Atera - Matt Lightner's season and place cooking

"Razor Clam"

As sad as I was to see Compose close last year, I have to admit much of the sting was taken out of the news when I learned that Matt Lightner was to move from Portland to NYC to open Atera in the same Tribeca space, only a few blocks from our apartment. Lightner's résumé includes a stage at Noma in Denmark and time as a sous chef at Mugaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, as well as being named one of Food & Wine's 2010 Best New Chefs, plus a couple Beard nominations for Rising Star Chef. But most recently he took Portland by storm as the chef at Castagna, for which he received the award and nominations, and I had read rave reviews from reputable sources about his work there, though I was not able to sample it the one time I was there.

Lightner is billed as a forager, known for using local and seasonal wild plants extensively. Foraging is perhaps the most exciting vanguard of the last few years in the world of cooking, but as I learned at my meal at Atera last week, describing Lightner only as a forager to my mind focuses too narrowly on that (admittedly superlative) aspect of his cooking and overlooks his not unsubstantial other skills. I didn't realize until my dinner, but Lightner is quite skilled in modernist cuisine, but not to the extent that he might eclipse the integrity of the ingredients or let it become a distraction. Here is one claim regarding modernist cuisine that Atera is "easily the best place in the city to experience the genre, and there is a good argument to make that it is only a matter of time until in becomes the best in the country."

But back to the foraging. Lightner enlisted to supply Atera Evan Strusinski, a forager from Maine who has supplied other NYC kitchens such as Gramercy Tavern, Torrisi, Del Posto, and the Momofukus. In addition to Mr. Strusinski, he also works with forager Kate Galassi; check out a short video of her and Chef Lightner discussing his philosophy on a visit to explore the bounty of Well Sweep Farm in New Jersey.

Given that my dinner there was on only the second night of official opening to the public, I would normally be loathe to post a review, but in this particular instance there were so few kinks and the service was so smooth that I hardly think it a disservice to do so.

I've seen the menu billed many places as 10 courses, but we got 13 named courses on the printed menu, not counting the bread, as well as 8 amuses, or "snacks". On top of that we were asked if we wanted to add an additional optional savory course, and we were enjoying everything up to that point so much our yes could not have been decided more quickly. I believe this additional course was the glazed sweetbread with wild onion, as that is the one not printed on the menus we received. As an added pleasant touch, the beverage pairings were also included in the envelope containing the our menus. As a side note, I've seen it reported as 12-seat bar, but I think there were 13. See here or here for better pictures of the of the space and the wall of herbs.

1st Course: "Yogurt" - Beet, Freeze Dried Fruit, Herbs

As the details of some of the dishes are best discovered first hand and not described beforehand by me, I'll keep my comments brief or omit them entirely for many dishes, for instance this one from the fourth course:

4th Course

To begin the meal, my dining companion and I each ordered a cocktail. They have a full bar, but were featuring three cocktails for the night and we chose to sample two of them. I had a variation on a Jack Rose cocktail topped off with an apple cider, and I sampled my friend's blanco tequila cocktail with three grapefruit components: grapefruit oleo saccharum, (clarified?) juice, and (I think) bitters. The glasses got the liquid nitrogen treatment, and both drinks were top notch (the tequila was our favorite).

Contra a report by Grub Street, Eamon Rockey informed me that unfortunately they are not in fact adding a downstairs bar. However they will in the future consider the possibility of other ways to make their excellent cocktails available as the restaurant evolves. This would be a welcome development, judging from the drinks tonight and my fond memories of Compose's cocktail program.

After (actually while still) enjoying our cocktails we left ourselves in the very capable hands of Alex LaPratt and opted for the beverage pairings. The meal started out strong with a series of "snacks" perfectly accompanied with a beer. I very much enjoy the small amuses before a meal, as they are often playful, packed with flavor, and more interesting than larger courses. Of course the extra variety of tastes and textures also endears them to me. The starting bites offered to us at Atera were as good as any I've had.

First up was a crispy sunchoke, where the skin of the sunchoke was rolled and crisped, then stuffed with herbs and a bit of creamy filling. It resembled a cannoli, but bursted with the earthy flavors of a toothsome sunchoke that had been hammered in the oven, brightened by the herbs and the filling, rather than the sunchoke flesh, supplying creaminess. (I don't recall the filling, goat cheese perhaps?)

Crispy Sunchoke

While I had very few expectations coming into my meal, I probably would have guessed, from items such as a Lightner comment I read saying that it would be "an almost herbal-based cuisine", that there would be many more light and subtle flavors driven mainly by greenery at the restaurant. What I quickly discovered however, that there would be just as many deeply concentrated, bold flavors, ranging from earthy root vegetables (sunchokes, beets, sweet potato), to a surprisingly powerful and rich crustacean emulsion or a duck stock reduced all the way down to a chip. This was a pleasant discovery, and we were just starting our journey through a wide range of experiences in tastes and textures this night would provide for us.

But back to the food. This delicious slab of weathered slate was actually a savory granola covered with sesame butter:

Savory Granola and Sesame Butter

Next up were a trio of "malt flatbread", "pickled quail egg", and "foie gras peanuts":

Foie Gras Peanuts

Malt Flatbread

"Quail Egg"

I loved the "razor clam" (pictured above) that followed, razor clam sliced (and another creamy preparation) with ice lettuce on an air baguette, cleverly painted to resemble a razor clam shell. These few bites reminded me somewhat of a lighter, brinier lobster roll, but that description probably doesn't do it justice. Excellent.

Lichen

The last two snacks were a puffy lichen cracker and a duck chip. The duck chip was made by reducing duck stock down until all that remained was a thin crispy sheet, and was garnished with herbs and pickled onions whose acidity cut the richness of the chip.

Duck Chip

The chip left a thin but lip smacking remnant of gelatin reminding us of the intense concentration of flavor the reduction produced.




Only now do we arrive at the 1st course: "Yogurt" with Beet ice, freeze dried fruit, and a plethora of herbs (pictured earlier above). In contrast to both the previous duck chip and an upcoming beet dish, this was a light and elegant course more along the lines of what I imagined when Lightner spoke of herbal-based food. Again, this is not a complaint, the wide range of the meal was a virtue I truly enjoyed. The pairing of beet and yogurt is not a novel one, but this preparation certainly was. The flavors were familiar, but the textures were a new twist, and it just all came together with perfect balance. What a way to start the main event. The paired beverage was also spot on with perhaps the most interesting sake I've tried. It was a light straw colored and came across with fresh wine notes in addition to more typical sake flavors.

Sorrel juice, honey

The 1st course seemed hard to follow, but the 2nd did not disappoint. They both could be legitimate signature dishes, if it is even their intention to have signatures on the menu which should change from week to week as the peak seasons for ingredients ebb and flow. These scallops were cured in the gin mash leftover from distilling a local gin, slightly aromatizing them with the spirits botanicals. Atop the scallops were alternating shards of citrus ice and thin meringue. (I believe the ice contained Yuzu and Meyer Lemon, and perhaps grapefruit.) One of my favorite aspects about this dish was that each bite was different depending upon which of the three components hit your tongue and which hit the roof of your mouth; some bites had relatively more subtle gin botanicals, some more citrus-y. The beverage pairing for this course was non-alcoholic, but that didn't stop it from being one of the most excellent (of many) pairings. The drink was fresh Sorrel juice slightly sweetened with wildflower honey.

2nd Course: "Diver Scallops" - Citrus Ice, Gin Botanicals

The 3rd course was a delicate fluke tartare topped with barbecued onion and a veritable garden of herbs and flowers. The onion was deeply caramelized (as you can gather from the picture) and I think stabilized with some neutral gelling agent (tapioca starch was our guess). Among the flavors the herbs and flowers provided were anise and pepper. The dish hit many of the same notes that eel sushi might express.

3rd Course: "Fluke" - BBQ'd Onion, herbs

4th Course being sauced

This dish, as presented (pictured earlier above) and sauced table side as shown to the right, I won't say much about, as they deliberately chose to not describe it in order to allow the diner to guess it's components. I got one, but couldn't place the other main component. The sauce is another example of the powerfully concentrated flavors which I was surprised, very happily, to discover in many of Lightner's dishes. Suffice it to say that this dish is a triumph. (Note the dish is revealed on the menu I included at the end of the post, if you want to remain surprised don't look too closely.)

5th Course: "Sweet Potato" - Brown Butter solids

As I mentioned, this beet dish for the 6th course contrasted with the delicate flavor of the beet and yogurt from the first course. The beet was roasted for something like 18 hours, yielding intense beet flavor yet leaving surprising (to me) moistness and firm yet fork tender texture.  The crustacean emulsion on the side was yet another example of a flavor bomb; had this been in a bowl it would have been a mind (and perhaps palate) blowing soup. The surf and turf flavor combination of intense beet and intense seafood was so surprising to me I'm still trying to wrap my head around it.

6th Course: "Beet Ember" - trout roe, black bread, crustacean emulsion

Salted Rye

The bread here was a hearty rye with salted crust, accompanied by butter layered with fresh herbs. Later we were offered more bread, or the option of trying one of two other breads. We went with the pork roll, a small bun I presume made with lard.

7th Course: "Skate" - beef tendon,hearty greens, chicken bouillon

We opted to add this additional savory course of glazed sweetbread with wild onion. The flavors here were great, as was the lusciously creamy organ; were I to nitpick I might have preferred an additional texture to contrast the the soft sweetbread, but still a very nice dish.

8th (supplemental) Course: Sweetbread, wild onion

9th Course: "Squab" - pear skin chips, tarragon

The 9th course was squab, aged in house for quite a number of days (though I don't recall the precise number). It was beautifully cooked, and the aging lent a marked gaminess to the meat. So much so, in fact, that it was hard for me to relate to. It was unfamilier, pulling even an adventurous eater as myself out of my comfort zone. I did like it, but I had hoped to LOVE it. I'd been wanting to try such exotic fare since reading about similar dishes at Saison in San Fran. (I'm still trying to finagle a Roberta's tasting menu where they have served aged fowl. I've had their aged steak and it is a thing of beauty.) I fully believe my inability to fully appreciate this dish is a personal shortcoming, and the fault lies entirely on me. Now that I've had it and have a frame of reference, I do expect and look forward to loving it next time I have the pleasure to try some.

10th Course: "Lamb Collar" - root beer foam, hickory nuts

I'll leave you to discover "Rock", but it was a pleasant palate cleanser that stuck me as having a somewhat Japanese aesthetic.

11th Course: "Rock"

The "Charcoal" dessert, which arrived in one frozen chuck before being smashed to rubble in front of you, was a frozen cocoa preparation (I want to say meringue again but I don't remember) with a side of smooth as butter (goat's milk's?) ice cream. A grown up Oreo with two fantastic textures.

12th Course: "Charcoal"

Another play on a childhood treat was the "Parsley Root Split" with bananna ice cream, marshmallows, and meringue.

13th Course: Parsley Root Split

Lastly, "Oak" was a light finish; the most memorable part for me was the pure and refreshing "wintergreen snow".

14th Course: "Oak" - wintergreen snow, brown butter cake

Among the petite fours to end the night was this beautiful walnut truffle, with with was poured a dram of Nocino.

Walnut Truffle

Interior of Walnut Truffle

For the curious, here is our menu for the night, including the beverage pairings. Warning, there is at least one dish that you might not want revealed before dining, so click with caution.

Menu and Beverage Pairings

I very much look forward to returning to Atera to see how the menu has evolved for another season. Chef Lightner spoke of yet more delights to come with summer's umami laden bounty and winter's roots. Plus I can only imagine that with time he will become even more familiar with locally foraged items and discover new treasures to shower upon his diners.

MxMo LXIV: TIKI! - Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle + 2 bonus drinks

It's Alliiiive!!! The blog that is. I've been quite derelict in updating recently, but what can I say, I've been busy, an 10 month old will do that to you. But I can always make time for Mixology Monday. Or at the very least I can when they skip a couple months over the holidays. But it's back, and I'm back, just in time for the month of February. That's right, Feb, aka Tiki Month! Our host this month is Doug Winship over at The Pegu Blog, and he's not surprisingly chosen Tiki! as this month's MxMo theme. Says Doug:

The Tiki scene, like classic cocktails in general, is reviving nicely these days. The lush, decadent marriage of tropical flavors and exotic kitsch carries us away to a better, less dreary place. Please join in and add your words, images, and offerings to the Tiki Gods on the 20th. Since Tiki is more than just the drinks, feel free to post on whatever Tiki subject floats your outrigger canoe...feel free to wax eloquent on aloha shirts, exotica music, decor, garnishes, food or whatever else moves you to enter the Tiki spirit!

To help get in the spirit, on Sat night I hit up PKNY, my favorite NYC tiki spot, for a couple drinks. (Doug, they made a great Missionary's Downfall.) A tall frosty mug of tiki does have the magical power to whisk one away and forget the savages of winter for an evening, not that lady winter has been inclined to savage us much around these parts this year, thankfully enough. Perhaps someone distracted her with an Improved Chartreuse Swizzle or two. Kudos to them!

UPDATE: Doug's got the roundup post of all this month's drinks up, go check 'em all out.

Speaking of that drink, my submission this month uses its recipe as a jumping off point for my creation. Not only do I love Chartreuse, but I've found that she plays well with ginger, and I've enjoyed tinkering with my newish bottle of The King's Ginger, a liqueur I prefer somewhat to Canton because I find King's Ginger to be a bit less candied and have more of the fresh ginger bite I so love. So I swapped in King's Ginger for Falernum (though I added Falernum Bitters and Tiki Bitters) and used the seasonal Meyer lemon instead of pineapple juice, upped the JWray ('cause why not?), and dubbed it the Gilligan's Ginger swizzle, which I thought was appropriately island-y. Oh, and in honor of our host, I garnished it with a tattooed lime (as well as a plastic naked lady from my PKNY drink Sat night).

Gilligan's Ginger Swizzle

• 1 oz Green Chartreuse
• 1 oz King's Ginger Liqueur
• ¾ oz J. Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum
• ¾ oz lime juice
• ¾ oz Meyer lemon juice (regular lemons work here also)
• ¼ oz Steen's cane syrup (or rich simple if you must, or even Grade B maple)
• 2 dashes B.G Reynold's Falernum Bitters
• 6 drops Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, garnish with a tattooed lime, big ol' handful of spanked mint, straw, and whatever other fun tiki flair you've got.

She's got spice and herbs from the liqueurs and bitters, funk and heft from the JWray (though both liqueurs are hardly low proof themselves), brightness from the citrus, and a touch of extra depth and richness from the luscious cane syrup. Just like any proper tiki drink, she might down a bit too easy. But what else would you expect?



In the title I promised two bonus drinks, and since I've been derelict in my blogging duties I've got yet-to-be-posted cocktails in spades from which to pick. Since the theme is Tiki, I'll pick two that fit the bill that I created for Thursday Drink Nights various and sundry over the past months. (Hey, I said I've been too busy to blog, not that I was dead.)

First, here is another swizzle I made for TDN Tall Drinks:

Tornadiki

• 1 oz Coruba Dark Rum
• 1 oz Banks Five Island Rum (sub Cruzan aged white)
• 1 oz Passionfruit Syrup
• ½ oz Lemon Hart 151
• ½ oz orgeat
• ½ oz falernum
• ¾ oz lemon
• ¾ oz lime
• ¼ oz absinthe
• 3 dashes  Bittermens ‘Elemakule Tiki Bitters

Swizzle over plenty of crushed ice, add straw and garnish with mint

Get it? Tornadiki = Tornado + Tiki. And it's a swizzle. This guy's got the bones of a hurricane with the rums and passionfruit, plus a litany of other usual suspects in the tiki oveure.





And I've got one more for you, if I don't bang it out now it'll probably never happen. Although Frederic of Cocktail Virgin/Slut was kind enough to include it promptly in the wrap up of the night. This one I made for the curiously themed Nuku Hiva TDN, for which we were asked:

in honor of this darkly exotic mystery, the goal of the night is to create tiki drinks with at least one German ingredient! Bonus if you use fire!

So I used a german Kirsch and a Honey Liqueur, as well as three german bitters. And fire of course:

Einbahnstraße (Einbahnstrasse)

• 1 oz e Coruba
• 1 oz Lemon Hart 151
• 1 oz Cruzan aged rum
• 1 oz Kirschwasser
• 1 oz Bärenjäger
• 1 oz Canton Ginger Liqueur
• 1 oz lemon
• 1 oz lime
• 1oz OJ
• (scant) 1 oz cinnamon syrup
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Orange Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Creole Bitters
• 1 dash Bitter Truth Aromatic Bitters

Shake & strain over fresh ice into stoic tiki mug; add straw & garnish with lime shell filled with flaming LH 151

I think the name translates from the German as something along the lines of "One way street", if you allow me a hefty amount of poetic license. And in fairness, you are probably better off splitting this with a friend, there's a lot in there, but I wanted to stick with the link between 1 oz of everything and the name. It's got a lot going on, but I thought it was not bad for something I threw together. At the risk of breaking the one way theme, it's pretty sweet with a full oz of cinnamon syrup, depending on how rich yours is, but it needed some; just go easy on it unless sweet is your thing.

Verified Current Where to buy Nick&Nora Cocktail Glasses

I now have a verified current online source for the classic Nick & Nora Cocktail Glass! (Verified by ordering a half dozen which arrived yesterday.)

I apologize for leading you astray in my recent post on where to buy Nick and Nora cocktail glasses, which turned out to lead only to a defunct dead end, but my mistake was not for naught.  Indeed, on that post, the eminently helpful commenter Rick directed me to Tabletop Style, which sells the lovely glasses, which are, as Rick observes, "reasonably priced at $6.25 each...very sturdy and cleanly made." I would concur with that sentiment. I daresay they are even finer than the Nick and Nora Martini glasses I purchased a few years back I was originally trying to lead you to, being both more sturdy and more elegant. (You can see my previous post for more info on my search for the elusive glasses.)

These Nick&Nora cocktail glasses are part of Minners Classic Cocktails line, made by Steelite International. I don't know much about the history, but I gather that it is a fairly new line of glassware which has cropped up due to the recent cocktail revival. This pdf from Steelite.com (created 6/2/2011), indicates the Minners Classic Cocktails line as a new product. It's not just the Nick and Nora glass that is worthwhile, the Paris Coupe Champagne and Martini Saucer are pretty cool as well, I picked up a couple of those with my order.

(These two images are shots from steelite's pdf.)

They call the Nick & Nora glass 6 oz, and you can maybe fit a full 6 oz pouring right up to the rim and counting the meniscus, but I'd say 5 oz pretty much fills her, and 4 oz is a comfortable pour, looking neither generous nor stingy. Note this observation is a good thing, not a knock; who wants a 6 oz martini? If you, either you are drinking it too fast or you like warm booze. In short, it's a good fit for a proper cocktail. To compare it to the other version I have, that appears to be no longer in production, they are pretty much the same size, but the Steelite glass is thicker and has a much more gently sloping neck.

Steelite Minners on left, old one of unknown origin on right.

The Pegu Club in NYC, as I observed in this post, in the past used the same apparently defunct glass I had, but have switched to a new glass. I can't be sure, but if I had to hazard a guess, I'd bet that their current glasses are in fact from Steelite. Here's a quick pic I took in October, what do you think, same glass?

Nick&Nora in recent use at Pegu Club, NYC

One difference between Pegu's Nick and Nora Glass and the ones I received is that mine came branded with markings on the base, one "MCC" stamp and "RONA" opposite:

I assume "MCC" is for Minners Classis Cocktail, and as for Rona, from the Steelite pdf:

Established over 100 years ago, Rona still retains its historical links with the village in which it was founded. A century later Rona is recognized as one of the worlds leading manufacturers of non-lead crystal stemware.

But those don't bother me, and I imagine Pegu just special orders without the markings for their service. Anyway, they are fun glasses, and an interesting glass just adds that little special touch to the cocktail experience. You might think I'm crazy for going on this long about a glass, but let's be honest, if you've read this far your probably just as touched in the same way. I searched long and hard to find them, which makes getting them in my hot little hand all the more satisfying. Hope this helps expedite your search. And if nothing else, they'd make a great gift this holiday season for that cocktail obsessed friend of yours.

From http://www.tabletopstyle.com/Nick-Nora-Glass-p/4854r351.htm, order me there.

MxMo LXIII: Retro Redemption - Sloe Comfortable Shag Up Against the Wall

This month's Mixology Monday "reminds me of the heady days of Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin when the world trembled at the sound of our rockets." Ok, well maybe not that far back, as that was well before my time, but at least it does hark back to the days of The Hunt for Red October, ie the 90s, also known as my college years. The theme for this month comes from Jacob Grier, scribe of the Liquidity Preference blog. He this month calls upon us to offer "Retro Redemption!" As Jacob puts it:

Contemporary cocktail enthusiasts take pride in resurrecting forgotten cocktails of the past — unless “the past” refers to the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s. We sometimes refer to these decades as the Dark Ages of Mixology, eras not yet recovered from the violence Prohibition and a World War inflicted on American cocktail culture. The classic Martini, a flavorful blend of gin and vermouth, had morphed into a glass of cold, diluted vodka. Other drinks were just too sweet, too fruity, too big, too silly...the theme of this month’s Mixology Monday is Retro Redemption! Your task is to revive a drink from mixology’s lost decades. Perhaps you feel one of these drinks has a bad rap; tell us why it deserves another shot. Or maybe the original concoction just needs a little help from contemporary ingredients and techniques to make it in the big leagues. If so, tell us how to update it.

At the risk of being a bit liberal with the parameters of the theme I've decided to tackle a drink that for me epitomizes in some way the cocktails drinks I was introduced to in college. At that time I was utterly unaware of what a proper cocktail was. I had heard of the martini of course, but that was about it. And even the venerable odd martini I came across in those days was at best, as Jacob observes, diluted vodka. At worst it was stale vermouth and worse gin. But still I look back with much fondness at the weekly Happy Hours every Friday that our dorm at MIT set up. They were tons of fun, a full bar tended by 2 or 3 volunteer bartenders slinging drinks in a fast and furious fashion, open to one and all, in the dorm lobby in full view through pane glass windows to all passersby. (Granted there was an unfortunate incident at another living group that shut down all the fun towards the end of my tenure, but at our dorm we watched out for each other and made sure everything remained well under control. I remain a staunch believer in the relative safety in college of partying out in the open, as opposed to the dangers of being hidden behind closed doors. Especially when more experienced upperclassmen are around to keep a vigilant eye on things. But that is a rant for another day.) Proper cocktails they were not; it was more Rum&Coke, Whisky|Amaretto|Midori Sours (by way of 2 gallon jugs of sour concentrate), Mudslides, Grasshoppers (or his cousin the Girl Scout Cookie with White Crème de menthe and dark Crème de Cacao, vs Green and White)...you get the picture. We could even get fancy with an Alabama Slammer or Tequila Sunrise...which brings me to the Sloe Comfortable Screw Up Against the Wall.

Bear in mind I have so far composed this post without actually trying the drink for the first time in well over a decade. So let's see what happens. I figure that at very least the Plymouth Sloe Gin that became available a couple years back has got to be way better than whatever fake stuff we were slinging back then. Before I begin, I will make one small twist and substitute Gin for the requisite vodka, because what drink is not made better with gin instead of vodka? Of course that tweak necessitates a tweak of the name as well, thus "Shag" instead of "Screw".

Sloe Comfortable Shag Up Against the Wall

• 1½ oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
• 1½ oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
• ½ oz Southern Comfort
• 2 oz Orange Juice (fresh squeezed of course)
• generous float Galliano

Shake and dump; garnish with orange slice and cherry

Yeah, so I couldn't find a cherry, sorry. The key here is to minimize the SoCo, because, well, because as it turns out SoCo's taste is very...er...let's call it distinctive. That's not to say it's entirely bad. It tastes of college. In that sense, causing memories of my college years to rush headlong back to the forefront of my mind, it is not so unpleasant. But suffice it to say that I would not choose it as an ingredient in my house signature cocktail. I tried several different formulations of these ingredients, but the recipe is surprisingly robust. They mostly taste the same. I even tried an up version light on the OJ. Frankly, as long as you maintain a light hand with the SoCo, it's not bad, if a bit boring, though the Galliano helps in the interesting department. Had I more time, I might give it a go with a peach infused bourbon, or whisky and a proper peach liqueur, but I think that losing the Southern Comfort would deprive the drink of its soul, such as it is.
In summary, I hardly succeeded in proving the worth of this drink as a proper cocktail, yet value it does retain. It's redemption, for me, lies in its ability to uniquely recall fond memories of yore, which I deem valuable in its own right. So I'll leave you with those thoughts. And I'm going to go make myself a sazerac. 


UPDATE: Jacob's roundup post is up, head over there to check out all the entries for this month.

No leads on Nick&Nora glass from Pegu Club

I previously blogged that I thought I had a source from which to buy Nick and Nora cocktail glasses, but it turned out I was wrong and my info was outdated and no longer useful. I'm still trying to track them down though, but I hit another dead end. I had no luck at Pegu Club; I was there last night and asked the bartender, but he didn't know where the bar got the glasses or who made them, though he speculated that they were made specially for the bar. So I got no leads on where to buy the Nick & Nora glass, but the drinks were still good.
Of possible interest however is that the glasses they have now are different than the ones I have, though they used to be the same. The ones they have now are a bit thicker and heavier, and the transition where the stem meets the bowl is now a gradual slope as opposed to a sharper angle.

Here is a shot of their current Nick&Nora glass:

This video shows the glasses I have being used at Pegu Club in 2008, with Audrey Saunders and David Wondrich talking about Pegu Club's Fitty Fitty cocktail.
I wonder if they switched because the thicker glass on these makes them less fragile, or if mine are no longer made. (Or of course they might just like the new ones more).

Funnily enough, I was drinking a Fitty-Fitty at the bar at Pegu club, and David Wondrich himself was sitting at the bar with Joe Fee of Fee Brothers. In fact, they were the only others sitting at the bar with me for a bit until others filed in and my friends joined me a few minutes later. I thought that was a notable coincidence. In any case, the quest continues...

Morning Drinks:MxMo LXII - Blood Infusion, Corpse Embalmer & On Yer Face

This month's Mixology Monday theme is "Morning Drinks", brought to us by Kevin from Cocktail Enthusiast. Booze for breakfast? You betcha'. As Kevin puts it:

The theme is “morning drinks.” Breakfast cocktails were the norm in the nineteenth century, when cocktails were a common beginning to one’s day. The drink’s purpose was to help the imbiber recover from the past night’s indiscretions and to steel their resolve for the coming day. We’re all familiar with bloody marys, mimosas and bellinis, but what else constitutes a breakfast drink? We’re looking for corpse revivers, eye openers and hair of the dog – drinks that jump start your morning, absolve the prior night’s sins or just taste really good with eggs and bacon. Maybe you like to fortify breakfast smoothies with gin. Or perhaps you’ve concocted an alcoholic sangrita that pairs nicely with migas. Regardless, let’s see some morning cocktails...Be as creative as you want, utilizing common breakfast ingredients like orange juice and coffee, or branching out with bacon-infused spirits, eggs or stomach-settling bitters.

Well, although it seems like a good time for it, I already used bacon-infused bourbon, maple syrup, cereal-infused milk, and a whole egg in my Breakfast of Champions cocktail back for the Dairy MxMo, so let's see what else I got. I do like the Corpse Reviver. And you know I like stomach-settling bitters, so I think now is the ideal situation to revisit a riff on the Corpse Reviver #2 I have played with before, where I added dashes of Peychaud's bitters in lieu of the absinthe. But what if we step it up a notch and add a full measure of Peychaud's instead of a couple dashes? I'll tell you what happens: we end up in a happy place.

Blood Infusion

• ¾ oz Peychaud's Bitters
• ¾ oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
• ¾ oz Cocchi Americano (sub Lillet)
• ¾ oz Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur (sub Cointreau, but won't be quite as bright)
• ¾ oz lemon

Shake& double strain into chilled coupe glass

So we basically have the equal parts Corpse Reviver #2 recipe, but instead of a dash or rinse of absinthe I've added as much Peychaud's bitters as every other ingredient. I also subbed Cocchi for Lillet, because, well, because I like Cocchi. And I switched out Cointreau for Solerno, because, well, again because I like it, but also because it makes the name even more apt. And as a bonus, I actually think it works a bit better than Cointreau here, as Solerno's flavor is a bit brighter than Cointreau and makes for a marginally lighter drink. Plus it has a pretty bottle, what's not to love? It can be a bit hard to find, so Cointreau works fine if that's what you have. I dubbed the drink Blood Infusion due to the deep red hue from the Peychaud's, the blood orange in the Solerno, as well as to reference the Corpse Reviver upon which it is based. Don't be afraid of the slug of Peychaud's, this drink is nice and refreshing and goes down if anything a bit too easy.

A variation for those who prefer a slightly fruitier and less tart drink, or just for those who need their orange juice fix in the morning, you can try this tweak and sub oj for half of the lemon juice:

Blood Infusion (Type O+)

• 1 oz Peychaud's Bitters
  
• 1 oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
  
• 1 oz Cocchi Americano (sub Lillet)
  
• 1 oz Solerno Blood Orange Liqueur (sub Cointreau, but won't be quite as bright)
  
• ½ oz lemon
• ½ oz orange juice
  

Shake& double strain into chilled coupe glass

n.b. this is the same equal portion recipe as before, I just bumped everything up to a full oz because it's easier to pour ½ oz of the juices than 3/8 oz. I'm sure you can figure out what to do with any extra. Note also I used the larger pour for the above photo and put the leftover as a sidecar in the mini carafe (Libbey 718 3 oz. cocktail decanter).

Don't put that bottle of Peychaud's away yet, there's more to come. Is the Blood Infusion too girly for you? Is shaking a drink a bit more than you can handle this morning? Then give this next one a try. Since using a just touch of citrus in bitters heavy cocktails is a technique I've recently become enamored with, let's do another take on a Peychaud's kicked up Corpse Reviver.

Corpse Embalmer

• 1 oz Peychaud's Bitters
• 1 oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
• 1 oz Cointreau
• ½ oz Lillet
• Lemon twist w/ a bit of flesh

Express oil & squeeze drops of juice (~tsp or less) from Lemon piece; Build in DOF over large rock & use lemon twist as garnish

This drink presents with a lemon aroma from the expressed oils, and upon the sip you are met with the Cointreau's orange flavors, bolstered by the similar notes from the Lillet. The drink finishes with tones of cherry from the Peychaud's with a slightly lingering bitterness. It is not at all harsh, although the bitterness does grow with each sip as the bitter compounds coat your tongue. If the embalmer does not revive you, at the very least it should preserve you.

But I'm not done yet. It is morning, right? Gotta have some egg; after all, breakfast is the most important meal of the day. 

On Yer Face

• ¾ oz Peychaud's Bitters
• ¾ oz Bulldog London Dry Gin
• ¾ oz Cointreau
• ¾ oz lemon
• ½ oz simple syrup (1:1)
• 1 oz egg white
• few drops Regan's Orange Bitters No. 6 to top
• few drops Cocktail Kingdom Wormword Bitters to top

Dry shake, shake& double strain into stemmed glass, top foam with a few drops each of orange and wormwood bitters 

This one is just downright refreshing. The wormwood and orange aromas beckon you to sip, whereupon you will experience all the flavors of the above Corpse Embalmer, though the egg both tempers and bridges the different flavors so they meld and can be tasted all at once, rather than separately first on the sip and later on the finish. Despite it's hot pink coloring, just think of this as a man's mimosa alternative for brunch. Although you should not be brunching, you should be watching football.

There you go, three very different Corpse Reviver derivatives, each with a big slug of Peychaud's bitters to settle your stomach on a rough day upon waking. Top o' the morning to you; enjoy. Now I've got to go to the store, as I'm out of Peychaud's.

UPDATE: Kevin's roundup post is up, head over there to check out all of this month's morning drinks.