pamlico

1 1/2 oz White Rum (DonQ or Tommy Bahama)
3/4 oz Beefeater Gin
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice. Top with ginger beer, garnish with a lime wedge, and add a straw.

For my second drink at Eastern Standard, I asked bartender Josh Taylor for the Pamlico. Josh explained that the drink was created at the legendary B-Side Lounge and made its way on to early Eastern Standard cocktail menus when there were a few B-Side veterans behind the bar. The next day, Andrea and I found ourselves sitting at the bar at Toro with bartender Andy McNees. Since Andy was a B-Side alumni (and perhaps one of the early Eastern Standard bartenders that Josh was referring to), I asked him about the history of the Pamlico. Andy described how the drink was created by Dave Cagle (now of Deep Ellum) and modeled after Trader Vic's Cuba Libre Variation where the Coke was switched out for ginger beer. Moreover, the highball was named by bartender Paul Gowen (now a school teacher) after the islands in the Outer Banks where Blackbeard was rumored to have buried his treasure.
The Pamlico greeted the nose with a lime and gin aroma. While the sip was a crisp lime flavor, the swallow contained a combination of the rum, ginger, and gin notes. Overall, the Pamlico was refreshing and reminded me of a lot of the Suffering Bastard variation we made from Beach Bum Berry's Grog Log.