Stagger Lee

This cocktail came from a restaurant guest who had heard from her daughter about a black cherry cocktail with bourbon.  I was lost for a second, as we'd never had anything like that before, but then I realized that she was probably talking about Jim Beam's Red Stag, which is a black cherry bourbon.  She asked how people usually enjoyed it, and I asked her a few questions, and bounced off to create a cocktail for her.  I enjoyed the outcome so much that I tweaked it just a touch and eventually added it as a staple to the menu.

Stagger Lee

Glass:  Large cocktail

Garnish:   Long lemon twist

Method:   Shake and Strain

Ingredients:

2 oz Jim Beam Red Stag bourbon

.5 oz Cointreau

.5 oz Rich simple syrup (this can honestly range anywhere from .25oz-.75oz depending on your personal taste and how sweet you like things)

1 oz Fresh lemon juice

2 dashes Regan's orange bitters

Shake with ice and strain into a large cocktail glass.  Garnish with a long twist of lemon.

Note on the Name:  I struggled hard to name this one, as I wanted something very appropriate to a restaurant that focused on southern cuisine and assorted styles of barbecue.  Ultimately, think I had listened to Nick Cave's "Henry Lee" recently before naming the cocktail, and that put me in mind of his version of "Stagger Lee" (my brain works in bizarre ways).  For those who are unfamiliar with the song (or the story behind any of the variations of the song), here is the Wikipedia entry for the song.  At its core, it is a folk song written about the murder of a specific person by a man from St. Louis.  Red Stag, St. Louis...I realized I'd found my name.  While St. Louis isn't really known for a style of barbecue, they do have a cut style of ribs named after them (pork spare ribs cut into a more uniform rack-style), and they were named "America's Top Grilling City" in an annual list by Kingston charcoal last year.