It’s Marlon Brando’s Birthday! Celebrate With A “Godfather” Cocktail!

It’s Friday, April 3rd in the year of COVID-19 two-thousand-and-twenty and it also happens to be Marlon Brando’s birthday today.

I almost wrote “the actor Marlon Brando,” but, really, what other Marlon Brando is there in the history of the world!? And if you’re only nominally familiar with the man, it’s probably from his portrayal of Vito Corleone, the “Don” and paterfamilias of the Corleone family in the 1972 film and cultural milestone “The Godfather.”

Of course, by now, it’s probably evident by the headline, the fact that it’s Marlon Brando’s birthday and that lead-in about the Francis Ford Coppola flick that the point of this post is to write about The Godfather cocktail.

About This Drink

A simple, understated scotch cocktail that adds slight sweetness and almond flavor to your favorite scotch.

And to think, I’ve already been drinking scotch this week!

In terms of the scotch going into your Godfather cocktail, grab whatever your go to scotch is — or call in a curbside pickup for a nice workhorse scotch whisky like Monkey Shoulder.

Ingredients

Search Google for Godfather recipes and you’ll come up with everything from scotch-heavy recipes with just a drizzle of amaretto to overly sweet recipes calling for equal parts spirit and liqueur.

I like to split the difference with this drink, skewing closer to the 2:1 proportions of a drink like the Manhattan, but without the bitters — though the addition of bitters, like Fee Brothers old fashioned bitters, would suit this drink just fine for me.

So for my Godfather cocktail I’ll be sipping tonight:

• 2 oz scotch
• .75 oz amaretto
• Orange peel garnish

Preparation

• Add all the ingredients into a rocks glass with ice cubes. Stir and garnish with a swath of orange peel.

Further Drinking:

•The Spruce Eats calls for 1.5oz whisky to .5oz amaretto: Link

•Esquire calls for 2oz whisky to .5oz amaretto: Link

•Many sites source the drink as having appeared in the 70s and cite that there’s no confirmed origin or creator: Link

•The Godmother cocktail: Link

•The French Connection cocktail: Link

The Peach Tease

This cocktail doesn’t even need a name. It has its own playlist:

Prince. The Eels. The Presidents of the United States of America.

Peaches for you. Peaches for me.

And until now it’s only been available in my brain and at my kitchen table, but I’m nothing if not generous — so here’s the recipe.

The Peach Tease

As mentioned previously, Bag and String Wine Merchants gifted me a bottle of their new exclusive barrel release from Tommyrotter Distillery in Buffalo.

This is my first go at making a fun cocktail with it.

About This Drink

A perfect late summer sipper, as fresh peaches are still readily available and the depth and spice of the barrel aged gin hint at the approaching change of seasons.

It’s The Peach Tease (or Teasy P. if you’re hip and into the whole brevity thing).

Ingredients

• 1.5 oz B&S Tommyrotter Barrel-Aged
• .75 oz Peach Tea Simple Syrup
• .75 oz Contratto Apertif orange liqueur
• Peach garnish

Preparation

• Add all the ingredients except the garnish into a mixing glass and stir until well chilled and diluted (as the gin is 122 proof). Strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a fresh slice of peach.

Bag & String exclusive Tommyrotter barrel-aged gin

The flavors in this barrel aged gin are unreal!

I’m very excited to try my hand at making some creative drinks with this Bag & String Wine Merchants exclusive from Buffalo’s Tommy Rotter Distillery!

A Cocktail A Day: 5/1/18

Carrot Ginger Margarita

A Cocktail A Day: 4/29/18

Peach brandy, blood orange amaro, orange bitters, lemon juice & chili-lime hot sauce (as well as rye whiskey, but could be tequila.) Avocado, cilantro & salt to garnish.

A Cocktail A Day: 4/28/18

Anejo tequila, muddled pear, ancho chili liqueur, blood orange shrub, Aperol & charred jalapeno.

A Cocktail A Day: 4/25/18

Hendrick’s gin, cilantro simple syrup, blood orange shrub and jalapeno!

Customer Appreciation Post — Anita Pisco

A customer came back from a trip abroad with a newfound love of Pisco, and in specific — the Pisco Sour.

We don’t have Pisco at the restaurant where I work, but that didn’t stop me from making her an egg white sour with Añejo tequila.

The drink was a hit and she cleverly named it the Anita Pisco — “I need a Pisco.” And her name is a Anita Paladino. And there’s still no tequila in the drink, but she and I still think it’s funny to call it that.

I’m sure it’s slightly annoying for my co-workers that I have these one-off drinks for a dozen different regulars… but my customers like it that I remember their drinks, and when it’s something specific to them (like his this Anita Pisco) — it’s even more of a memorable visit to the bar. Plus we’re only open five days a week and I’m usually there most every night, which is surely how all this arose in the first place.

Regardless, I like slinging specialty drinks and it’s always a treat to have fun and enthusiastic customers.

Another Simple Sunday Drink: Southern Tier Barrel Aged Gin

•Gin, lemon, strawberries & raspberry lime soda water.

Simple Sunday Drink: Southern Tier Barrel Aged Gin

Something simple for tonight:

• Gin, lemon, cilantro, grapefruit soda water