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

Champagne With Henry VIII

Henry VIII has his very own champagne cocktail named after him!

He ascended the throne of England on April 21, 1509.

The Henry VIII was created by a bartender named Henry Besant in 2004 in London, England.

About This Drink

The drink is a curio comprise of two different vodkas, sugar, citrus, absinthe & champagne.

Ingredients

• Citron Vodka
• Pepper Vodka
• Champagne
• Absinthe
• Orange garnish

Preparation

Build this drink in a chilled champagne flute.

Start with the absinthe-soaked sugar cube and pour in a 1/2 oz of each the two flavored vodkas — then top with champagne and garnish with the orange wedge or swath of peel.

Further Reading:

• Check out Difford’s Guide’s recipe here.
• TheDrinkShop also has a write-up.

Happy Birthday, Lillian Gish!

STARS AND SPIRITS

Cocktail: The “8 East 83rd” Cocktail
Inspiration: Actress Lillian Gish
Base Ingredient: Rye Whiskey
Why today? Gish was born Oct. 14, 1893.
Origin: Nicholas Horton — Bar Noir, Beverly Hills
Cocktail Groupings: Old Hollywood, Actresses & Calendar Cocktails

Once upon a time the actress Lillian Gish was on par with the likes of Mary Pickford.

Today is the actress’s birthday. She was born Oct . 14, 1893.

She’s far from forgotten today, but in terms of a cocktail legacy there’s no actual drink named after Lillian Gish.

However, a California bartender did create something in 2012 as an homage to the actress — and the drink received a write-up in The LA Times. I’ve copied the recipe below comes from that newspaper article:

The “8 East 83rd” Cocktail
An homage to Lillian Gish

By Nicholas Horton
Bar Noir, Beverly Hills

INGREDIENTS
•1 1/2 ounces rye whiskey
•1 ounce simple syrup
•1/4 ounce fresh lemon juice
•2 1/2 ounces Earl Grey tea

PREPARATION
Mix ingredients in a shaker and serve on the rocks in a tea pot.

Thirsty for more?
There are dozens of cocktails named after actors and actresses, and I’ve written about a few of them here:
•Charlie Chaplain — (Link)
•Clara Bow — Link)
•Fay Wray — (Link)
•Ginger Rogers — (Link)
•Lauren Bacall — (Link)
•Mary Astor — (Link)
•Mary Pickford — (Link)

Hey Scout — ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ Turns 55 Today

Today marks the 55th anniversary of the release of Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird.

The book was published on July 11, 1960.

Sometime after its release, a bartender created a cocktail named after the book — the Tequila Mockingbird!

According to Difford’s Guide, this recipe is thought to have been created sometime in the 1960s after Harper Lee’s novel was published. There’s also another version of the drink, and that is the recipe which appears in the recently published cocktail book also titled Tequila Mockingbird.

Tequila Mockingbird 

  

About This Drink

I took the following recipe from The Ultimate Bar Book by Mittie Hellmich.

Ingredients:

•2 oz silver tequila
•1/2 oz white creme de menthe
•1 oz fresh lime juice

Preparation:

Shake over ice and strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish by floating a lime wheel on top — or with a wedge on the rim, as I did.

Stormy Weather

Today was Lena Horne’s birthday.

I don’t know whether there’s a Lena Horne cocktail or not, but I did find two different cocktails called Stormy Weather:

 

Stormy Weather seemed appropriate for today because of the song, film and album associated with Lena Horne.

I found the following Fernet-Branca-based recipe on a site called From Absinthe To Zombie:

Stormy Weather
Charles Schumann, 1980

•3/4 Fernet Branca
•3/4 oz. dry vermouth
•1/4 oz. white crème de menthe

Preparation:
Stir well over crushed ice or cubes in a small highball glass.

Notes:

Instead of stirring, I shook this drink. It has a strong mint flavor, obviously, from both the Fernet and the creme de menthe. It definitely would work as an after dinner drink. I’ll have to try it again tomorrow, but stir it instead to see whether the ice chunks from shaking made that big of a difference.

Another Stormy Weather:

  

About This Drink:

I found this drink on The Washington Post‘s website: An original recipe for a Yellow Tail shiraz cocktail created by mixologist Trudy Thomas in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Ingredients:

•1.5 oz dark rum
•1.5 oz shiraz
•1/2 oz lime juice
•1/4 oz agave nectar
•1 dash Angostura bitters
•Ginger beer

Preparation:
Add all the ingredients except the ginger beer to a shaker filled with ice. Shake and strain into a Collins glass filled with fresh ice and top with ginger beer.

Happy Birthday, Jack Dempsey!

It’s Jack Dempsey’s birthday today, which had me flipping through my copy of Mr. Boston for the recipe for the Dempsey Cocktail:

  
That pic above comes from the 1953 edition of the Old Mr. Boston De Luxe Official Bartender’s Guide.

I know Mr. Boston’s not the oldest cocktail book nor the most cited, but it’s the only one I have on hand that mentions the Dempsey Cocktail.

Jack Dempsey

Who was Jack Dempsey? I didn’t know much about the man until I cribbed the following from Wikipedia:

William Harrison “Jack” Dempsey was born June 24, 1895 and dies May 31, 1983. He was also known as “Kid Blackie” and “The Manassa Mauler.”

He was an American professional boxer, who became a cultural icon of the 1920s.

Dempsey held the World Heavyweight Championship from 1919 to 1926, and his aggressive style and exceptional punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history.

From Mr. Boston:

Ingredients:

•1 oz dry gin
•1 oz apple brandy
•1/2 teaspoon absinthe substitute
•1/2 teaspoon grenadine

Preparation:

Shake well with cracked ice and strain into a 3 oz cocktail glass.

Other Recipes:

—Difford’s Guide uses rum in its “Jack Dempsey” cocktail.

Salvador Dali’s Casanova Cocktail

Today is Salvador Dali’s birthday.

He was born May 11, 1904 in Spain.

So, in honor of his birthday, I searched the Internet to see if he has his own cocktail — and lo and behold, he actually had his own cook book!

Les Diners de Gala was published in 1973. 

 

In the book he details how to make his Casanova Cocktail, which seems to me to be the appropriate drink to have today in honor of his birthday today.

INGREDIENTS
• The juice of 1 orange
• 1 tablespoon bitters (Campari)
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 4 tablespoons brandy
• 2 tablespoons old brandy (Vielle Cure)
• 1 pinch Cayenne pepper

From Les Diners de Gala:

This is quite appropriate when circumstances such as exhaustion, overwork or simply excess of sobriety are calling for a pick-me-up.

Here is a well-tested recipe to fit the bill.

Let us stress another advantage of this particular pep-up concoction is that one doesn’t have to make the sour face that usually accompanies the absorption of a remedy.

At the bottom of a glass, combine pepper and ginger. Pour the bitters on top, then brandy and “Vielle Cure.” Refrigerate or even put in the freezer.

Thirty minutes later, remove from the freezer and stir the juice of the orange into the chilled glass.

Drink… and wait for the effect. 

It is rather speedy.

 

Casanova Cocktail Online

All the text I included above came from a site called Brain Pickings. I believe that’s the text which accompanies the drink recipe in Dali’s book.

Want to read more? Here’s a link to Huff Post and a link to First We Feast and also Dangerous Minds.

Bastille Day

Short post today.

Happy Bastille Day.

Today we had a cocktail tasting at the bar where I work. Tomorrow we start a new cocktail menu.

Of the drinks I sipped:
•French 75
•Chambord & Champagne
•St. Germaine & Champagne

Sooo, yeah… I think I celebrated Bastille Day appropriately.
Added today (and a few other days) to the Calendar Page!