cocktail Archives - Hungry Travelers

cocktail

Up n’ Down’s rock & bourbon hits sweet spot

Posted on December 14, 2022December 14, 2022 by Pat and David

Winter is coming on in a rush, which is all the more reason to seek some golden warmth. Last weekend we visited the spiffy Southern-inflected Kendall Square joint from chef Chris Parson. It's called Lily P's Fried Chicken and Oysters (50 Binney St., Cambridge, Mass.; 617-225-2900; lilypschicken.com). Located more or less in Coder Hollow amid the life sciences labs and condo warrens that now define Kendall, it has a bustling and inventive bar program to go along with the comfort food. Any bar where you can order pimento cheese and Ritz crackers to go with your drink is already steps ahead of the competition. About that inventive bar — one of the perfect cold weather cocktails now headlining the menu is the Vermonster. The base...Read More

Agua de Valencia, born in the Café Madrid

Posted on May 8, 2022May 8, 2022 by Pat and David

Few cocktail names trip off the tongue with the lyric trill of Agua de Valencia. It even sounds sweet and clear. Purportedly invented at the Café Madrid in 1959 by bartender Constante Gil, it is so popular with tourists to Valencia that bottles labeled as Agua de Valencia are available everywhere from the Mercat Central to most souvenir shops. Look around the tables on Plaça de Mare de Deu behind the cathedral, and at least half sport a tall glass of the orange drink. And why not? Authentic Agua de Valencia relies on freshly squeezed juice from locally grown sweet oranges. (They are not ‶Valencia″ oranges, which were bred in California and named for the city.) Groves of sweet oranges surround Valencia. All grocery stores...Read More

Neat is nifty, but stirred into a cocktail might be neater

Posted on December 25, 2021December 18, 2021 by Pat

When I asked folks in the spirits industry in northern Kentucky how they took their Bourbon, the answer was invariably the same. “A healthy pour, neat.” Some admitted to adding an ice cube or a few drops of water to open up the taste. But nothing else. These professionals take their spirits seriously and relish the pure flavor and warm glow of unadulterated Bourbon. Nonetheless, most agreed that Bourbon's star had risen when the TV series Mad Men revived interest in classic cocktails. The spirit is still riding high as a versatile component of today's creative cocktail culture. I'm truly not much of a cocktail drinker, so I never ordered a Manhattan or an Old Fashioned and the weather wasn't cool enough for a Hot...Read More

Toasting thoroughbreds and bourbon at Taylor Made

Posted on January 17, 2020January 14, 2020 by Pat and David

When we think of Kentucky's Bluegrass country, two things spring to mind: fast horses and smooth bourbon. So when we arrived for a VIP Stallion Experience at Taylor Made Farm (2765 Union Mill Rd., Nicholasville, KY; 859-885-3345, taylormadestallions.com) in the rolling hills just outside Lexington, we weren't surprised that the tour began in Daddy Joe's Bar & Grill. Bartender Kattie Breeden greeted us with the House Old Fashioned. The bar is named for family patriarch Joseph Taylor (1924-2003), who was once farm manager of the revered Gainesway Farm. Taylor Made, run by Joseph's four sons and one of their longtime friends, was established in 1976 to board mares that had come to Kentucky to be bred. As the farm grew from 20 acres to 1,100...Read More

Dining (and drinking) through Encore Boston Harbor

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Pat and David

On this inaugural New Year's Eve at the Encore Boston Harbor (www.encorebostonharbor.com/), a good time will be had by many. That's one sure bet at the luxury casino and resort owned by Wynn Resorts. Open since late June, Encore features 15 places to eat and drink, which is more up our alley than games of chance. We recently attended a dine-around to get a taste of several of the venues. We were so engrossed with the food and cocktails that we forgot to lose any money at the tables or slots. But one thing was obvious: Encore Boston Harbor is hell-bent on showing its customers a good time. That starts when you walk in the main entrance to a fanciful carousel slowly spinning in the...Read More

California vermouth? T.W. Hollister answers, Of course!

Posted on September 19, 2019September 4, 2019 by Pat and David

You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that vermouth (or vermut) is having a moment, both in Spain and the U.S. Our own history with fortified wine muddled with botanicals and aged in a barrel goes back a few decades when Lillet was still hip in certain suburban settings. We were quite taken with the ice-cold, slightly sweet and bitter aperitif when the late, great mystery and suspense writer Andrew Coburn poured us some on his back deck one evening. He'd picked up the habit on the French set of Un dimanche de flic, a film adaptation of his novel, Off Duty. Lillet is not vermouth, but they are kissing cousins. In today's vermouth fever, almost any aromatized wine passes muster...Read More

Blind Lion Speakeasy nods to Old West

Posted on November 2, 2018October 28, 2018 by Pat and David

Tony DeMaro stood in front of an unassuming door marked “Employees Only.” I assumed that it's for the bartenders and waitstaff for the bustling Murphy's Pub (510 9th Street, murphyspubandgrill.com). A fixture in downtown Rapid City, South Dakota, the friendly place bristles with big-screen televisions tuned to sports. But DeMaro had a surprise in store. He led me through the door and down a short hallway to the Blind Lion speakeasy. I felt like one of the cool kids let in on a secret. Many of the folks watching football and sipping beer in Murphy's probably don't even know that this throwback to the Prohibition era lies beneath them. “The Blind Lion is as secretive as you can be and still be in business,” DeMaro...Read More

Reviving white wine sangría for summer dog days

Posted on August 10, 2018August 9, 2018 by Pat and David

We're in the hottest, sweatiest part of summer in the northern hemisphere. These are the dog days—and not because we want to loll around in the shade with our tongues hanging out like a couple of bluetick hounds. Apparently the period is so named because Sirius, the dog star, rises and sets with the sun. That's about as much scholarship as we care to indulge when it's this hot. But the temperatures give us a great excuse to revive a drink we have been making since Hector was a pup. Or at least since we cribbed it from a 1970s Bon Appétit! magazine. It's an extremely refreshing white wine sangría with the added punch of Orange Curaçao. For several years we endured an aesthetic crisis...Read More

Mixing it up with tequila at Occidental Cozumel bar

Posted on March 1, 2018March 1, 2018 by Pat

“If you don't drink tequila, it is not a vacation in Mexico,” Alejandro Santos told me in the Lobby Bar at the Occidental Cozumel (Carretera Costera Sur km 16.6, Colonial El Cedral San Francicso, Palancar, Cozumel, Mexico; +1 52-987-872-9730, barcelo.com). To make sure that guests fully embrace this beverage distilled from the blue agave plant, bartenders set out a tequila tasting in the early evening. Mexicans often drink their tequila neat and favor the premium tequilas made with 100 percent agave. But tequila also works well in cocktails, mixologist Santos Elan told me. “The agave is sweeter than other liqueurs,” he said. “That's why tequila works so well in sweet drinks.” The bar churns out more than its fair share of margaritas, including the signature...Read More

Cocktails honor the Barnsley spirits

Posted on December 16, 2017February 24, 2018 by Pat

Jon Mattson, dining manager at Barnsley Resort (597 Barnsley Gardens Road, Adairsville, Georgia, 877-773-2447, barnsleyresort.com), has good advice for mixing cocktails. “One ingredient is the star,” he says. “Others should make that ingredient shine.” From that starting point, Mattson experiments until he “finds the ratios that really work.” A student of American cocktail history, he also delights in showcasing high-quality Southern products whenever possible. “I like to keep things simple and balanced,” he explains. He generally limits his cocktails to three ingredients. Even within that limited framework, he creates libations that nod to cocktail history as well as to the drinking habits of the Barnsley estate's late 19th century heyday. Estate founder Godfrey Barnsley originally called his property Woodlands and the name survives in the...Read More