A Cocktail A Day: 4/28/18

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

Pics From National Tequila Day

 My Paloma:

 

And a shot:

  

National Tequila Day

It’s National Tequila Day today! And it’s not even May!

Well, any reason to celebrate a spirit is reason enough for me! Bring on the salt, citrus and agave syrup!

  
I found the above picture by searching National Tequila Day in Google’s images.

And now for some drinks:

• Anejo Old Fashioned — (Link)
• The Matador — (Link)
• Tequila Mockingbird — (Link)

For my money though, the drink of the day should definitely be the Paloma!

You can build this drink to taste, like you would any other highball or Collins/Rickey because the ingredients are sort of similar — tequila, lime juice and grapefruit soda.

But here’s the basic building blocks:

Ingredients:
•2 oz tequila
•1 splash lime juice
•1 pinch of salt
•3 to 4 oz grapefruit soda

Preparation:
Grab yourself a Collins or highball glass and pack it full with ice. Next add 2 oz of good tequila. Add a bit of lime juice, whether it be pre-squeezed or simply a good-sized wedge you squeeze and drop in. Then top off the glass with the grapefruit soda!

For more about the Paloma, visit Liquor.com or Imbibe Magazine or The New York Times or Serious Eats or Esquire.

THIRSTY FOR MORE?

— Check out Good Spirits News for more about National Tequila Day and a list of quality tequilas.

AND ONE LAST THING:

Who makes up all these “National” holidays? Where do they come from? Why are they legit?

— Here’s some info explaining just that.

— A second story about the calendar.

Notes From The Farm To Table

Last night I tended bar at the Athenaeum’s Farm-To-Table Dinner.

Although I was tending bar, I was only making three specialty cocktails — all from a limited menu of drinks which used locally-sourced ingredients:

  
The meal was prepared by Chef Travis Bensink of the Athenaeum Hotel’s Heirloom Restaurant and Chef Julie Scheira of Forte in Jamestown.

I feel really lucky today to have been a part of the event yesterday. I learned a lot and met a lot of great people. The chefs helped me throughout the process, from the first brain-storming sessions to the last-minute details of setting up. My wife was super supportive and helped me throughout the several hours of set-up yesterday afternoon.

There are a lot of great local businesses which specialize in certain food items, and it was nice to see the spotlight on them. For myself, I was just really happy to have a chance to challenge myself and work within a different set of parameters doing stuff that’s a little atypical of traditional bar service.

But enough blathering. Here are a few more photos from the event:

  
One of the courses came paired with a beer from Five and 20 Spirits & Brewery:

  

In addition to the theee cocktails I was making before the dinner, I did create a cocktail to pair with the chicken & waffles course.

I’ve got to give a big thanks to the Southern Tier Brewing Company for giving us a firkin of their one-off kettle sour beer, which used all local ingredients.

The beer was so tart and funky that I wanted to use it in a rum sour, which I made with blackstrap rum, lemon juice, lime juice, falernum syrup, simple syrup and, of course, a hefty pour of the kettle sour beer from Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Prepping Special Cocktails

Prepping cocktail garnishes for the Farm-To-Table dinner tonight at Chautauqua Institution: 

The pre-dinner menu:

• The Chautauqua Sparkler — Strawberry & jalapeno infused tequila with strawberry simple syrup, soda water and fresh lemonade.
• Rhubarb Sonic — Rhubarb infused locally-made vodka topped with soda & tonic and finished with The Bitter Truth’s Grapefruit Bitters.
• The Duck Hunter — A mint julep made with smoked simple syrup and a duck fat infused locally-made rye whiskey.

And paired with the third course:

• Kettle Sour Cocktail — A beer cocktail with blackstrap rum, lemon juice, lime juice, falernum syrup, simple syrup and a kettle sour beer from Southern Tier Brewing Company.

Anejo Old Fashioned

Last month I wrote about some flavored Old Fashioneds for National Bourbon Heritage month. Today’s drink is sort of similar, but different. It’s an Anejo Old Fashioned:

About This Cocktail
A tequila twist on the typical Old Fashioned, made with agave syrup in place of muddled sugar.

Anejo Old Fashioned

Adapted from Liquor.com:

Ingredients
2 ounces anejo tequila
1/4 oz agave syrup
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
2 dashes orange bitters

Preparation
Lightly muddle the agave syrup, bitters and an orange peel in an Old Fashioned glass. Fill with ice and add the tequila. Stir, and garnish with an orange wedge