Hello Seattle and surroundings drinkers! Here’s little round up just for you, of bars in the area I’ve recently reviewed for the swell Seattle Magazine (just in case you missed them). Drink up at:
• BarCode
* See all Seattle magazine articles by me
Recently, I was browsing again through Applegreen’s Bar Book, a book sized to fit in your vest or shirt pocket, by a guy named John Applegreen, printed first in 1899. I’ve gone through it many times before, but like a lot of old bar books, I still love looking it over. And sometimes I find gems I missed or didn’t make before. The McCutcheon Cocktail is one of those very gems.
It’s a gin-based drink, and I decided to go with G’Vine’s Floraison gin, which is a small batch gin made in the Cognac region of France, and crafted from neutral spirits distilled from grapes. The juniper is there, but subtle, and mingling with a strong grape-ness (in a good way) and other floral notes leading into spices (chamomile and ginger and a few more). It’s has enough going on that it can play well with other herbal mixers (though really, try it solo, too), which is why it seemed – and is – an ideal gin for this unburied treasure of a cocktail, a cocktail which also contain both dry and sweet vermouth (I went with Dolin for the dry, and Carpano for the sweet) and a bit of maraschino and orange bitters. I went with Scrappy’s on the bitters, in a local shout out. It’s a beauty of a drink, and here’s a toast for Mr. Applegreen for introducing me to it, at whatever afterlife bar he’s shaking and stirring at.
The McCutcheon
Cracked ice
1-1/2 ounces G’Vine Floraison gin
3/4 ounce Dolin dry vermouth
3/4 ounce Carpano Antica sweet vermouth
1 dash maraschino liqueur
1 dash Scrappy’s orange bitters
1. Fill a mixing glass or cocktail shaker halfway full with cracked ice. Add everything (be careful on your dash of maraschino, you don’t want to go too heavy). Stir well.
2. Strain into a cocktail glass. Dream of the late 1800s, and France.
Hello – it’s summertime, which means it’s the perfect time to sit on down with the old computer in one hand and a drink in the other and spend some time browsing some of my recent Seattle magazine posts you might have missed. Heck, you wouldn’t want to miss any of the below, right?
• 4 Drinks That Pair Perfectly with Summertime Books
• New Local Spirits and Liqueurs to Try this Summer
• 4 Drinks for Golfing
• 4 Drinks to Have While Missing the Sonics
• Seattle Happy Hours: A.J. Rathbun Picks Four of His Favorites
*See all Seattle magazine articles by me
Hey, babies, it’s hot outside. Even up here in the northwest, the temperature is too much. It’s time to head to the beach – or, if you’re landlocked, or just can’t get away to the beach, or don’t want to deal with all those crowds, it’s time to head to the Beach Bubble. This little cooler-downer is the tropical ticket when the temperature has gotten troublingly high. Just try it!
The Beach Bubble, from Dark Spirits
Ice cubes
2 ounces dark rum
2 ounces pineapple juice
1 ounce mango juice
Chilled ginger ale
2 pineapple chunks for garnish
1. Fill a Collins glass or large goblet three-quarters full with ice cubes. Add the rum and juices. Stir, but with respect for the beach’s mellow demeanor.
2. Fill the glass up with ginger ale. Stir, but again, mellow-ly.
3. Spear the pineapple chunks on a toothpick, and float them in the glass (watch out for that toothpick when drinking).
I don’t know much about Mary Collins, outside of that she wrote 6 mystery books set in Cali in the middle part of the last century. The only one I’ve read is Death Warmed Over, and it’s worth tracking down. It’s mostly set around this Los Angeles boarding house during the war, where people keep getting knocked off, and has a plucky heroine who decides to do some detecting. But best of all, at one point our heroine is hanging with another LA sweetie, and they’re drinking B-and-Bs (or, brandy and Bénédictine). I love that (not so much the pre-bottled version, but the make-it-your-self version). Then they switch to brandy and soda! Neat. Check it all out in the below:
“Naturally,” she said, standing up. “Look, Janey, do you want some more B-and-B or would you like a nice plain brandy and soda?”
I said brandy and soda would be wonderful. When Jewel came back from the kitchen, we drank our drinks with unseemly speed. That’s the trouble with good liquor. It tastes so nice that a girl is likely to forget that aside from the taste, it also contains alcohol. With a few minutes we had drunk another brandy and soda.
—Death Warmed Over, Mary Collins
When I began to write this post, I was looking at a calendar for June. And so I thought today was going to be Friday, July 13th. When it’s actually Friday, July 11th. I’d planned to warn you, friends, to not walk under a ladder today, cuddle a black cat, or forget to toss a whole handful of salt over your shoulder. And tell you to instead have one of these drinks, too, as it’s a very lucky drink. Now, it’s not Friday the 13th. But I still think you should have one of these, because everyone needs a bit of luck every day. And, as I said, this is a lucky drink.
Why, you might ask? Well, first it has apples in it, and apples are the luckiest form of produce. You might think clover, but that’s a myth. It’s apples that are healthy, patriotic, and crunchy – all lucky things. And, also lucky, in this drink I’m using Tree Top fresh pressed apple juice. See, Tree Top is a company from up here in Washington State, in Selah to be specific, that has been here for 50 years supporting the state’s fruit growers – over 1,000 apple and pear growers to be specific, and all their juices are made from 100% USA-grown fruit. That is lucky on all sides.
Also, this drink features 3 Howls single malt whiskey. If you didn’t know, 3 Howls is a distillery in Seattle itself, and they’ve managed to put out 12 different spirits in just one year! Including this whiskey, whose caramel and vanilla hints go smoothly here, is also lucky. And if that wasn’t enough, the third core ingredient is Averna, a nice amaro that brings just the right amount of herbalness.
And this drink is of the super-refreshing variety and, as it’s summer, the mercury has risen for most and us, and a super-refreshing drink is needed. So, this Friday, the 11th, is a great day for this lucky drink.
The Lucky Apple
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounces 3 Howls single malt whiskey
3/4 ounce Averna
4 ounces Tree Top Fresh Pressed 3 Blend apple cider
Mint sprig, for garnish
1. Fill a highball or comparable glass three-quarters up with ice cubes. Add the whiskey and Averna. Stir a bit.
2. Top the glass off with the apple cider. Stir a bit more. Garnish with the mint. Feel lucky.
If you know me (and you must, right?), you know I love local distilleries here in Washington. There’s such a range, both of types of distilleries and products and events around both. It’s a fantastic time to live here! As example A, take the fun smoky stuff happening at the awesome Westland Distillery this week. See, they bring in 150,000 pounds (wow, right?) of peated malt to the distillery every year, and then mash, ferment, and distill it to make whiskey that makes angels sing. This year, and this week, they’re celebrating the peated malt’s arrival with a week of free tours, single cask tastings, and extended hours, all culminating in a giant not-to-be-missed release party (you’ll need tickets for that one) on Saturday, the 12th –two peated single cask bottlings are being release. So, get on down to the distillery this week (and if you’re reading this from a locale outside of WA State, then get some tickets and fly on it). Learn even more at: www.peatweek.com.
Hey, it’s the 4th of July! Is anyone reading this? Perhaps not, but just in case here’s a drink that’s sure to up the refreshing ante for your holidays – the Happy Crab. It’s not, as you might think, a reference to how holidays make some folks crabby. Oh no, it’s a reference to the happiness of summertime when you have a really refreshing drink. One of my favorite refreshers in summer, by the way, is English boozy ginger beer Crabbies. And Crabbies not too long ago released a new version, Spiced Orange Crabbies, which is also tasty when the sun rises high in the sky.
But, you know me – even tasty things I believe can sometimes be tastier when mixed with other tasty things. Which is the case with this very drink, as it takes the tasty new Crabbies orange and mixes it with another summer fav, dark rum, and then, just cause I’m crazy for it, Bénédictine. And you know what? The end result is awesome. Try it this holiday, or anytime this summer, and see how right I am. You’ll be happy . . . as a crab.
The Happy Crab
Ice cubes
1-1/2 ounce dark rum
1/2 ounce Bénédictine
5 ounces Crabbies Spiced Orange ginger beer
1. Fill a big highball or comparable glass about halfway full with ice cubes. Add the dark rum and Benedictine. Stir briefly.
2. Add the Crabbies. Stir to combine. Face the sun with a smile.
The Man Behind the Evening's Plans
A.J. Rathbun is a freelance food and entertainment writer, poet and author, a frequent guest on the Everyday Food program (Martha Stewart Living/Sirius satellite radio), and is a contributor to culinary & entertainment magazines such as Every Day with Rachael Ray, The Food Network Magazine, Real Simple, Wine Enthusiast, and many others. Of course, there's so much more to it than that...
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