Glassaholic: Old Fashioned
November 15, 2015
The Old Fashioned is a classic cocktail ruined by many a bad bar. There are two schools of Old Fashioned making out there. Here at NPS, we’re from the muddling school as you will see. This is a fantastic drink for a Fall day. You’ll need a muddling stick.
The Old Fashioned
2 oz bourbon (we’re using Bowman’s Small Batch here)
orange wheel slice
2 luxardo cherries
4 dashes Fee Brothers Old Fashioned bitters
2 t simple syrup
soda water
Slice an orange wheel and put it into your glass. Add two cherries, the bitters and the simple syrup. Muddle. Add 2 oz of bourbon. Stir. Add ice. Top with soda. Put in an extra cherry if you like cherries!
A delicious drink for the Fall in front of a fire.
Glassaholic: Moscow Mule
April 29, 2015
The Moscow Mule is very easy to make. About the only difficult bit is finding some copper Moscow Mule cups. That’s where Cardinal Spirits comes in. They provided me with some first run Vodka and some Moscow Mule cups last trip out to Bloomington.
So Moscow Mules it is!
Moscow Mule
1.5 oz Cardinal Vodka
1 wedge of lime
real ginger beer (barritts or home made)
pour the vodka over the ice, squeeze in the lime, add ginger beer. if you’re feeling adventurous, stir!
Cardinal Spirits, Bloomington, Indiana
Glassaholic: Old 48
April 19, 2015
The Old 48 is a cocktail that I came up with on the cusp of my 49th birthday. The heat from the hellfire bitters is a great blend with a not too sweet bourbon. I sometimes use Blanton’s bourbon and have also used Rye in variations. The hint of chocolate in this drink blends beautifully with the often cloying cherry to make something better than the sum of its parts.
Old 48
2 oz bourbon (basil-hayden)
1 oz blue Dolin’s vermouth (neither sweet nor dry!!)
.5 heering
1 dash chocolate bitters
6.5 drops Bittermen’s hellfire habañero bitters
Stir down. Strain over large cube. Lemon peel garnish (express and drop in).
Serving this on an ice sphere is far from necessary, but what the hell. Definitely do use a large piece of ice and not a pile of rocks if you can.
Glassaholic: Making a Spherical Ice Cube
April 11, 2015
We have a new toy at the Coal Stove Sink Bar. It melts ice cubes.
The collection (well, maybe 1/3 of it anyway)
New device
Doge says.
Wow. Such ice. So cold. Much tail wag.
Glassaholic: Sexual Chocolate
January 30, 2015
This is a drink discovered in Denver, Colorado at the Williams and Graham bar (quite a fantastic place). This cocktail was invented by Chad Michael George one evening with a gaggle of geeks—a delicious beverage that runs hot and a little sweet with a bitters kicker.
Sexual Chocolate
2 oz Rye (barrel proof)
.75 oz Cocchi Torino vermouth
.5 oz Cynar
teaspoon of cherry liqueur (heering or luxardo)
7 drops chocolate bitters
stir. strain over big cube. add a luxardo cherry on skewer
Glassaholic: Seelbach
November 30, 2014
The Seelbach is one of our favorite time-warp inducing cocktails. Named after either a Kentucky hotel or an upstate NY hotel depending on who you ask, this drink has been around since 1917.
The delightfully dangerous thing about a Seelbach is that you get an instant champagne buzz when you start drinking it, and when you’re done, you’ve just had a shot of bourbon.
We shot this episode of glassaholic at Nother’s Day.
The Seelbach
1 oz bourbon
.5 oz cointreau
7 dashes Angostura’s
7 dashes Peychaud’s
stir with a sterling silver spoon then top with dry champagne. Add a lemon twist to fancy it up.
Glassaholic: Mojito
September 3, 2014
The Mojito is a popular drink that you can find all over the place these days, even in bars that otherwise suck. The key to a good mojito is simplicity: fresh mint, fresh lime, simple syrup and a good muddling stick.
We make mojitos around here in the summertime when the mint is growing like crazy.
The Mojito
3 oz dark rum (my gay eclipse)
8 mint leaves (and the top of a sprig to garnish)
1/2 lime quartered
1 t simple syrup 1:1 (cane sugar)
Muddle the mint, simple syrup, and lime in the bottom of a sturdy glass. Add 3 oz of rum and stir. Fill glass with ice and top with sparkling water. Top with a mint garnish.
Delicious and summery.
Deja Vu in Alexandria: Hotel Monaco
January 8, 2015
It was a quick turnaround from no travel back to travel, but Kimpton helps make it all bearable. Back at the Hotel Monaco just like December, but this time up one floor in 503 (thanks Matt).
We should probably resist comparing the welcome package, but it’s NPS, so we just can’t resist. After all, that is what this prosthetic memory of a blog is all about!
Here is 2015.
2015
Lets compare to 2014.
2014
Hmm. No booze?! But we promise we have not gone dry as a misguided New Year’s resolution! In fact we had quite the adventure getting an after dinner cocktail, about which stay tuned.
Meanwhile 503 looks similar to 403 but it has been updated and is slightly more stylish with a nice scent of carpet glue in the air.
Alexandria Monaco 503
Alexandria Monaco 503
The shower is not plastic, and its pressure may just scour all of the old year’s dirt right off.
Not a plastic shower. Great way to start 2015 at NPS.
Dinner (corporate style) at the Columbia Firehouse was very good. Great oysters and a nice rendition of shrimp and grits. Sadly, they make a pretty bad Negroni (which calls into question their cocktail capability).
After dinner, we headed over around 10:30 to Restaurant Eve for a cocktail as their bar is rumored to be good. But who would ever know if the bar closes well before its advertised closing time?! Lame. We walked in and the bartender who was wiping down was not at all accommodating about making a drink. In fact, he refused to do so. Guess what Restaurant Eve, that kind of crappy behavior eradicated ALL of the goodwill built up during the last (spectacular) visit. Chef, I believe you need a new bartender post haste!
So cha
stened to deal with lameness in Alexandria, we returned to the Monaco in low spirits (or with no spirits as the case may be). A pleasant surprise awaited at Jackson 20. Though I am not at all a fan of the architecture or the way the bar is situated, Jackson20 has some good bourbon and rye on tap. And a very good barman in Alvaro Colato.
Sazarac with Sazarac 18? Yes please. And a chaser of Eagle Rare 17? Sure, why not! Fabulous.
How to make a Sazarac (video from #glassaholic).
So there you have it. 2015, here we come. Five showerheads and a bourbon-based amenity for the Hotel Monaco in Alexandria.
Glassaholic: Nevada
April 20, 2014
The Nevada is a drink I found in the book Art of the Bar. It’s a great summertime rum drink that differs from the usual rum punch variety of drinks by not being overly sweet. If you make one at sunset at the beach, you can admire the beautiful color as you sip it on the deck.
We just got back from Salt Cay in Turks and Caicos, where we discovered some Salt Cay Rum. I’m using that here just for the heck of it, but a better rum would be Mount Gay Eclipse (or even Extra Old if you’re feeling adventurous). You definitely want a rum on the vanilla/syrupy side of the rum range for this drink. Turns out that Salt Cay rum is more like a central American rum (it is modeled after Zacapa), but we’ll ignore that distinction for now.
The Nevada
1.5 oz dark rum
.5 oz fresh grapefruit juice
.3 oz fresh lime juice
.25 oz simple syrup 1:1 (cane sugar)
dash of Angostura bitters
mix in an ice filled shaker. strain. serve up in a cocktail glass. garnish with a lime wedge.
This is a drink that is so good that whenever I share it, most bars pick it right up and add it to their list. Some magic happens and a banana-like flavor emerges from the mix.
Glassaholic: Boris Karloff
April 6, 2014
This is my friend Pooh’s favorite drink (well, actually he likes whatever drink is currently in his glass best, but no quibbling). From the fun and mostly accurate book Boozehound.
This is a classic gin fizz derivative with some fun features. Get your ingredients together before you make this one. It takes confectioner’s sugar and an egg white. (The egg you use must be ultra fresh, laid the day of mixing.)
Boris Karloff
0.75 oz gin (we recommend Sipsmith for this drink)
0.75 oz St-Germain Eiderflower liqueur
1 oz lime juice
1 T confectionner’s sugar (10X)
1 egg white (FRESH)
club soda to top
lime zest (small pieces)
fresh ground pepper
Combine gin, st-germain, lime, sugar. shake well. add egg white and shake to foam (20+ seconds). strain into glass with ice. add soda to top. sprinkle lime zest and pepper on top.
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