Customer Appreciation Post — Widow Jane Manhattan

A photo from New Year’s Day:

  

Drinks At Brazill’s

Last night I had dinner and drinks at Brazill’s on Main in Westfield, N.Y.

It was my second time at the restaurant, and it was as great an experience as my first visit — if not better.

I had a rye Manhattan to start:

I also had a bourbon & cider drink:

Even though it’s within Chautauqua County, Brazill’s is a bit of a hike from Jamestown — and I don’t get there often enough because the place is open the same hours as when I’m usually working at my restaurant.

Last night was a bit of a surprise night off though, and I tried to make the most of it.

We Call It… The Banana Gun!

This drink was a surprise stroke of genius that came as a result of a little back-and-forth with a customer.

Most times, as a bartender, I’ve got a couple different drinks on my mind in case anyone wants something but doesn’t know what they want. When someone wants me to pick for them and surprise them with something, I’ll still work with ’em to either direct ’em to a classic or one of the slate of drinks I’m holding onto in my brain — I’ll ask a couple of questions and try to read ’em and make sure they get a drink they’re going to like.

Then there are those moments when a little back-and-forth banter leads to a collaboration you would’ve never thought of on your own — which happened to me Tuesday night. 

I’d served a friend a Manhattan after his dinner and then we were discussing where to go next. The idea of rum was raised and the possibility of a banana daiquiri was discussed, but then I brought up the Revolver.

The Revolver is a bourbon drink with coffee liqueur and orange bitters. It’s a simple three-ingredient cocktail, but it’s surprisingly easy for essentially being all booze.

And as I explained all this, my friend nodded in agreement and then said something like: “Yes, but banana.”

So, into the drink went banana rum — which definitely made a sort of sense. I mean, the coffee liqueur we were using in the drink was Kahlua, which is a rum-based coffee liqueur that tastes like vanilla.

And so it was settled and we made the following, a Revolver with all the typical ingredients of the traditional drink plus banana rum — making it a Banana Gun:

  

Banana Gun
•2 oz Woodford Reserve
•.75 oz Kahlua
•.75 oz banana rum
•2 dashes orange bitters

Thirsty For More?
— Read here about the Revolver.
— Liquor.com’s page about the cocktail.

National Whiskey Sour Day

I read on Good Spirits News that today is National Whiskey Sour Day!

As with all these random-seeming drink holidays, I won’t put up too much fuss or question its origin — as any reason to celebrate a cocktail is reason enough!

Whiskey Sour

About This Cocktail:

For my Whiskey Sour pictured above, I used Woodford Reserve:

Ingredients:

•2 oz rye or bourbon or other whiskey of preference. I actually used 2 oz of Woodford Reserve bourbon, which has a lot of rye in its mash bill.
•.5 oz simple syrup
•.5 oz fresh lemon juice
Preparation:

Shake all ingredients over ice and strain into a rocks glass over fresh ice.

Some recipes for the Whiskey Sour cocktail call for an egg white, as a lot of old sours recipes do… But a lot of recipes these days list egg white as “optional.” I didn’t use egg white in the drink pictured above, but you’ll find it listed in some of the recipes I linked to in this post.

  

Lemon Raspberry Bourbon Smash

Last night I made myself a Pink Smash to drink:

 
I’ve written about smashes before. A few times, in fact.

About This Cocktail
This “Raspberry Lemon Bourbon Smash” is a variation on the basic whiskey smash with fresh raspberries and lemon juice.

Ingredients
•2 oz bourbon
•1/2 oz lemon juice
•1/2 oz lemonade
•1/4 oz simple syrup
•6 mint leaves
•6 raspberries

Preparation
Place mint leaves and raspberries in a pint glass with the simple syrup. lemonade and lemon juice. Muddle the ingredients and then add both ice and bourbon. Shake the drink aggressively and double strain it drink into a chilled cocktail glass.

Mint Juleps At Bag & String

I just left Bag & String and today they’re sampling customers on Mint Juleps!

The tasting runs until 6 p.m. Stop on out!

 
Thanks for hosting such a great tasting Samuel Whitmore, Betsy Goldman and Renee Zahm!
 

And lastly, Bag & String’s recipe:

  

A Julep A Day #5

Made with:

• Old Forester Signature (100 proof)
• Locally-grown mint from Jamestown’s BioDome Project.