So who's ready for the Derby?

I love Mint Juleps.  One of the first drinks that crossed my mind in putting together the cocktail list for a southern style restaurant was the Mint Julep...the penultimate porch drink of the deep south.  Of course, there are many ways to twist this classic, and I was happy to take the challenge.  I decided to post this now as Mint Juleps also are the signature cocktail of the Kentucky Derby, which happens to fall on May 7th this year (I'm hoping the race time falls before my friend Julie's wedding so that I can watch it somewhere).  Yes, moving to Cincinnati has turned me into a Derby watcher, and I would LOVE to actually go to the races next year.

First, bourbon choice.  Maker's Mark recently(ish) released Maker's 46, and I'm a fan of the extra complexity and sweetness the toasted oak staves add to the bourbon.  Next, the sweetening agent:  this was actually a bit of a no-brainer...house-smoked honey, of course!

I am horrible at writing out an explanation of how to make a Mint Julep since it involves quite a lot of attention to detail, so instead I will give you the recipe and then direct you to a video demonstration. 


smoQ'd Julep

Glassware: Julep cup

Method: Muddle and Stir

Garnish: Drizzle of smoked honey and mint sprig

Muddle:

Fresh Mint (amount to taste...we use two nicely leaved sprigs)

1 oz  House-smoked honey

Add:

2.5 oz Maker’s Mark 46 bourbon

- Stir together (the honey is REALLY thick...it will end up in a ball in the bottom of the drink unless you stir it with the bourbon before adding ice) and add crushed ice

- Stir until the julep cup frosts

- Top off with more crushed ice and stir briefly again

- Drizzle with smoked honey and spanked mint sprig to garnish

- Warn guests to beware of the slippery frosted cup while drinking!

Video: How to make a Mint Julep 

Where we got our Lewis Bag: Professional grade Lewis bags by McSology

Our Mint Julep cups: KegWorks 10oz Mint Julep cup

Clearly, Mint Juleps are a lot of work...this is why we don't feature ours on our menu, though we can always make one for you upon request.  Just remember...patience, please!

Summer Soiree aka I heart Hendricks

Okay, okay...so I know I just rolled out a drink menu I thought was going to stick around until like August or something...I've already had a wave of ideas that seem to be challenging that likelihood, and I couldn't wait to share this one with you.  Ever since our owner brought up the thought that he'd like to move more into "upscale southern" than be pigeon-holed into just "upscale BBQ" the right side of my brain has been in overdrive.  This week I plan on playing with southern-manufactured sodas in cocktails (thank you for the brilliant idea, Imbibe!).  In addition to that, I've been racking my own brain for the flavors that bring me back to my south(west)ern summers as a girl.  Two that really stand out for me are strawberry and watermelon.  We had our own strawberry patch on our property in Oklahoma, and watermelon is one of my favorite things EVER.  Blackberries are another (there was a bush/tree on the side of the road on my way to my school bus stop and we practically picked that thing bare throughout late spring and summer).  So are grapes.  I'll work on those another time.  For now, let's focus on strawberries and watermelon.

This is definitely a new personal favorite, and the fresh fruit and herb really bring out amazing qualities in an already amazing gin. I just renamed it (5/4/11), as I almost forgot that St. Germain calls their summer gift set "Summer Soiree." One of the first things that crossed my mind while I was creating this was the character Dill from To Kill A Mockingbird, so I thought...why not use the reference in the name?

Summer Soiree Mockingbird Summer 
Glass:  Small cocktail
Method:  Muddle, shake and strain
Garnish:  Large watermelon cube

Muddle
1 strawberry, cored and quartered
1 large watermelon cube
2 sprigs fresh dill
.25 oz Simple syrup
Juice of one lime wedge

Add:
2 oz Hendricks gin

Shake with ice and strain into a small cocktail glass.  Garnish with a large watermelon cube.  Love.





 

Raspberry Breeze

I was so entertained by the outcome of creating this drink that I just had to post the recipe right away.  One of our regulars, as dinner was winding down, asked if I had some time to spare to mix him something new.  After a couple of questions he decided he wanted something not too sweet and with vodka.  Got it.  I went for a twist on a mojito.  The end result made him say, "This tastes like spring!"  Perfect :-D

Raspberry Breeze
Glass:  10 oz Collins
Method:  Muddle, Box
Garnish:  Lime wedge and mint sprig

Muddle
2 lime wedges
6 mint leaves
.25 oz Simple syrup
.5 oz Monin Raspberry syrup (have I mentioned that Jungle Jim's carries an amazing array of Monins?  They do.)

Add and Box:
1.5 oz Ciroc vodka
.25 oz Stoli Razberi vodka
 Top with Gosling's Ginger Beer

Garnish and enjoy!

I walked away for about five minutes and the two girls next to him had decided they had named the drink.  I  was highly entertained for the rest of the evening (and still am, actually).  I won't repeat their name here (it's not a bad name, but sometimes inside jokes are best left as inside jokes ;-)).  I think I made about three or four more between the bar regular and other people around the bar.

Giving back

I have always been a huge fan of restaurants using sales to give back to their communities or the world at large.  When the earthquake and tsunami hit in Japan last week, I knew immediately that I wanted to help out in such a way--every little bit helps, and if people are buying drinks at the restaurant anyway maybe I can entice them to buy one that can also benefit others.  I had already had an alcoholic fauxtini variation on the Shamrock Shake in mind for St. Patrick's Day called the Shaken Shamrock (I've since seen a few recipes doing the same sort of thing...I guess I'm not the only one who thought that might be fun!), and I thought I could go ahead and use both that and maybe a more summery, fruity fauxtini (and I had an extra thing of red sugar I had ordered for the SATC2 and my Eclipse promotions when I worked at Bar Louie that I wanted to use for...something.  A variation on a Lemondrop seemed a good idea).  $5 from each sale is going to the Red Cross for Japan earthquake and tsunami relief.  Today I'm going to post both recipes.  They vary a bit from what I usually like to mix up, but even fruity vodka fauxtinis have their place, in my opinion.  I try really hard not to be too much of a cocktail snob and appreciate that people like what they like, and I want my menus to offer everybody something they will enjoy.

The Shaken Shamrock
Glass:  Large cocktail/martini
Method: Shake and Strain
Garnish:  Whipped cream and a cherry (just like this year's shake)

Ingredients:
1 oz Absolut Vanilia
.75 oz Green Creme de Menthe
.25 oz Creme de Cacao/Cocoa (I had to do a double take when one of my bartenders pointed our that DeKuyper's label now says "Cocoa") 
.25 oz Simple syrup
1 spoonful Vanilla bean ice cream
2 0z Heavy Cream 

Build ingredients in a mixing glass and shake with ice.  Strain into a large cocktail glass and garnish with whipped cream and a cherry.


PAMAdrop
Glass:  Large cocktail/martini
Method: Shake and strain
Garnish: Red sugar rim 

Ingredients:
1 oz Vodka
.5 oz PAMA pomegranate liqueur 
.5 oz House made Pomegranate grenadine (1 part POM Wonderful pomegranate juice and one part sugar, shaken until sugar is dissolved)
1.5 oz Fresh lemon juice
1 oz Simple syrup

Build ingredients in a mixing glass and shake with ice.  Strain into a large cocktail/martini glass rimmed with red sugar.

Wild Hibiscus Fizz

I love fizzes.  I am completely obsessed with fizzes.  When I saw that the "official cocktail of Tales of the Cocktail 2011" contest was to create a signature Ramos Gin Fizz I knew I had to enter.  I've been saying for a couple of years now that I really believed over the next few summers hibiscus would become a dominant flavor in drinks, and I've absolutely been seeing a lot more of it recently.  I've also been looking for a great excuse to use the Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup product, and this really seemed to fit the bill!  I even have a photo of this one, though if I serve it on my menu this summer I'm going to serve it in our 12oz wine glasses, so it will look a bit different.  The contest required only that you use the original formula as your base, and that you use at least one of the sponsor products (I used two--the Fee Brothers flower water, and the New Amsterdam gin).  Some of the sponsor products included things like ginger ales, lemonades, etc., and you could use those in variations of the classic, but I really wanted to stay fairly true to the original.

Wild Hibiscus Fizz
Method:  Shake and strain
Glassware:  12oz wine glass or 12oz Collins glass
Garnish:  Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup flower "stem"


Ingredients:
1 egg white (dry shaken)

1.5oz New Amsterdam gin
.5oz Fresh lemon juice
.5 oz Fresh lime juice
1.5oz Simple syrup
.25oz Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup syrup
8 drops Fee Brothers Hibiscus Water
2oz Heavy cream


Instructions:
Separate egg white from yolk and dry-shake egg white.  Add remaining ingredients and shake (...and shake...and shake...and shake some more) VERY well with ice (the old wive's tale around fizzes is that you're supposed to shake them for 15 minutes.  Look up the history of the Ramos Gin Fizz...it's quite a lot of fun).  Strain into glass and top with soda water.  Garnish.

Garnish:
 Take a flower from your Wild Hibiscus Flowers in Syrup, a fruit pick, and two large-ish mint leaves.  Poke the fruit pick through the back of the flower and then through the mint leaves to create the look of a flower stem.  Settle the garnish on top of the drink.

The Beertail Craze

ETA: For those of you who found this entry after reading my Southern Magic recipe, I apologize in advance for the background re-tell.  You can skip the first paragraph if you already know the story behind my intro to beer cocktails...ha

 My first experience with cocktails featuring beer was at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans this past summer.  There were a couple of guys in one of the tasting rooms mixing up a concoction using ROOT liqueur, egg white, and Sierra Nevada (I can't find the recipe.  I may have it in my TotC paperwork somewhere, but it's not in my TotC 2010 recipe book).  I loved the idea so much that when I was starting work on the drink menu for smoQ, I knew that I definitely wanted a "beertail" or two on my list.  The first idea I had also used a brown ale (though the local-to-Cincinnati Mt. Carmel Nut Brown, and with Frangelico as the liqueur), but I instead ended up creating what I named the Southern Magic (involving Maker's Mark, apricot brandy, and Magic Hat #9).  

Today I'm going to write about the new one since it features one of my new favorite liquors to mix--dark rum, and since I just finalized the recipe a couple of days ago I wanted to share.  You can ask me about the Southern Magic when you come in to visit ;-)  

Now...this is a perfect example of how terrible I can be with naming things.  This took me two months and enlisting the help of my serving staff one evening.  I wanted something that evoked the tropical of the Jamaican dark rum, but something that was also a nod to the local beer used in the recipe.  One of my servers nailed it on the head when he said, "You could call it the Staycation."  THAT'S IT!  The Jamaican Staycation it became...and is now how it resides on the summer menu.

Jamaican Staycation
Glass:  Brandy snifter
Method:  Shake, then Box and Strain
Garnish:  No garnish

Combine in mixing glass and shake with ice:
.75 oz  Appleton Estate Reserve dark rum
.25 oz  Frangelico hazelnut liqueur
.25 oz  Simple syrup

Add:
4 oz  Mt. Carmel Nut Brown Ale

Box* ingredients and strain into a brandy snifter.   

*I can't seem to find a good example of "how to box a drink" online, though it's a fairly common method of mixing, so the easiest way to explain is this:  Pour the liquid and ice back and forth between the mixing glass and the shaker a few times to thoroughly combine the ingredients. 

Wine and margarita...together?

I've been seeing a lot about beer cocktails around the internet lately, and I was going to post about the one currently on our menu next, but a lovely group of ladies who enjoyed this drink absolutely insisted last night that this be my next entry...so here you are!  The Southern Magic will just have to wait a little while longer.

We had a gentleman and his wife sit at a table last night, and the gentleman asked his server if we could make a margarita using jalapenos.  We have jalapenos, so...of course!  I went over to say hi and get a little more info before I started mixing.  He told me about a margarita he had in New York that used fresh jalapeno and Sauvignon Blanc, and wondered if I could bring those flavors in (P.S.  If you happen to know the margarita and the place he was channeling in NYC, I'd love to hear!).  My favorite part was that our Sauvignon Blanc is a Fume Blanc, so I got to bring in a touch of the smokiness that our restaurant centers around.  I got his tequila preference, and went from there.  I liked the result so much that I plan on fiddling with it a little bit (primarily the glass rimming--I just used our house-smoked hickory salt last night) and using this on our summer menu.

Don Diablo

Glass:  Collins/Highball

Method: Muddle/Shake and Strain

Garnish: Hickory smoked salt rim, lime and orange slice

Muddle:

3 slices fresh jalapeno (seeds and all)

.75 oz Agave nectar

Tiny dash simple syrup (seriously...like only a few heavy drops)

Add to mixing glass:

1.25 oz  Don Julio Reposado

.5 oz   Cointreau

.5 oz  Dry Creek Fume Blanc

2 oz   Fresh lime juice

Shake with ice and strain into a salted Collins glass over ice.  You could do this one up in a large martini glass, too (which is the version I'll end up putting on our menu).  Again, I was going with his preferences when I made this.

St. Cupid's Arrow

Given that right now I'm wrapping up work on my Valentine's menu (and given that the holiday is just around the corner), I'm sticking with cocktails I've been working on for that.  One of the things I love to do is introduce people to liquors they think they don't like through drinks that I'm pretty certain they'll like.  The Lady Godiva's Stand from my last entry is one great example of that (it features Cognac, and people seem to be scared of Cognac, for some reason), and this is another (tequila is another that too many people seem to shy away from).

St. Cupid's Arrow
Glass:  Champagne flute
Method: Shake and Strain
Garnish: No garnish, though if you have elderflowers that aren't riddled with pesticides or other chemicals, one floating would be lovely, as they are edible.

.75 oz Sauza Hornitos Plata tequila
.5 oz St. Germain elderflower liqueur
 Dash of simple syrup


Shake the above ingredients with ice, and strain into a champagne flute.  Fill with a dry prosecco.

On naming:  This is a drink where the name came before the cocktail.  I rarely attempt this because I'm generally terrible at pairing what would taste like the name sounds.  This started as "Cupid's Arrow" for a suitably Valentine's-y drink, and I added the "St." when I decided to use the St. Germain.

On my Valentine's menu in general:   You'll probably notice that my Valentine's cocktails are actually fairly simple to execute.  Valentine's weekend is notoriously busy in the restaurant industry, and I wanted to make it as painless as possible for my bartenders.  While our normal drink menu (which will also be available that weekend as usual) contains a lot of fresh-squeezed juices and other things that take some time and patience to execute, I wanted to give them a bit of a break on one of the busiest weekends of the industry.  I love craft cocktails, and cocktails that take love and time and effort, but learning to balance that with a restaurant space that used to be corporate and so seats over 200 once the patios are open this summer (yet only has a 12-seat bar) has definitely been a learning curve.

Lady Godiva's Stand

With Valentine's Day creeping around the corner I've decided to work on a list of special drinks for Valentine's weekend.  Given that Valentine's is typically a chocolate sort of day, I couldn't resist using one of my guilty pleasure liqueurs for the occasion:  Godiva Chocolate (chocolate chocolate...not white chocolate.  Ew, white chocolate).  

I wanted to do something similar to (but not) your run-of-the-mill chocolate martini, so it was clear from the start that I absolutely Was. Not. going to use vodka in this one.  Cognac seemed like a natural choice--the sweetness and flavors would work beautifully together.  This past summer at Tales of the Cocktail, I was introduced to a lovely product called Meukow Vanilla cognac.  As a result, when I was choosing my bar, instead of Korbel or Christian Bros. brandy I chose to use Meukow VS as my go-to brandy/cognac.  The Meukow turned out to be the perfect choice for this cocktail.

Lady Godiva's Stand
Glass:   Large cocktail glass (in the 9-10oz range)
Method:  Shake and strain
Garnish:  Fresh grating of chocolate on surface


.75 oz Meukow VS cognac
.75 oz  Godiva (regular) Chocolate liqueur
.5 oz     DiSaronno Amaretto liqueur
.25 oz   Simple syrup
3 oz      Heavy cream


Shake with ice and strain into a large cocktail glass.  Grate Godiva dark chocolate over the top to garnish (Tip: keep the chocolate bar frozen until ready to use.  This will make for easier grating).


On Naming:  The legend of Lady Godiva's infamous ride to protest her husband's taxation was the base for this name.  I wanted to use "Godiva" in the name since it is such a recognizable brand around Valentine's (and it's in the drink, of course!), but I also really wanted to pay homage to the legend of the woman.  Like Lady Godiva, this is a lovely drink with a bit of backbone to it.

Spellbound

I thought to myself, why not start this blog with what I consider my signature cocktail?  To start, I must warn you that I'm one of those people you can't tell "not" to do something...because I'll probably go right ahead and try to make it work.  This recipe is a perfect example of that.  How, you might ask?  I shake a carbonated soda in with the other ingredients.  shhhh! *grins*  While this is not exactly a widely-encouraged practice, sometimes compromising the integrity of the bubbles/carbonation is EXACTLY what you want to do with a mixer (beer cocktails tend to be another example of where this is a reasonably acceptable practice).  I consider this my signature because every single element of the drink screams "That's so Lindsay!"--just ask my husband.  This one is a little summery, but still has enough substance to make it drinkable any time of the year, and it uses an ingredient you don't really find behind the bar--which I always love the idea of.

The inspiration for this cocktail was actually a creation at one of our favorite dinner places last summer: Sung Korean Bistro on 7th and Elm.  They tend to have some lovely and imaginative bar selections (and a fantastic Pimm's Cup in the summer!  Right now you need to go in and try their Hibiscus Garden cocktail...trust me).  Their version used muddled strawberry, balsamic syrup, and some type of vodka.  I loved the base idea (who doesn't love strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar?), but I am not a vodka fan (to put it mildly), so I was inspired to come up with a different take on the same theme.

First...I'm a gin girl at heart.  I've particularly loved and promoted Hendricks passionately since I was introduced by a former manager of mine about six years ago (Thank you, Josh, if you ever read this!)--and I've even converted non-gin drinkers to loving it.  Sadly, I didn't think Hendricks would be the proper gin for this job.  I needed something with a little more oomph to hold its own against the balsamic syrup, but nothing with too much juniper.  This thought led me to Tanqueray No. 10 (not my favorite, but just what was needed for this!).  From there...well...here's the final recipe:

Spellbound
Glass:  Large cocktail (in the 9-10oz range)
Method: Shake and double strain
Garnish: Unnecessary, but a thin slice of strawberry or a leaf of basil floating are quite lovely

Muddle in mixing glass:
1 strawberry, cored and quartered
3 average-sized basil leaves
1 tsp balsamic syrup
.33 oz simple syrup (I use a 2:1 sugar:water ratio in mine, you may need to finagle if yours is different)

Add:
2 oz Tanqueray No. 10 gin
2 lime wedges (squeeze and discard)
2 oz ginger ale (I prefer using Canada Dry, nice and not overwhelming)

Shake (yes, even the ginger ale...flattening it a bit through shaking gives a more balanced and even flavor to the cocktail) with ice and double-strain into a large cocktail glass.  Garnish, if desired.