plateau cocktail

1 oz Dry Gin
1 oz Lillet Rose
1/2 oz Meletti Amaro
1/2 oz Avèze Gentian Liqueur
2 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass with a big ice cube. Garnish with an orange twist.
For my first drink at Deep Ellum, I requested the Plateau Cocktail since the combination of gin, aromatized wine, and bitter liqueurs seemed perfect right before dinner. Indeed, the Plateau Cocktail did make for a great aperitif. Orange oils greeted the nose and gave way to a light caramel and wine sip. The swallow then offered floral, gentian, and juniper notes. Andrea commented that when she rolled it around on her tongue, it was candied and sweet, but that was countered by the bitter herbal swallow.

bitter collins

1 1/2 oz Damrak Gin
1/2 oz Campari
1 oz Lemon Juice
1 oz Simple Syrup

Build with ice in Highball glass, top with soda, and gently roll to mix. Garnish with a cherry and orange flag, and add a straw.
Two Tuesdays ago, Andrea and I ventured down to Deep Ellum for dinner. For a drink, Andrea asked bartender Danielle Berman for the Bitter Collins which seemed perfect for the warm weather. The drink began with an orange aroma from the garnish and prepared the mouth for the carbonated citrussy sip. Finally, a gin and herbal swallow ended with a tart lemon finish.

nullo

1/3 jigger Gin (1 oz Tanqueray)
1/3 jigger Sweet Vermouth (1 oz Cocchi)
1 spoon Grenadine (1/4 oz)
1 spoon Grapefruit Juice (1/2 oz)
1/2 Egg White (1 Egg White)

Shake once without ice and once with ice. Strain into a cocktail glass. I added a grapefruit twist.

Two Mondays ago, I flipped through my 1934 reprint of Boothby's World Drinks and How to Mix Them and spotted the Nullo. The combination of gin, sweet vermouth, and grapefruit juice reminded me of the Fibber McGee we made before I started writing for the Cocktail Virgin blog. Where the Fibber McGee had Angostura, the Nullo went in the direction of pomegranate and egg white. And the grapefruit, gin, and egg white also reminded me of the Marco Antonio from the La Florida Cocktail Book.
The Nullo began with a grapefruit oil aroma. A creamy grapefruit sip led into a gin, grape, and pomegranate finish. Overall, the Nullo was pleasantly light, and I could not help but think how cinnamon syrup instead of grenadine would not be out of place in this combination.

six bells

1 wineglass Myers's Rum (1 1/2 oz Gosling's Black Seal)
1 liquor glass Curaçao (1/2 oz Pierre Ferrand)
Juice 1 Lime (1/2 oz)
12 drop Angostura Bitters (1 dash)
1 dessert spoon Sugar (1 barspoon Simple Syrup)

Shake with ice and strain into a cocktail glass.

After the 91st Division, I opened up our reprint of the1937 Café Royal Cocktail Book and spotted the Six Bells. I was drawn in for it seemed like a dark rum version of the gin-based classic, the Pegu Club. The book shares the history that retired Commander H.S. Cardale of the Royal Navy provided this recipe. Perhaps the name reflects how the Royal Navy divides the day up into 5 four hour shifts and 2 two hour shifts which are denoted and segmented by bell ringing. Six bells would be 3 hours into the four hour watches that end with the 8th bell. The U.S. Navy has a more simplified 6 four hour shifts with similar bell ringing.
An orange peel and dark rum aroma prepared the mouth for the caramel and grapefruit-like sip. The rum flavors continued into the swallow where they were followed by the orange and lime notes and an allspice and clove finish.

91st division

2/3 Scotch (1 1/2 oz Pig's Nose)
1/3 Madeira (3/4 oz Blandy's Verdelho)
2 dash Dry Vermouth (1/2 oz Dolin)
1 dash Cointreau (1/4 oz)
1 dash Angostura Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a cocktail glass. I added an orange twist.

Two Saturdays ago, we began the cocktail hour with a drink from Pioneers of Mixing at Elite Bars: 1903-1933. While the book did not specify which 91st Division the recipe is named after, the most famous one was part of the U.S. Army and they smashed through three enemy lines in their first outing during World War I besides being heralded for their other campaigns. With Scotch and Madeira in this tribute, I was definitely game.
The orange twist's oils provided much of the drink's nose. A malt and grape sip gave way to a swallow that began with the Scotch and finished dry with orange peel and Madeira flavors. Indeed, the Madeira's smoky notes complemented those from the Scotch besides working in a vermouth-whiskey sort of like pairing.

death in a doublewide

1 1/2 oz Balcones Brimstone Corn Whiskey
3/4 oz Smith & Cross Rum
1/4 oz St. George Absinthe
1 1/2 oz Boiling Water

Build in a Blue Blazer mug that was pre-warmed by boiling water. Ignite on fire and carefully pass back and forth with another pre-warmed Blue Blazer mug. Pour into a heat-resistant punch cup and flame two lemon twists over the top. Extinguish the flame by covering the punch cup.

So the companion piece to Love in an Elevator by Matt Whitney was the Death in a Double Wide by John Mayer himself. I had no clue that he had started on my drink when he brought out two Blue Blazer mugs and set up about 12 feet away. I mentioned to Andrea that someone was silly enough to order a Blue Blazer on such a hot, almost summer evening. John put on quite the show for that section of the bar, and then he walked over to where we were sitting to pour out the flaming drink, ignite a pair of lemon oil puffs, and smother the flame. Around that moment I realized that I was the silly fool who was getting a hot drink on a warm evening... John described how the drink was inspired by the Diamondback, and bartender Matt Whitney recommended adding the Smith & Cross Rum to the mix. John knew that the smokey whiskey, rum, and absinthe worked well in pairs, but he could not get this trio to work when chilled. In stepped the Hawthorne's Carrie Cole who suggested to John that it might come together better as a hot drink instead, and the Death in a Doublewide finally took shape.
Once the flame was extinguished, the libation offered a hot and steamy lemon and anise aroma. The corn whiskey seemed to stay more on the sip, while the alcohol heat, rum, and absinthe notes filled the swallow. A flaming death, save for a BBQ, never tasted as delicious.

love in an elevator

2 oz Ron Zacapa Rum
1/2 oz Pedro Romero Dry Oloroso Sherry
1/2 oz Benedictine
1/2 oz Punt e Mes
1 dash Angostura Orange Bitters

Stir with ice and strain into a rocks glass. Flame an orange twist over the top.

Two Thursdays ago, we ventured down to Local 149 in Southie for dinner. For cocktail ideas, bartender John Mayer declared that he had two drinks in mind. The first was Love in an Elevator and the second was a companion piece called Death in a Doublewide. Love in an Elevator was created by Matt Whitney, and it sounded like the brown, bitter, and stirred drink that I had been craving.
The orange oils over the drink brightened the caramel aroma of the aged rum. Grape flavors from the oloroso sherry more so than from the Punt e Mes filled the sip, and the swallow showcased the rich rum along with nutty, spice, and bitter notes. As the drink warmed up, it gained additional minty-herbal notes on the swallow from the Benedictine.

last nights of paris

1 oz Rye Whiskey (Rittenhouse 100)
1 oz Sweet Vermouth (Cocchi)
1 oz Avèze Gentian Liqueur
1 barspoon Maraschino Liqueur (Luxardo)
1 barspoon Lemon Juice
2 Blackberries

Muddle 2 blackberries with Maraschino and lemon juice. Add rest of the ingredients and ice. Stir and double strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice. Garnish with an orange peel-blackberry flag on a cocktail pick.

For the Avèze recipe competition, I began to reflect on all of the gentian liqueur-containing cocktails I have had and what flavor combinations really shined. After having a White Negroni and other gin-based drinks, I discovered through PDT's Brown Bomber that gentian liqueurs seem to pair better with whiskey. What improved the Brown Bomber's Lillet Blanc was the Harry Palmer's call for sweet vermouth. And finally, Tyler Wang at No. 9 Park's L'Année du Mexique first demonstrated how well gentian works with blackberry notes. For a name, I wanted something French to represent the origin of the Avèze, and my mind drifted over to French literature that was written around the time that the liqueur was created in the 1920s. A lot of the French literature I have read of that era is from the Surrealists, and Philippe Soupault's charming Last Nights Of Paris was written within a year of Avèze's release. The book's capture of the intertwining of French and American modernism mirrors the French liqueur-American whiskey pairing here.
The Last Nights of Paris offered a berry and wine nose with hints of gentian. A malt sip shared fruit notes and some brightness from the lemon juice. Finally, the rye filled the swallow followed by the gentian bitterness which blended well with the blackberry and Maraschino flavors.

gloria

3/4 jigger Gin (1 1/2 oz Beefeater)
1 spoon Lemon Juice (1/2 oz)
1 spoon Grenadine (1/2 oz)
1/2 Egg White (1 white)
1 sprig Mint (6 leaf)

Shake with ice and double strain into a cocktail glass. I garnished with a mint leaf.

After returning home from Craigie on Main, I was still in the mood for a final cocktail. For a drink, I spotted in the 1934 reprint of Boothby's World Drinks and How to Mix Them a curious drink called the Gloria. It reminded me of one of my fellow bartenders at Russell House Tavern who made a round of Southsides using egg whites for his guests. I inquired, but he could not recall where he learned that recipe; though less common, the egg white version does exist in the literature. The Gloria is pretty similar to the variation he made except the sweetener here is grenadine instead of simple syrup; moreover, this one calls for lemon over the lime more frequently used in the Southside (there are lemon juice Southsides in the literature as well).
The mint leaf garnish prepared the senses with its herbal aroma. A creamy lemon sip offered light pomegranate and vegetal notes, and the swallow was a pleasing combination of the gin's botanicals and the mint.