Before I get to the day’s 30/30 drink, there’s one item I need to pass along.

If you’ve had even a passing look at the spirits & cocktails community on the Internet, you no doubt know that every July, thousands of bartenders, writers, hospitality professionals and cocktail enthusiasts converge on New Orleans for the five days of Tales of the Cocktail. This event is centered in and around the Hotel Monteleone, one of the historic hotels in the French Quarter, and this year the hotel’s Carousel Bar is marking its 60th anniversary with a cocktail competition.

Here’s the story: from the time the bar opened in 1949 and until the 1960s or ’70s, there was a house cocktail on the menu named, appropriately, the Monteleone Cocktail. Problem is, today nobody has any idea what was in the damn thing.

One could reason that it’s awkward to have an historic bar without some kind of namesake cocktail; that’s what the folks at the Monteleone have done, anyway, so to fill in the gap, they’re sponsoring an online competition to come up with a *new* Monteleone Cocktail.

There are no requirements on what type of drink it must be or what kinds of ingredients are used; what is required is that recipes for competing drinks must be sent to athornton[at]hotelmonteleone.com no later than May 18 (include your name, address and phone number so they know how to reach you); and if you’re a blogger, go ahead and stick your drink on your site for the rest of the boozy online world to try. Each drink will be mixed and judged at the bar’s anniversary celebration on May 21, and the winner of the competition will have their drink named the new Monteleone Cocktail, as well as win four nights at the Hotel Monteleone during Tales of the Cocktail 2009.

There’s a little less than two weeks to come up with a drink, so break out your shakers and get to work.

Tags: General by Paul
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Bartenders and cocktail geeks like to beat up on vodka, and I’m certainly guilty of having done some of that myself. I was reminded of that this morning while reading Jonathan Miles’ “Shaken & Stirred” column in the New York Times and — surprise! — seeing my name come up, along with a quotelet in which I describe vodka as the “tofu of the bar.”

Erik Felten’s piece in the Wall Street Journal from a couple of weeks back had many starting to drive nails into vodka’s coffin, but Miles reminds us that the vodka party isn’t quite over. In defense of vodka drinks, Miles cites cocktails such as the Atomic, in which vodka plays a support role, rather than trying to dominate the drink (in terms of proportion of ingredients, anyway; vodka can’t exactly take over the flavor of a drink unless the other ingredients are primarily air and water).

While I’m guilty of the occasional vodka-bashing, I can stand behind Wondrich’s quote at the end of the piece: “[O]nce vodka starts playing nice, and doesn’t push other bottles off the bar, it’s welcome to stay there.”

If I have time to grab a split of champagne today I’ll try out the Atomic later on (and maybe even use it as a freebie 30/30 drink) — it’ll be good practice for August’s Mixology Monday, in which the theme will be vodka. In the meantime, check out Miles’ column (along with Felten’s, if you haven’t already) — it really is one of the best assessments of vodka cocktails I’ve read in a while.

Tags: General by Paul
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Apologies for the lack of a photo, and for the brief length of this post: but nothing turns you off of mixing and photographing a drink — not to mention merely sitting upright in front of a computer — like a good ol’ bout of stomach flu.

But, this month marks the third anniversary of Mixology Monday, so I’m willing to sip some ginger ale and nibble a few water crackers while thinking happy thoughts and participating in this round of MxMo, hosted by Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog, with the topic of Superior Twists.

Tristan’s goal is to get folks blogging about creative interpretations of classic cocktails (preferably original drinks) that somehow improve on the original. I’m not sure if this drink counts, as technically I’m taking an older twist on a familiar classic and customizing it a bit in the classic style. But what the hell, it’s a tasty drink that deserves the recognition — plus, I feel like crap right now so this is just gonna have to do.

Early prototypes and incarnations of some classic cocktails are, when you come right down to it, fairly boring; you can see from these early manifestations why the drink evolved over time into the blockbuster concoctions of later eras. Consider the Manhattan: as described in books such as Jerry Thomas’ 1887 bar manual, it’s composed of two parts vermouth and one part whiskey, with dashes of bitters and maybe some maraschino and/or curacao to doctor up the flavor. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, and if you’re in the mood for such a thing it can be absolutely wonderful. But this gauge of Manhattan lacks the kind of firepower — both in terms of flavor and alcohol boost — you’re sometimes looking for in a cocktail; toss some 80-proof Old Overholt in the mixing glass with this recipe and the whiskey is simply window dressing.

Thankfully, last summer Erik Ellestad noted via Twitter, and Chuck Taggart documented for posterity, a take on this recipe that’s worth discovering: he mixed a Jerry Thomas Manhattan using the bombastic bourbon from George T. Stagg. Typically bottled in the vicinity of 140 proof, the Stagg kicks up the flavor and alcohol level while still letting the vermouth play a major role.

This Manhattan variation has become my go-to celebratory drink; I typically mix it with a cask-strength rye such as Thomas Handy Sazerac or, sometimes, Lenell’s Red Hook Rye, along with the powerfully flavored Carpano Antica vermouth. Bolster it with two dashes of The Bitter Truth Repeal Day bitters and a little maraschino and absinthe, and this is a roaring glass of flavor that still knows how to behave like a gentleman. Assuming I’m ever back to health, this is one I’ll be trotting out.

Jerry Thomas Manhattan

• 2 ounces sweet vermouth (either Carpano Antica or Vya is preferred)
• 1 ounce cask-strength rye or bourbon
• 2 dashes aromatic bitters
• 2 dashes maraschino liqueur
• 2 dashes absinthe

Combine ingredients in a mixing glass and fill with cracked ice. Stir well for 20 seconds and strain into chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry, if you’ve got some good ones lying about.

Completely original? No, not quite — but a twist on the familiar Manhattan that is a favorite in my house. Head on over to Tristan’s place to see what other drinks are being mixed this Mixology Monday.

Tags: General by Paul
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We’re less than a week away from the next round of Mixology Monday. This round is hosted by Tristan at The Wild Drink Blog, and Tristan has chosen Superior Twists as the theme. What’s that, you say? Here, I’ll let Tristan explain it:

This month’s Mixology Monday is all about twists on classic cocktails, that for one reason or another do an even better job than the drinks upon which they are based.

This could be as simple as a classic Margarita with a dash with a special touch that completes it, or maybe as complicated as a deconstructed Hemingway Daiquiri with a homemade rum foam/caviar/jus/trifle. It might be taking a classic like a Manhattan and using Tequila instead of Bourbon?

Got it? Good –it’s actually quite simple; we all have embellishments and adaptations we’ve made to our favorite cocktails that work to both personalize the drink and push it, in our humble opinions, over the top of deliciousness. This MxMo, tell us what yours is.

To participate, simply blog about your drink by Monday, April 13 (don’t forget to link back to Tristan’s blog and the MxMo site, and please include the MxMo logo), and let host Tristan know about it by e-mailing tristan [at] tristanstephenson.com. Include your name, your blog, the URL of your post, and — by Tristan’s request — “your favorite song to dance the twist to.”

So let’s hear it folks — what’s your favorite twist on a classic?

Tags: General by Paul
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About four months ago, the opinion section editors at the New York Times launched Proof, a blog covering, in their description, “Alcohol and American Life.” Several weeks later, just before Christmas, I was asked to contribute to the blog; now, as we’re edging into spring, Proof is serving last call, and the final (for now) contributors post has just gone up.

Contributing to Proof has been one of the most positive, and most bizarre, experiences in my writing career. My initial post on Christmas Day led to a profile in the (now departed) Seattle Post-Intelligencer and a one-hour call-in show on the local NPR affiliate (along with a gazillion hits to this blog). It, and my two subsequent posts — one on the level of cocktail geekery surrounding drinks such as the Old Fashioned, and the other on my personal approach to alcohol — also sparked nearly 1,000 comments (and perhaps more — comments on my third post were shut down less than 24 hours after it went online), more than most blogs receive in a year. Most of those comments were thoughtful and supportive; many took well-considered positions that challenged my own; and others were downright hostile and abusive (and I fared better than some other contributors). One commenter from Iowa even saw fit to spam me with e-mail abuse about promoting alcoholism, while appending the message with promotional materials about her investment firm — which begs the question, considering the state of the economy, which one of us is screwing the country more?

From the beginning, Proof was an odd mix of recovering alcoholics and satisfied imbibers. Maddening to many — myself included, at the beginning — and frustrating at times to every reader, Proof nevertheless managed to push contrarian issues in front of those of us long comfortable with our own perspectives. And as a contributor, Proof encouraged me — “forced” is too strong a word — to take a long look at my work, my hobby and my day-to-day behavior as it relates to alcohol, and to think about what I do in a larger perspective. Sappy and maudlin? Perhaps — but valuable, nonetheless.

Anyway, my last post to Proof is now up, as part of the larger Last Call roundup. Asked to write about one night in my life as it relates to my current relationship with alcohol, I could think of no better topic than the place that has helped my education and understanding so much in recent years, along with the person who has helped me better understand not only the beauty of well-made booze, but how to think about it and talk about it without being a pompous ass (or at least no more of one than I was before).

If you’ve come to this blog from Proof (and you’ve managed to read all the way to the end of this post), I appreciate that you’ve taken the time to check out my blog, and discover a little bit more about the world of craft cocktails. One favor I ask: please join the conversation in the comments section here, and let me know who you are and why you’re here — and if you have the time, please click on a few of the links to other cocktail blogs, listed in the right sidebar; these are all wonderful people, and you’ll find a welcome place at any of these blogs. At any rate, thanks for stopping by, and thanks to Peter and the folks at the Times for giving me the chance to contribute to Proof.

Tags: General by Paul
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