have, as they say, taken one for the team.

I can’t claim to have sampled every drink out there. I’m just one man, for god’s sakes. (Thanks to all who sacrificed themselves to join me for the effort.) And I have my own tastes and habitats: In general, my spirits of choice are gin, whiskey, tequila, rum, gasoline and vodka, in that order. Ha ha, vodka – I kid you, I kid you.

But as we say Peace Out to 2012, I leave you with my top 10 favorite local discoveries of the past year. Ah, what the heck: In the spirit of the annum, let’s just make it 12.

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12. MEXICALI BLUES, Tate’s, Dallas (J.W. Tate)

Blending the glamour of aged tequila and house-made grenadine with the smokiness of mezcal, this is Salma Hayek in a coupe, bold and feminine. The borderland babe, named for a Grateful Dead song, is garnished with a palm-tree V of thyme planted in a floating lime-slice island, with a muddle of pepper upping the Baja heat.

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11. STRIPPER SWEAT – Cosmo’s Bar & Lounge, Dallas (Jackson Tran)

“Somebody asked me to make them a drink called Stripper Sweat. I think they had just come from a strip club,” says Tran, adept with flavor even as he churns out the shots and mixed drinks usually favored by the crowd at this Lakewood dive-bar gem. Partial to pairing vodka with the elderflower sweet of St. Germain, he gave complexity to this summery play on vodka-cranberry by mixing vanilla vodka with cranberry, St. Germain and the earthy licorice punch of Fernet. Shaken with an orange wedge, the pulpy, apricot-like mixture is poured over ice, frothy as a raspberry fizz.

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10. COLONEL SANDERS – Sissy’s Southern Kitchen, Dallas (Chase Streitz)

When Streitz, the beverage director at Sissy’s, was asked to design happy-hour drinks around the Henderson Avenue restaurant’s most popular spirits, he spun simple gold from Makers 46, honeying it up with Benedictine and splash of orange bitters over crushed ice.  The drink’s initially aggression softens as the ice melts and muddles the accompanying orange slice, a pleasant pre- or post-dinner relaxer.

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9. THE PEOPLE’S OLD FASHIONED – The People’s Last Stand, Dallas (Omar Yeefoon)

Though Yeefoon no longer pours at this Mockingbird Station bar, he left his mark on the place with this luscious take on the classic whiskey cocktail that couples maple syrup with Rittenhouse rye along with a touch of Angostura bitters and flame-drawn orange oils.  The result: A strong whiskey handshake with a rush of almost tamarind-y sweetness.

8. ROLLING FOG OVER MOUNT FUJI, Five Sixty, Dallas (Lee Hefter)

This gorgeous and aptly named drink at Wolfgang Puck’s Asian-themed restaurant atop Reunion Tower also has depth – and properly made, the illusion of height. Japanese Hibiki 12 whiskey is shaken with Aperol, lemon, simple syrup and egg white, then poured into a small fishbowl of a glass. A mountainous ice slab juts out from the foamy egg-white surface, towering over the pink-hued landscape beneath and evoking the drink’s name. It has the taste and feel of sherbet, with an herbal Aperol finish.

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7. FIG MANHATTAN, Tate’s, Dallas (J.W. Tate)

This classic re-do land-rushes the prairie of your tongue with a bracing yet savory sweetness, the house-made fig syrup ably enhancing the Uptown bar’s orangey dark brown blend of Rittenhouse 100 rye, Cocchi D’Torino vermouth and Angostura bitters. It’s rich, not cloying, with a fig essence that elevates rather than just flavors this classic.

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6. TINY’S FAREWELL, The Cedars Social, Dallas (Mike Steele)

Basically, Steele wanted to make a stirred tiki drink, one without the citrus juice that calls for shaking or the mounds of crushed ice that typically characterize these Caribbean-styled cocktails. He produced this blend of Cana Brava rum, Dolin dry vermouth, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, Kronan Swedish punsch, pineapple syrup and tiki bitters. A diaphanous lemony yellow, it’s honey-sweet with a fruity frontal assault and minty finish underscored by the warm essence of rum. The coup de grace is a swath of grapefruit ignited to draw out the oils and citrusy aroma. The story behind the name? “I always wanted to have a tiki bar,” Steele says. “I figured I’d have this really huge guy behind the bar named Tiny with really big arms, crushing ice. But when I made this drink, it was like, `Tiny, we don’t need you anymore.’ “

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5. EMERSON, Hibiscus, Dallas (Grant Parker)

OK, nothing fancy here – just Parker’s take on a little-known classic that deserves wider recognition. The traditional Emerson is gin, sweet vermouth, maraschino liqueur and lime. Parker, the low-key force behind this Henderson Avenue restaurant’s bar, subs the sweeter and less botanical Old Tom gin and uses the spicy, herbaceous Carpano Antica as his vermouth. The result is a drink that starts fruity (especially cherry), but then U-turns with a dazzling chocolate-and-spice finish. “During the cold season, the Antica gives it a nice cinnamon flavor,” Parker says. “And when the weather turns hot, it’s a nice aperitif.”

4. LOCKED AND LOADED, Five Sixty, Dallas (Lee Hefter)

“That reminds me of breakfast, man,” says Five Sixty bartender Casey Griggs of Locked And Loaded. “That reminds me of some pancakes.” This drink created by Los Angeles-based Lee Hefter, Wolfgang Puck’s right-hand chef, is a buffet of bourbon, maple syrup, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, lemon juice, egg white, rhubarb bitters and a sly rinse of Laphroig. Its hue is somewhere between butterscotch and Chimay Triple, and the bourbon is purposely understated, with a creamy finish marked by rhubarb candy sweetness.

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3. LINNEO’S REMEDY (Ian Reilly)

One evening when Reilly was still working at The People’s Last Stand, I asked him to concoct a drink to feed my growing fascination with mezcal. At the time, he, too, was toying with mezcal and employing his philosophy of temperance – that is, avoiding the urge to compound the agave-based spirit’s smoky Latin flavor with heat and rather using it as a player in an equal, four-part structure a la the classic Last Word. This is what he came up with: a balance of mezcal, Aperol, ginger liqueur and lime.  The result is a delicious sweet-and-sour mix caught up in an undercurrent of peaty mezcal. Reilly – since relocated to just-opened Bowl and Barrel – now opts for saffron-spiced Strega over orangey Aperol, and the name he chose recalls Spain’s medicinal use of bitters as well as Swedish naturalist (and agave’s identifier) Carl Linnaeus – or Carlos Linneo, as he would have been known in Spanish. “I guess all of those, the idea of soothing and balance, combined into Linneo’s Remedy,” Reilly says.

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2. SECRETS AND LIES, The Cedars Social, Dallas (Mike Steele)

This off-the-menu treasure, inspired by a drink Steele once served in Denver, takes premium whiskey, enhances it with port and Strega and adds strong hints of Carpano Antica, vanilla syrup and a cardamom tincture. “I think cardamom and vanilla go really well together, and it’s a good, rich flavor for the fall,” he says. “Plus it goes really well with whiskey.” Every ingredient comes through, a beautiful balance of bite, herbs and holiday warmth. “One time, somebody asked me what was in it,” says the affable Steele from behind the bar of this pioneering spot south of downtown. “I said, `Secrets and lies, man, secrets and lies. And it just went from there.”

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1. FALL INTO A GLASS, Private/Social, Dallas (Rocco Milano)

It’s really not fair when Hum is in the game, because anyone who knows me knows that I adore this liqueur dominated by flavors of ginger, cardamom and clove. It’s a feisty pit bull of an ingredient, but Milano – who introduced me to Hum about a year ago – has a knack for grabbing the leash and making it shine. The gin-hefeweizen-lemon Shandy that he’d added to the summer menu at Uptown’s Private/Social, a twist on the classic French 75, was so popular that he didn’t want to part ways with it in the fall; Hum seemed a natural autumn boost for this cleverly named drink. What you get is a mix of citrus and spritz with a frothy sheen of beer, the finish a wave of autumnal Hum. “It’s amazing how different .75 oz of Hum can make a cocktail taste,” he says. “When I presented the drink to the staff during training, everyone said the exact same thing: You nailed the flavors of fall.”

Want to make it yourself? Here’s the recipe.

FALL INTO A GLASS

2 oz light-bodied gin (such as Citadelle)

1 oz lemon juice

1½ oz simple syrup

¾ oz Hum liqueur

Combine all ingredients, shake and strain into a snifter. Top with 2-3 oz wheat beer (such as McKinney-based Franconia).

— Marc Ramirez 1/9/13 

 

Barmoire

The Mixologists Take Manhattan

The Manhattan: It’s the drink mixologist Gary Regan says “changed the face of cocktails.”

Featuring rye whiskey with a bit of vermouth with a sprinkle or three of bitters, it was arguably the first drink to draft vermouth as a sidekick. That was, as they say, a damn game-changer. The Martinez followed, then the Martini, and eventually all manner of cocktail goodness gracing humanity today.

In case you hadn’t noticed, brown spirits are everywhere, which not only means that fall is officially here but also that if you haven’t turned back your clocks by now, you’re way behind the curve. That would make you highly unworthy to participate in the aptly named Manhattan Project, an ongoing push to promote the drink that runs through early next year.

Two or three times a month, one of six participating Dallas venues will host the free event, whipping up the voluptuous namesake cocktail using whiskeys represented by project sponsor Republic National Distribution Company, such as Buffalo Trace and W.L. Weller.

“The Manhattan is the classic bourbon cocktail,” says Chris Furtado, Republic’s craft specialist. “We really want to emphasize the drink itself, and everybody’s interpretation of it.”

With the mass market kinder to vodka and gin, Furtado says, bourbon cocktails can be overlooked. “But for us classic cocktail lovers,” he says, “it’s a great drink.”

So far, the Manhattan has been celebrated at Cedars Social, People’s Last Stand and the Black Swan Saloon. This week, the tour hit Uptown’s Private/Social. Still to come are Hibiscus and Whiskey Cake before the tour circles around and each gets another shot at the deal.

“We’re showcasing bourbon and places that do it well,” Furtado says, nursing a Manhattan at Cedars Social. “I want people who come here to go to People’s Last Stand. I want people to think of Black Swan as a cocktail destination; they’re doing great stuff.”

The classic Manhattan recipe calls for a 2:1 rye whiskey-to-vermouth ratio. I typically make mine with a 3:1 ratio using Bulleit Rye and a few dashes of Bittercube’s Cherry Bark Vanilla bitters.

Japanese cocktail legend Kazuo Uyeda makes his Manhattans 4:1 and  suggests the ratio can go up to 5:1 before the whiskey’s “brooding, complex character” body-slams everything else in the glass.

Experiment with it yourself and figure out what you like. “Quite simply,” mixologist Regan writes in his classic The Joy of Mixology, “when properly constructed, it is the finest cocktail on the face of the earth.”

The next Manhattan Project event will be Tuesday, Nov. 20, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Hibiscus, 2927 N. Henderson in Dallas.

— Marc Ramirez, Nov. 5, 2012

Barmoire

D and Easy: Tales of the Cocktail opens with Dallas on menu

Lucky Campbell of The Chesterfield says hello to New Orleans.

Tales of the Cocktail, the premier party event for the nation’s bartenders, cocktail chroniclers and spirit and liqueur reps, is officially underway in the Big Easy, with one big D of difference:

For the first time, Dallas bartenders have a special seat at the table, with a tasting event called “Come and Get It! Cocktails Texas Style!”

I’m not sure what the purpose of that second exclamation point is, but suffice it to say that the sampling of local luminaries – including Jason Kosmas of Marquee Grill & Bar, Rocco Milano of Private/Social and Michael Martensen of Cedars Social – on hand to show what makes the Lone Star State so dadgum special are awfully excited.

Bartending tool seller Cocktail Kingdom represents with shakers, jiggers and coupes.

I’ll be posting dispatches from that event and some of the 10th annual festival’s other cocktail workshops, tastings, contests, industry showdogging and requisite revelry along the way.  Most of the action will be going down at the veritable Hotel Monteleone on Royal Street, home to the revolving Carousel Bar and birthplace of the Vieux Carre cocktail.

The Vieux Carre is one of several classic cocktails with roots in New Orleans, which makes this festive city an appropriate home for the yearly event founded by Ann Tuennerman and just one more reason to shower it with love.

Tales of the Cocktail has taken over New Orleans’ Hotel Monteleone. In the background, event founder and executive director Ann Tuennerman talks with a conference attendee.

This is my first year at the festival, and I’m already wowed by the offerings: tributes to rum, apertifs and cucaçao; workshops on Russian drinking culture, foraged ingredients, bartending ecology and even the health benefits of alcohol spiked with beneficial herbs. Some of us will see how bartenders have been portrayed in popular culture, make our own vermouths and bitters or experience the whisky bars of Japan.

These are marathon days, launching with Bloody Marys and oysters on the half-shell when most other people are barely pawing at bagels and drearily sipping morning coffee. Making it through the race requires a shrewd sense of pacing, indomitable endurance and a mighty constitution.

Let’s do this.

Absolut Breakfast.

– Marc Ramirez

Published 7-25-12

Spirits and liqueurs

Long Cool Woman in a Red Dress

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Yeah, it’s true: Gin is my longtime BFF. But lately… well, there’s a certain lady in red who’s gotten under my skin.Her name is Hum. She’s like no dame I ever met before. She’s the Jessica Rabbit of liqueurs.

Some say she’s hard to get along with. I gotta say: She does dominate a room. One-on-one, though — oh yeah, she’s something special. I’ll never forget the first time I met her….

It was Rocco who turned my world upside down. Rocco Milano, the head barman at Private/Social. Rocco knows a lot of characters. Rocco gets around. And he ain’t shy about introducing them to his friends.

In January, Rocco was working his usual artistry behind the bar when he saw me grab a stool with a look that said I needed some excitement in my life. That’s what I’m guessing, anyway, because the first thing he did was grab a shot glass and pull a tap and slide the first step toward madness under my nose.

“Try this,” he said. “It is amazing.”

I should have noticed then that Rocco had slipped off the rails himself. He and Hum first got acquainted at Victory in New Orleans, and then he realized he couldn’t get her out of his mind.

I should have noticed it, but I didn’t. I was too mesmerized by the foxy gal in front of me — a lush burst of magenta with a body that spoke volumes.

I picked her up and right away I knew I was in over my head. The pungency of ginger swaddled in fruity spice and the red blaze of hibiscus. I raised her to my lips and felt her syrupy hello. And then, the bite — tangy, stinging the tongue, then settling into a floral embrace. This Hum wasn’t gonna be no pushover.

Hum’s creators, Chicago’s Adam Seger and London’s Joe McCanta, in the spirit of Italian Amaros, infuse pot still rhum with hibiscus, ginger root, green cardamom and kaffir lime — a blend inspired by the French Caribbean.

* * *

You heard right. Rocco had her on tap. He had captured the red queen — a savvy play made when Hum Spirits contacted him after they heard he’d been looking for her. His Fernet — also on tap — had just run out, and he saw an opportunity.

But he’d also found a way to get Hum to play well with others. Things That Make You Go Hum, he called it — a sublime, frothy mix of Hum, Strega, lemon, simple and egg white, with a touch of absinthe.

Hum has made a huge push here in Dallas in the last few months, and she’s starting to appear in the mix at headier cocktail spots, even if some bartenders aren’t quite sure what to do with her. People’s Last Stand uses it in the vodka-based Lying Beauty, but the first version — later corrected, at my behest — barely let the genie out of the bottle.

At The Cedars Social, Mike Steele craftily partnered her with Buffalo Trace bourbon, grapefruit, honey and Strega. The bourbon proved a worthy partner, letting Hum shine without coming on too strong.

And last month, at The Usual in Fort Worth — I’m obsessed, I tell you — resident genius Juan Solis pulled Hum off the back shelf when I picked her out of the crowd.

He gave the hummingbird-logo’d bottle a good look-over. I was supposed to try this a week ago, he said.

He poured a shot and sipped, then grimaced. What’s in that? he asked.

Juan eyed the ingredients, then tasted it again. I have some ideas, he said. He poured a little of this and that and poked around a smattering of tiny bottles on the counter.

His solution doted on on Hum’s Caribbean flavor: Hum, light rum, lime and simple syrup, with coconut extract and a sprig of mint. It was damn good.

Now, just suppose you’re at my place and you meet a lovely stranger in red. Actually, supposin’s as far as you get: Go buy your own bottle.

— Marc Ramirez