a purple unicorn tangoing with a turtle

1 oz Bully Boy "Our Fathers" Gin
1 oz Green Chartreuse
1 oz Luxardo Maraschino Liqueur
1 oz Lime Juice
1 1/2 oz Heavy Cream
1 Egg White
4-5 drops Orange Blossom Water

Shake once without ice and once with ice, strain into a tall glass with 3-4 oz soda water, and garnish with an orange twist.
Two Saturdays ago, one of my old coworkers and his friends stopped by Our Fathers for drinks. For his last round, he requested something strange; I replied by asking "How strange? What do you think this is -- Drink or something? ...Like a 'purple unicorn tango-ing with a turtle' strange?" That gave him pause, and then he answered, "Yes, I want that drink!" I wandered off for a second to think, and what popped into my head was beginning with the Ramos Gin Fizz, taking out the gin, citrus, and sugar syrup, and replacing it with a Last Word. Given that he loved both drinks on their own, he was rather pleased and declared that this lived up to the name.

call of the wild

1 1/4 oz Rittenhouse Rye
1 1/4 oz Gin Lane 1751 Old Tom Gin
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Yellow Chartreuse
2 dash Orange Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist.

For my shift drink two Saturdays ago, I had planned out a mashup of two stirred drinks: the Alaska and the Frisco. The Frisco is the lesser known variation of the Frisco Sour that lacks citrus that I traced back to Boothby's 1934 book, and it seemed like the lemon-containing version that perhaps first appeared in Embury's 1948 book won out. What links the recipes together are two factors: first, the structure of spirit balanced by liqueur (the Alaska does have orange bitters while the Frisco does not (with Angostura, the Frisco becomes a Monte Carlo)), and second, both were sites of American gold rushes. For a name, I dubbed this one after a Jack London book, Call of the Wild, set in the more Northern rush.
The Call of the Wild sought out the nose with lemon, pine, and honey notes. Next, honey, lemon, and malt gently filled the sip, and the swallow was a bit rougher with rye, spice, and minty herbal flavors. Overall, the combination of Yellow Chartreuse and Benedictine paired rather well as they have since the duo was first published in 1895 in George Kappeler's Modern American Drinks with the Widow's Kiss in George Kappeler's Modern American Drinks and a few years later in Edward Spencer's 1903 The Flowing Bowl with the Colleen Bawn.

gin gin carre!

1 oz Dry Gin (Nautical)
1 oz Genever (Bols)
1 oz Sloe Gin (Plymouth)
1/4 oz Benedictine
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters
2 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a rocks glass with a large ice cube, and garnish with an orange twist.

For my shift drink two Sunday nights ago at Our Fathers in Allston, MA, I plotted out a three gin riff on the Vieux Carré with dry gin, sloe gin, and Genever akin to Martin Cate's The Modern Prometheus. Here, the sloe gin was subbing in for the 1930s classic's sweet vermouth. For a name, I was inspired by the old cheer "Hip hip hooray!" as well as the drink Sip Sip Hooray! to call this one the Gin Gin Carré!
The garnish's orange oil joined and complemented the drink's predominant aroma of Genever's malt. Next, the malt continued on into the dry sip where it mingled with the sloe gin's berry notes, and the swallow presented juniper and bitter-herbal orchard fruit flavors.

gustin gang

3/4 oz Dry Gin (Hardshore)
3/4 oz Sloe Gin (Glendalough)
1 oz Punt e Mes
1/2 oz Cynar
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with a lemon twist.

For my shift drink at Our Fathers two Fridays ago, I decided to riff on the 1919 Cocktail utilizing dry and sloe gin as the two spirits. While I kept the Punt e Mes intact, I switched from molé to Peychaud's Bitters due to their working well with sloe's fruit notes. Moreover, I swapped the original's Benedictine for Cynar to pair with the sloe gin akin to Phil Ward's Lipspin especially considering my decent results in the Perverted by Language. For a name, I was looking for a year to attach to the drink and began thinking about 1662, the year that the original bridge on my route to work was built. However, that had little to do with the drink, so I thought about what else was happening around 1919 -- namely, gangs were gearing up for Prohibition. One famous Boston gang to work bootlegging into their operations was the Gustin Gang. The Gustin Gang was formed in the mid-1910s and by the 1920s began to dominate Boston's underworld. During Prohibition, they purchased rum-running boats that brought booze from international waters into South Boston where they supplied their South Boston speakeasy, the Sportlight, as well as other local establishments.
The Gustin Gang cocktail shared a lemon and berry nose. Next, the berry continued on into the sip where it mingled with hints of grape and caramel, and then the swallow proffered bitter, floral, and pine flavors.

continuum

2 oz Bully Boy OFD Gin
3/4 oz Alessio Sweet Vermouth
1/2 oz Green Chartreuse
1/2 oz Cynar
1/4 oz Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe, and garnish with an orange twist. Note: the OFD Gin is a special floral-citrus formulation that Bully Boys created for the bar.

Earlier two Sundays ago, I had planned out my shift drink for later that night at work. After having recently made a guest The Drink of Laughter and Forgetting, I thought about how well Green Chartreuse and Cynar pair in other drinks such as the Toto, Two from L.A., and Monk's Thistle. My mind then lept to how both liqueurs partner well with curaçao such as the Prospector and Bitter End. For a form, I considered a sweet vermouth-gin direction akin to the Bijou.
For a name, I dubbed it after Our Fathers home in the Continuum building here in Allston, MA, and the Continuum cocktail lent an orange aroma with herbal notes mostly from the Green Chartreuse. Next, grape and Cynar's caramel on the sip led into gin, minty, and herbal flavors on the swallow with a minty orange finish. Moreover, as the drink warmed up, the swallow became a bit more funky flowing into Chartreuse herbal on the swallow.

diamonds & spades

1 1/2 oz Fernet Branca
1 1/2 oz Campari
1/2 oz Simple Syrup
7 dash Peychaud's Bitters
1 pinch Salt
Absinthe for rinsing glass

Dissolve salt in simple syrup, add rest save for the absinthe, stir with ice, and strain into an absinthe-rinsed rocks glass (St. George Absinthe). Twist a lemon peel over the top and discard.

In contemplating my shift drink at Our Fathers two Saturdays ago, I thought about our amari collection and considered taking the Ferrari (50:50 Fernet-Campari) shot in a New Orleans direction akin to Scott Holliday's Red Dwarf. Given that Boston's love of the Sazerac is frequently traced back to Sazerac evangelist John Gertsen at No. 9 Park followed by Drink (where he hosted Sazerac Sundays), I thought about the New Orleans bar where he learned to love them -- Tujagues. That restaurant name made me think of "Two Jacks" as in playing cards, and the one red ingredient and one black ingredient made me hone in on card suits for a name. In the end, Diamonds & Spades won out over the Clubs & Hearts.
I included a pinch of salt get to the other flavors to shine over the bitterness as was done in the Black Stallion Sets Sail and the Cornerman. Like a Sazerac, the Diamonds & Spades nose led off with lemon and anise aromas. Next, caramel and orange on the sip flowed into orange and minty flavors on the swallow with an anise finish. Indeed, the salt allowed the Campari's citrus and the Fernet's mint to take center stage over the bitter botanicals in each of the liqueurs.

perverted by language

1 1/2 oz Dry Gin (Brooklyn Gin)
1/2 oz Sloe Gin (Plymouth)
1/2 oz Sweet Vermouth (Alessio)
1/2 oz Cynar

Stir with ice, strain into a cocktail coupe rinsed with absinthe (St. George), and garnish with a lemon twist; or strain into a rocks glass rinsed with absinthe, and garnish with lemon oil from a twist.
In thinking about the variety of sloe gin and other related plum gins on our shelves at Our Fathers, I recalled the great combination of sloe gin and Cynar that appears in Phil Ward's Lipspin and Colin Shearn's Transatlantic Giant. Using that duo as a base and adding gin to the mix, my initial idea of dry vermouth was wrong for the fruitier notes of sweet vermouth rounded out this combination rather well. And for added herbal complexity and aromatics, I opted for an absinthe rinse. Originally, I was thinking of doing it Sazerac style in a rocks glass, but I prefer the look and feel of our coupes over our double old fashioned glasses at work. For a name, Andrea suggested a reference to the indie rock band The Fall as Mark E. Smith had just passed away this week, and I dubbed this one after their 1983 album Perverted by Language.

fernet chocolate egg cream

2 oz Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup
2 oz Fernet Branca
5-6 oz Whole Milk

Build in a pint-sized milk bottle (from the freezer; measured a little over 17 oz to the top) and semi-aggressively stir to mix in the chocolate syrup (a light schmear of chocolate along the bottom is acceptable and perhaps desirable). Top with 6-7 oz cold Q Club Soda, gently stir to make a frothy head, leave in the spoon, and add a straw. The straw should float suspended on the head. The coldness of the ingredients helps to make the best Egg Creams (our Fernet is stored in the fridge along with the milk and club soda).

At Our Fathers, we offer Egg Creams of two varieties: Chocolate and Pistachio. But why can't these non-alcoholic wonders be made more adult? And what is an Egg Cream anyways? The genesis of the Egg Cream can be traced back to somewhere between the 1880s and the first decade of the 1900s either in Brookyln or Manhattan's Lower East Side. The name is a paradox since it contains neither egg nor cream, but milk, seltzer water, and flavored syrup, and this combination cuts the richness of the milk with the lightness of the soda water to make a not that sweet and almost ethereal libation. There are many theories behind the name such as the more credible Yiddish explanation of the "echt cream" (good cream) to a French actor asking for "chocolat et crème," and the mixture most likely stemmed from the classic ice cream-free milkshake which did indeed contain egg along with cream, syrup, and soda water. I remember when growing up that my mom used to buy Fox's U-Bet Chocolate Syrup and declared that it was the only proper chocolate syrup for an Egg Cream; however, she never made us a single one (we used it in chocolate milk or on ice cream sundaes for years before Hershey's Brand bumped this product from most supermarkets back in Connecticut). The syrup itself was created in the early 1900s, so most likely the Egg Cream was created without it and instead a house syrup as the original flavorant, but many like my mom grew up to believe that it was crucial. It did not hurt that her maiden name was Fox either.
Since I could not get guests at my bar who ordered Egg Creams after a round or two of cocktails to try a spirits-laden one, I decided to make myself one for my shift drink the following evening two Sundays ago. As Fernet Branca and chocolate are great bedfellows especially with dairy such as in my 2009 Fernet Alexander, I took this path as my first step. The addition of one eighth of the total volume being spirit required a little adjustment, but I think the end result turned out decently well since it passed the straw test such that the foam supported the plastic drinking straw. Here was the great combination of minty chocolate that colored the dynamic result of carbonation dancing between fat and protein molecules. Moreover, it did feel a touch naughty drinking a seemingly non-alcoholic libation with the adult beverage ingredient in the mix.

ginui nui

2 oz Privateer Gin
3/4 oz Orange Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
1/2 oz Becherovka (*)
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram
1/4 oz Vanilla Syrup
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Shake with ice, strain into a tall glass, fill with crushed ice, and garnish with an orange peel-cherry flag.
(*) Perhaps sub cinnamon syrup in a pinch.
Two Saturdays ago, one of my guests at work desired a citrus-forward gin drink, and I inquired if a gin Tiki idea would work. When I got the affirmative, I set to work on an idea that I had after spotting a fresh batch of vanilla syrup in the bar fridge. That idea was to riff on Don the Beachcomber's 1937 Pupule that he later renamed the Nui Nui, and to lock in the tropical feel, I selected Privateer's Tiki Gin. Lacking cinnamon syrup at the new bar, I opted for Becherovka that along with the gin led to a much more complex spice palate than the original and worked great with the Donn's Spices #2.

negroni grog

1 oz Hayman's London Dry Gin
1 oz Alessio Vermouth Di Torino Rosso
1 oz Campari
3/4 oz Grapefruit Juice
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Honey Syrup (1:1)
1/4 oz St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram

Shake with ice, strain into a tall glass (with 1 oz soda water), fill with crushed ice, and garnish with an orange wheel, cherry, lime twist flag.
On New Year's Eve, Boston's Campari rep Mel stopped by Our Fathers for food and drink as she made her rounds through the city. For her second cocktail, she asked me to make her something, and I decided to go with a Negroni riff on my Gin Pennant Grog which resulted in a three-way cross between a Negroni and both Don the Beachcomber's and Trader Vic's Navy Grogs. Since Campari pairs well with allspice dram such as in the Chester Rapkin and with grapefruit juice such as in the Tasmanian Twister, I had little to fear with this improv creation. Moreover, inserting a Negroni where gin alone once was worked rather superbly in the Negroni on Saturn. I did forget the splash of soda water included in the Gin Pennant Grog here (after the fact, I put it the instructions above via parenthesis), but the result was tasty regardless.

barry's corner

1 oz Beefeater Gin
1 oz Punt e Mes
3/4 oz Campari
1/4 oz Mathilde Peche
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice, strain into a rocks glass with a large format ice cube, and garnish with a Buddha's Hand finger (or an orange twist).
Two Thursdays ago at work, one of my guests requested something that I had been working on recently that was on the bitter side of things. I decided to go with an idea that I had been mentally toying around with after spotting recipes that paired peach and Campari with great success such as the Campeche and the Movin' to the Country. Here, I went with my trick of splitting the Campari in a Negroni or Boulevardier with a fruit liqueur or syrup like in the Tarzan Boy and Intercept, respectively, and I made this drink with equal parts Campari and Mathilde's Peche. Since Mathilde's product is a lot more flavorful than the crème de peche de Vigne that I am used to at home, I had to remake this concept with the 3:1 blend listed in the recipe above. To round out the bitter-sweet profile, I opted for Punt e Mes as well as the Peychaud's Bitters that worked well in the Campeche. For a name, I dubbed this one the Barry's Corner after the neighborhood that Our Fathers Restaurant is located in Allston as well as a nod to the Italian neighborhood that existed there for decades before various urban renewal programs began to take over.

gin pennant grog

2 oz London Dry Gin (Beefeater)
3/4 oz Honey Syrup (*)
1/4 oz Allspice Dram (Hamilton's) (*)
3/4 oz Lime Juice
3/4 oz Grapefruit Juice

Shake with ice, add 1 oz soda water to the shaker tin, strain into a Mai Tai or double old fashioned glass with a Navy Grog ice cone (with straw hole), and add a straw and a lime-toothpick gin pennant flag to the ice cone.
(*) Postnote: This was originally posted as equal parts honey syrup to allspice dram but I found the 3:1 ratio to be more amenable to people's palates.

Two Tuesdays ago, I was wondering if the naval traditions gin and grog drinking could be combined by swapping out the rum in the classic Navy Grog for gin. In considering a base recipe, I thought about how Don the Beachcomber utilized honey along with grapefruit and lime in his Navy Grog, and how Trader Vic revamped Don's recipe by swapping the honey for allspice dram and simple syrup such as in his Voodoo Grog. Instead of one or the other, why not both? I kept Don's ice cone, and in looking at the photo in the first link, I decided that I would add back the gin pennant garnish. The gin pennant is a flag flown aboard ship that indicates an open invitation to other ships' officers to come aboard for drinks, and this seemed like a fine name for the drink.
The Gin Pennant Grog proffered a lime, allspice, and juniper nose. Next, honey, grapefruit, and lime on the sip gave way to gin and allspice on the swallow that was smoothed over by the honey's richness.
This is how it appears when I have been making them at Our Fathers' bar with Perry's Tot Navy Strength Gin. Since I do no prepare Navy Grog ice cones in advance, I utilize a lime twist flag on a pick inserted through a cherry and citrus slice.