The Firewater Lounge

Last Vegas Roll

2026-08-23T19:52:05.370-05:00

We're returning from another long hiatus, but know that, although the nation is moving into neo-temperance, we are not. We just got really busy again. My hopes are that we can get five posts in this year to keep any Lounge Lizards out there still well-informed on what, where, and how to drink.

At the same time, I was reminiscing a bit on the 1990s and the college years (prepare for a Tiki TV post in the future!) and have had the Tupac Shakur murder trial on the boob tube for background noise. Tupac was shot down in Las Vegas 30 (!) years ago and would have been 55 years old if he were still alive today. That got me thinking... What would 'Pac be drinking? I have a guess. Given the amount of mentions of liquor in his tunes, there are three clear favorites: Hennessy, Alizé, and gin.

So, in memory of one of America's greatest rappers, let's create a libation for you to keep ya head up. For it, you'll need rosemary syrup. To make it, mix 1 cup of sugar with 1 cup of water and dissolve in nearly boiling water. Take off heat and steep a packed 1/4 cup of rosemary leaves for 20-25 minutes. Remove the leaves, strain, and cool.

Last Vegas Roll
Holly's Original

2 ounces gin (I used Old Tom)
1 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur
3/4 ounce rosemary syrup
Splash of freshly-squeezed lemon

Shake all ingredients on ice. Strain into a cocktail glass or coupe. Garnish with lemon peel. As a fun variant, replace the Old Tom with Koval cranberry gin for an even more complex drink I call the Koval Stoplight.

As a chaser, try Tupac's own Thug Passion.

Thug Passion
Classic Pours

1 part Alizé Gold Passion
1 part Champagne (Tupac uses Cristal, most of us can't) or 1 part Hennessy cognac

Chill both bottles well before mixing. Pour equal parts in a glass suitable for a thug (ice optional). Stir lightly to keep your Champagne bubbles alive.

Auburn Courtesan

2025-09-07T20:28:00.006-05:00

Before we head into another round of the Around America series, let's end the summer with an original creation with a bit of sweet sophistication, yet still easy on the pocketbook and made from spirits that you can get at rural Wisconsin liquor stores. We had to use up a crate of Idaho peaches left over from a school function, so here at the Firewater Lounge, there is no hesitation to whip up a batch of peach cocktail syrup. Mostly, this peach syrup will go into bourbon and rum old fashioneds, but this time I thought I'd class it up and elevate an old college shooter: The Red Headed Slut.

For those not versed with frat whop and bawdy-titled co-ed bar shots, it's okay. Most of it is over-sweetened, over-hyped tiki slop. Back in the day, I pored my share of Sex-on-the-Beach(s) and company, but the only one I still riff on today is the the Red Headed Slut- a combination of Jager, peach schnapps, and cranberry juice.

For a variation cocktail in this line, I subbed in Aperol (which is bittersweet rhubarb) for the cranberry juice and added body with some Benedictine. In the recipe below, the cocktail's feel would move from summer to fall with a simple dash of Angostura.

Auburn Courtesan
Holly's Original

1 1/2 ounces Jägermeister
1 1/2 ounces Aperol
1 ounce Benedictine
1 ounce peach syrup
1 dash fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Pour all ingredients into an iced stirring vessel. Stir until cold, about 40 revolutions. Strain into a cocktail glass. Garnish with peach or lemon wedge.

Summer Sours

2025-07-06T22:19:00.001-05:00

With the summer heat upon us, we needed to break in the new deck furniture at the Firewater Lounge. The only way to do this properly is to cool off with a few drinks, so let's give you a few. A week ago or so, Cindy and I found some good grapefruits on sale in Madison. Besides Durango's Strater Hotel whiskey sipper, the Bustamonte 1957, and anything in the Firewater Lounge that contains Don's Secret Mix (see FWL blog post from September 2011), there isn't a whole lot of grapefruit juice straight up in this venerable blog.

To correct that, Cindy was looking to add a paloma to the Lounge. Now, the paloma is a classic drink for sure, but pretty boring. It's simply Squirt soda and tequila at a 2 to 1 ratio with a splash of lime juice. Yeah. Like a rum and coke. That doesn't do it for us here at this bar. So we made a modern-day accepted riff on the paloma that has more flavor and more real juice.

Mezcal Paloma

2 ounces mezcal (we used Bozal)
2 ounces fresh-squeezed grapefruit juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup
top with club soda or 7-Up

Shake the first three ingredients with ice. Strain over ice in a Collins glass. Top with soda and stir gently a few revolutions. Garnish with a grapefruit swath. If you like it sweeter, rim your Collins glass with sugar prior to icing it.

Now, the Paloma isn't the only sour worthy of your summer enjoyment. I poured myself a Jasper's Planter's Punch for my deck excursion. What's that? A funky Jamaican rum in Jasper's Secret Mix (see FWL blog post from June 2010). The key to this flavor bomb of a drink is the esters created from the traditional pot still distillation of Jamaican rums. Esters are formed through a chemical reaction between alcohols and acids during fermentation and distillation, creating fruity and floral aromas and flavors that are banana and/or mango-like. It's referred to as 'hogo' or 'funk', and it's great in Jasper's mix. Whip yourself up a batch of Jasper's and try it in Smith & Cross, Wray & Nephew, or Hamilton rums (or all three)! Here's the recipe:

Jasper's Planter's Punch

1 part Jamaican rum (I used Hamilton)
1 part Jasper's Secret Mix

Build in an old-fashioned or rocks glass over ice. If you need it sweeter, top with 7-Up.

Chicago, River North, Part 3

2025-04-24T18:25:00.000-05:00

After drinks and a vaudeville act at the speakeasy The Drifter, we headed into the cool night air and traveled the seven or so blocks to the next bar of the night, the world-renown tiki bar Three Dots and a Dash. One of the first tiki bars in the country to focus on mixology, Three Dots made the 2014 World's 50 Best Bars list with the likes of famous bars like Milk and Honey, Dead Rabbit, and PDT. If you don't have a reservation for their Bamboo Room, you'll probably have to wait in line for a while.

The decor of Three Dots screams sunny beach shack; grass roofs, bamboo shelves, and tiki art abound. The drink menu is pan-island and separated into single and group drinks. The single drinks are divided into modern cocktails, classic cocktails, and Mai Tais (including the Trader Vic classic). The group drinks come in a monster cocktail bowl of some tiki design. We opted for one of the single drinks first. I nabbed a Caribbean Punch, a kitchen-sink tiki concoction comprised of aged Caribbean Rum, Panamanian Rum, Lime, Pineapple, Sarsaparilla, Falernum, and Fassionola Red. I won't bother assembling a recipe for you since there is very little chance you will find true Fassionola syrup. If I try my hand at making it in the future, I'll put it up in the FWL for all the Lizards!

Cindy ordered a tried-and-true Painkiller. We can gladly estimate that classic pour for you:

Drink: Painkiller
Establishment: Three Dots and a Dash
Location: Chicago, Illinois
First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces Caribbean Rum blend (the classic uses Pusser's Navy Rum) 4 ounces pineapple juice 1 ounce tangerine juice 1 ounce coconut cream

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until cold. Strain into a hurricane glass or large tiki mug with shaved ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg and a pineapple wedge.

Now, we couldn't leave Three Dots without one of the really big group drinks. I elbowed my way through the busy bar and brought back a bowl of Lapu Lapu and two straws. Three Dots' Lapu Lapu is a mixture of aged Demerara rum, dark Jamaican rum, and a trio of fruit juices: passion fruit, tangerine, and lime. Needless to say, after a bowl full of rum and juice, we that it appropriate to take a walk down to the Chicago River to finish off the evening.

A running drink total of my night in the River North Neighborhood of Chicago-

1 Whiskey Old-fashioned 1 Slam Banana Thank You Ma'am 1 Caribbean Punch 1/2 a bowl of Lapu Lapu

Chicago, River North, Part 2

2025-04-10T18:05:00.000-05:00

In our last post, we left you at the Green Door Tavern in Chicago's River North neighborhood. Normally, in an Around America multi-post, we take you to three different bars in a city. But this time, we never left the Green Door. You see, the Green Door has a little secret. In the basement, there's a nondescript door with a rack of little knickknacks. Behind that door, is an authentic speakeasy known as The Drifter.

The Drifter has a much different vibe than the Green Door above. There's nothing tavern about The Drifter. The speakeasy is, in total, one long room with a bar that runs lengthwise near the door and a small stage on the far short end. That stage hosts a variety of acts throughout the night including, but not limited to, musicians, comedians, jugglers, contortionists, and burlesque dancers.

The bar selects their drink menu for the night from a rotating list of cocktails and their recipes printed on tarot cards. The drink I had that night was one of The Drifter's favorites, the Slam Banana Thank You Ma'am. The tarot card lists the ingredients, but not their portions, so a recreation is a guess but, if you happen to have the oddball components (or happen to find yourself here in the Firewater Lounge), give it a go.

Drink: Slam Banana Thank You Ma'am
Establishment: The Drifter
Location: Chicago, Illinois
First Connoisseur: Holly

1 1/2 ounces Jagermeister
1 1/2 ounce Becherovka
1 ounce banana liqueur
1/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1 egg white
3 drops of Angostura bitters

Add Jagermeister, Becherovka, banana liqueur, lemon juice and an egg white into a shaker without ice. Shake vigorously (remember this is called a 'dry shake') until frothy. Add ice and shake again. Pour into a cocktail glass or coupe. The egg white should cap the drink in white foam. Add three dots of Angostura bitters on the foam. Nestle a banana chip into the foam for garnish.

Chicago, River North, Part 1

2025-03-27T16:35:00.001-05:00

Some places in our Around America series are so big and boozy that we need to return and explore some more. That's definitely true of Chicago. In our last Chicago posts, we stayed in The Loop at the historic Palmer Hotel, ate and drank at Exchequer, and finished the night taking some blues at Buddy Guy's Legends with a number of double Seven and Sevens.

This time we'll go just north of The Loop, across the Chicago River to the River North neighborhood, arguably more congenial to a cocktail lover's taste. But before we take on a night of drinking, it's best to grab a bite to eat, so we headed into River North's Green Door Tavern for a burger.

The Green Door Tavern, which was established 101 years ago, is a quintessential Midwestern neighborhood pub, loaded with blazing neons, advertising road signs, and Hamm's Beer clocks. The venerable tavern was very busy when we got there, so we were seated in the little wing of the building on the Huron Street side. Like good Wisconsinites, we ignored all the televisions playing games devoted to the various Chicago sports clubs.

Since we knew it would take a bit of time for our food to arrive, we ordered the Green Door's mainstay cocktail, the Old-Fashioned. Of course, this is a Chicago tavern, not a Wisconsin supper club, so the Old-Fashioneds came the old-fashioned way, with whiskey. They have two versions, one traditional and one made with ginger syrup. I had the first, Cindy had the second. Let's give you the recipe for the latter.

First, make some ginger syrup. Peel your ginger root with a spoon (yes, a spoon) and cut it into 1/8 to 1/4 inch slices. Mix 1 cup of sugar with 3/4 cup of water in a saucepan. Heat, stirring constantly, until the sugar dissolves. Add 1 cup of the peeled, sliced ginger to the pan and heat until the mixture comes to a light boil. Cover, reduce heat to low, and allow the mixture to simmer for 15 minutes. Take the syrup off the heat and let it steep and cool covered for at least one hour. Strain the ginger slices from the syrup and bottle. It will last in your refrigerator for two weeks; add two tablespoons of vodka and that same syrup will last two months.

Drink: Ginger Old-Fashioned
Establishment: Green Door Tavern
Location: Chicago, Illinois
First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces bourbon (Green Door uses Old Forester)
1/2 ounce ginger syrup
2-3 dashes of Angostura bitters

Add all ingredients into a mixing vessel without ice. Stir to combine. Add ice to mixing vessel. Stir a few revolutions to cool down the drink and incorporate a bit of melt water from the ice. Strain into a rocks glass that contains one large ice cube. Garnish with an orange peel swath or cherries if you like.

Parsley Cooler

2024-11-30T21:01:00.005-06:00

The end of our garden is here. Over Thanksgiving weekend, we saw our temperatures dip below freezing and our wind chills push us to near zero. That forced us to pick or cover the hardiest of our plants. One of those plants that was still going strong was our parsley. So, if you have something extra lying around the house, do what we do in the Firewater Lounge, drink it!

Since we've been tooling around the U.S. in our Around America series a bunch, and since there's no parsley in any of our most recent trips, we decided to give you a parsley Holly's Original cocktail for what's left of your Thanksgiving. It does have green chartreuse in it, which is increasingly hard to find and expensive, but, given the amount of Millennials and younger not drinking, I suspect the prices will come down in the future. If you have the chartreuse and the parsley, go for it!

Parsley Cooler
Holly's Original

2 1/4 ounces gin (we used Death's Door)
1/2 ounce green chartreuse
1 dash of Hella citrus bitters (you can sub a celery, orange, or lemon bitters)
splash of cold 7up
parsley

Place 10-15 parsley leaves in a double old fashioned glass or similar sized rocks glass. Splash them with a bit of gin (about 1/4 ounce). Muddle gently. Add ice. Add remaining gin, chartreuse, and bitters. Stir gently to combine. Top with 7up, stir with one or two revolutions, careful to keep the effervescence. Garnish with parsley if you like.

Hampton, New Hampshire

2024-09-30T19:46:00.003-05:00

When you think of drinking in the Northeast, the New York boroughs are the first places that come to mind. Hell, they all have famous cocktails named after them with the exception of Staten Island (All the recipes for the boroughs can be found in the Firewater Lounge's recipe index). So there's a good chance that New Hampshire probably isn't on your list for cocktail meccas. That said, there are libations to be had in the Granite State.

We've already told you about Moonlight Meadery in Londonderry. This time let's take you to Hampton, a city of a few thousand that is tourist-famed for its beach. There we stopped at Old Salt and Lamie's, a restaurant and inn for the night.

The Old Salt and Lamie's restaurant is known for its seafood, and for good reason, its pretty great. As for its separate tavern, er, forgive the pun, but it's a little lame. It has a sports bar-small town vibe with the walls covered in sports memorabilia and New England tchotchkes; really it suffers from an identity crisis that the regulars likely just ignore.

That's not the tavern's fatal flaw. The problem is the drink menu. It's straight out of the 80s and, for cocktails, that's not good. Thankfully, whether you are eating in the restaurant or drinking in the tavern, you should have a Smuttynose.

Smuttynose is Hampton's premier craft beer. The two beers that we liked best (and brought home to Wisconsin) were the Robust Porter and the Old Brown Dog. Both brews are a treat for those that like chocolate notes in their suds. The Robust Porter pours out very brown with a deep tan head. It opens with coffee and chocolate aromas of the style. The porter tastes like it smells, heaps of cocoa, caramel, and a bite of coffee bitterness. Smooth all the way down.

The Old Brown Dog is Smuttynose's take on an American brown ale, a cousin of the English style, yet hoppier and fuller-bodied. In a glass, the OBD is clear mahogany with a small tan head. The pour smells like chocolate and a deep maltiness. In the mouth, it's medium-bodied, smooth, and has just the right chocolate and dark fruit sweetness. The malt carries everything to the finish.

New Hampshire, like most northern locales in America, teaches a drinking lesson- reaching for the local beer is preferable to the slap-dash small-town 'tini' menu, especially in tourist areas.

Cherry Bounce

2024-07-30T22:02:00.001-05:00

Door County cherry season is here, so let's part course with the Around America Series for a recipe for sour cherry cordial, classically known since as far back as 1690s as cherry bounce. This fruit-filled concoction made its way to the United States, like many things in our history, through England. Originally this infusion was made from brandy and cherries, which I'm sure is the method of most of our Korbel-loving northerners, but since Cindy isn't a tremendous fan of cherries or brandy, we are going to use the sweet woodiness of bourbon.

The particular recipe we riffed from calls for vodka--something that I would presume would emphasize the visual and gustatory prominence of the fruit itself. This is fine if you are looking for alcoholic cherry juice, but it won't have the complexity of flavors that you will be waiting so long for. If you really want to keep the cherry-red color, do yourself a favor and skip the vodka and trade in a good white rum.

Longtime Lounge Lizards won't be surprised to hear that cherry bounce was one of George Washington's favorite tipples. His wife Martha even had a recipe for it herself that her family prized. Let's give you the Door County recipe and then Martha Washington's.

Cherry Bounce
1/2 pound pitted sour cherries
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups spirit (brandy, cognac, bourbon, or rum)

Combine sugar and 1 cup of spirit in a quart jar. Shake well to dissolve as much sugar as possible. Add the fruit to the mixture. Shake again. Add the remaining spirit. Shake a third time. Store the mixture in a sunny indoor spot for one week, agitating daily, then move into a cabinet for the next 40-60 days. After your wait is over, strain the cherries from the liquid and pour the bounce into a clean storage vessel. It should keep indefinitely in a cool, dark area. (like it's going to last that long!)

Martha Washington's bounce is similar, but she used just fresh-squeezed juice.

Martha Washington's Cherry Bounce
5 1/2 pounds of pitted sour cherries
2 cups brandy or whiskey
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cinnamon stick, broken in pieces
2 whole cloves
1/4 inch fresh whole nutmeg

Mash the cherries to extract as much juice as possible. Strain. Set aside the mashed cherries for some later use. In a large jar, combine the fresh cherry juice with brandy and sugar, stirring or shaking to dissolve the sugar. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours, occasionally agitating. Remove a cup of the liquid and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Add the cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Strain out the spices and allow liquid to cool before re-adding it to the rest of the remaining refrigerated liquid. Wait two weeks to serve, occasionally agitating the jar.

You could definitely add Martha's spices to the first recipe if you are looking to take that infusion up a notch. We intend to drink our batch in cocktails, likely pairing an array of bitters like Boker's, Regan's orange, Aphrodite chocolate, Aztec chocolate, and, of course, the humble Angostura.

Key West, Florida

2024-07-11T22:14:00.006-05:00

Time to take the Around America Series as far south as humanly possible and crash Ernest Hemingway's haunts in Key West. Although the author has been dead for more than sixty years, both his home and his cocktails still hold sway over the island.

Hemingway, himself, was a renowned drinker in his day, and at least two of his libations are considered classics. They are the Papa Doble (2 oz white rum, 3/4 oz lime juice, 1/2 oz grapefruit, 1/2 maraschino) and the Death in the Afternoon (5 oz champagne, 1 oz absinthe). In fact, because of Hemingway's influence, you will see absinthe on quite a few drink menus in the Keys (rum, too, but that's more likely because Key West is just 100 miles north of Havana- the same distance as Arena is to Milwaukee).

While in Key West, we stopped at Hemingway's house--it's now a museum--and, my friends, that made us thirsty, so we sauntered down two blocks to Blue Heaven for a drink and a bite to eat. Okay, there's something you should know when drinking in Key West- there's chickens everywhere. Chickens were brought to the island from Cuba in the mid-1800s, mainly for cockfighting and food. Once the Keys were bridged and cockfighting was outlawed, the people of Key West just simply let them wander feral. And wander they do.

Blue Heaven doesn't do a thing to prevent them from parading, pecking, and proliferating throughout the restaurant courtyard. In fact, it seems downright encouraged. If you eat there, you are likely to have a fowl visiting under your table, right between your legs!

If this occurrence makes you want a drink, Blue Heaven has you covered. I ordered Blue Heaven's version of the modern classic, London Calling. The original recipe consists of gin, sherry, lemon, and orange bitters; Blue Heaven replaces the sherry with St-Germain and lemon with lime. Using the classic recipe, I will reproduce the recipe below.

Cindy ordered a Passion Paloma, a riff off of the Mexican classic, containing Chinola passion fruit liqueur, Milagro silver tequila, grapefruit juice, and a splash of club soda).

Now, unfortunately, I didn't get my first cocktail request; the London Calling was a backup. I intended on drinking Hemingway-style with a Root of All Evil cocktail. Sadly, we were at Blue Heaven in the midday and they had already poured out all of their special Death in the Afternoon absinthe. But the Lounge Lizards are lucky. Here, we ALWAYS have absinthe (probably like Hemingway!), so I'll recreate Blue Heaven's likely riff here as a bonus recipe.

Drink: London Calling

Establishment: Blue Heaven

Location: Key West, Florida
First Connoisseur: Holly

2 ounces gin (Blue Heaven uses Bombay Sapphire)
1/2 ounce St-Germain elderflower liqueur

1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lime juice

2 dashes orange bitters

Splash chilled club soda

Shake the first four ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled glass. Top with chilled club soda and stir gently to incorporate.

Root of All Evil

1/2 part absinthe

1/2 part Fernet Branca

2 parts chilled root beer

Build over ice in the appropriate-sized glass. Stir gently to incorporate to conserve your carbonation like the London Calling. Like Blue Heaven, garnish with mint.

Butte, Montana

2024-06-20T17:00:00.002-05:00

The Firewater Lounge has been on a hiatus since September 2023 due to a brutal work schedule, but we are back and better than ever. We have made some edits to our old pages, updated our cocktail recipe list, and set up a queue of future posts for you to peruse- everything a Lounge Lizard could ever ask for!

For our return post, we'll return to our continually-growing Around America Series. We have 12+ locations we want to detail for you over the next two years, and why not start again in one of our favorite states- Montana.

A few years back, we found ourselves in Butte, the 'richest hill on Earth,' a moniker earned through its mining history and its elevated geography. Halfway up the hill that is Butte, you'll find the tasting room of Headframe Spirits, one of the only woman-led corporations in Montana. The distillery offers its own versions of the traditional stock spirits: whiskey, gin, and vodka. We stopped at Headframe, though, for their bourbon cream liqueur, which they call Orphan Girl.

Orphan Girl is a mix of cream and Headframe's Neversweat bourbon. Like so many upper Rockies and Plains states, you aren't going to see a huge menu of froufrou Coastie cocktails. You can drink Orphan Girl straight on the rocks or in a Dirty Girl- a one-to-one mixture of Orphan Girl and root beer. That's right, an adult root beer float. What's not to like?

Drink: Dirty Girl
Establishment: Headframe Tasting Room
Location: Butte, Montana
First Connoisseur: Cindy

1 part bourbon cream (Orphan Girl)
1 part root beer

Build on ice. Stir to combine.

Oppenheimer Martini

2023-09-04T21:10:00.009-05:00

Given that Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer is the new cinematic rage (after Barbie, at least), people's interest in the historical scientist is at its peak. Fewer people know that J. Robert Oppenheimer isn't just the father of the atomic bomb, Oppenheimer is also the father of a very particular dry martini (it was briefly shown in the film).

When working on the Manhattan Project (the atomic bomb project, not the cocktail), Oppenheimer, who was nearly six feet tall, dropped to a paltry 120 pounds under stress. Those who knew him said he lived on coffee, cigarettes, and very strong martinis at the time. Lucky for us, we have the recipe for that martini.

The first thing to know about Oppenheimer’s martini is that it is large. Four whole ounces of dry London gin for one drink is probably why Oppenheimer reportedly got more than one of his guests sick on his signature martini.

The second thing to know is that the martini is that it is very dry. His recipe calls for a smidgen of dry vermouth. Now a smidgen doesn’t seem like an official amount of anything, but it is. A smidgen is 1/32 of a tsp or approximately 1 or 2 drops from a medicine dropper.

Since this martini is so large and dry, it is necessary to incorporate a decent amount of water into the drink to lower its proof and make it ‘Oppenheimer cold.’ This is hinted at through a quote from a Los Alamos colleague’s wife who said that Oppenheimer “served the most delicious and coldest Martinis.” From a picture of the time, it is implied that the drink is shaken, but if you stir it, I don’t think Oppenheimer will mind, just make sure it’s cold.

So far the drink I’ve described is simply a dry martini that Hemingway, Churchill, or Hitchcock would order. True, but Oppenheimer has a twist. He rolls his cocktail glass rims in a 50/50 mixture of lime juice and honey before the strain. Try it yourself to see which invention is a more amazing accomplishment, Oppenheimer’s bomb or his martini.

Oppenheimer Martini (Classic Pours Series)

4 ounces dry gin

Smidgeon of dry vermouth

lime juice

honey

Frost a cocktail glass in the freezer for an hour or so. Stir or shake the gin and vermouth with ice until well chilled. Retrieve the glass from the freezer. Dip the glass in a mixture of equal parts lime juice and honey. Strain the gin into the chilled, rimmed cocktail glass. No garnish. And don’t forget Oppenheimer’s classic toast- “To the confusion of our enemies!”

Pickling Onions for Cocktails

2023-07-31T17:00:00.002-05:00

In our most recent post, we challenged the Lounge Lizards with a little neat mezcal accompanied by worm-salted oranges. This time we thought we'd bring onions to the table. Veggies usually don't make the cocktail bar much - the most common are cucumbers and olives in gin, pickles, and celery in Bloody Marys, and hot peppers in Pepper Pots. But in the time-honored cocktail past, the pickled onion was not unknown. In fact, it was essential in a specific classic drink- the Gibson.

If you are new to the Gibson, likely it's in name only...well, mostly. The core of the Gibson is simply a typical recipe for a modern martini- which is a combination of gin and dry (French) vermouth in the ratio you love, for me, it's usually 4-to-1, gin as the greater portion. If I want a dry martini or drinking with a Stoeffler, I go 5-to-1. The garnish is always an olive for me or nothing.

The difference that makes the Gibson is the switch-out of the olive in favor of pickled pearl onion. If you ask a cocktail historian, they'll also note another difference. The Gibson is not a true cocktail; it's never poured with bitters. This isn't true about the classic martini. The classic martini is thought to be spawned from the Martinez, which contains orange bitters; therefore, early martinis also had bitters. Martinis with bitters are fun today as well, not just orange bitters, but citrus, Angostura, and celery are all great.

But not for a Gibson. It's gin, vermouth, and onions. That's it.

So, Lounge Lizards, if you are going to pour a Gibson, you got to get your onions pickled. Here's how:

1/2 pound peeled small or pearl onions (we used French/gray shallots from our garden)

Pickle Spice Blend (makes more than you need for 1 batch)
2 1/2 Tablespoons mustard seeds
2 1/2 Tablespoons coriander seeds
1 Tablespoon allspice berries
1 Tablespoon black peppercorns
2 cloves, broken into pieces
3 dry bay leaves, broken up
2 Tablespoons crushed fennel seeds

Mix and store in an air-tight container.

Brine:
1 pint white wine vinegar
1/4 cup warm water
1/2 cup white sugar
1 1/4 Tablespoons salt

Sterilized pint Mason Jar

Make the Pickles:
Stir together the Brine ingredients until sugar and salt are dissolved. Add onions, brine, and 2 Tablespoons of the Spice Blend to a large saucepan. Bring to a boil, remove from heat immediately.

Pour onions and liquid into the jar(s). Cover and store at room temperature for two days before using. Refrigerate once open.

Here's our Gibson recipe.

Gibson (Classic Pour Series)

2 ounces gin
1/2 ounce dry vermouth
pickled onion(s)

Combine gin and vermouth in an iced mixing vessel. Stir until cold. Strain into a pre-chilled glass. Add 1-3 pickled onions on a cocktail stick or sword. If you would like your Gibson dirty, start with a rinse of the pickling liquid in the glass. If that is not dirty enough, add up to a teaspoon of the pickling liquid to the glass. Do not shake or substitute vodka like James Bond; he asks for vodka martinis, but all Lounge Lizards remember that that drink is a Kangaroo. No one is cool drinking a Kangaroo. Don't Kangaroo your Gibson.

Drinking Mezcal

2023-07-15T15:00:00.003-05:00

During the dog days of summer, it is important for a Lounge Lizard to kick back, chill, and soak up the heat a bit. What better way to do that than to drink some mezcal with worm-salted oranges. What? Mezcal? Yes. Mezcal. If you're thinking you've never had it, you're wrong. Chances are that you've had tequila before, and, since tequila is a mezcal, you've had it.

What's the difference? Both spirits are made from agave. Mezcal can be made from about 50 different agaves, but tequila is made from just one- the Weber blue agave. Also, the agave used to make tequila is steamed, while the agave used for mezcal is roasted in underground pits. This means that mezcal will likely have that smoky finish that sets it apart.

Although we think that mezcal is fantastic in cocktails (we drink our lime Ixtapas with mezcal routinely now), it is classically enjoyed neat from a small clay cup known as a copita (pictured). Ours look like little black salsa bowls. But you will not be dipping your oranges in your mezcal like some northern barbarian! Copitas allow you to slowly savor your chosen mezcal's complexity, like those sourced from Del Maguey, our main mezcals-of-choice for the last three years now.

In March 2022, we vanilla-beaned Del Maguey's crema mezcal; in the picture, we're drinking the standard single-village Del Maguey offering- Vida from San Luis Del Rio in Oaxaca. It's bright with tropical greens upfront, leathery with a touch of smoke in the afterthought. A taste of the spirit and a taste of cool orange right after is a great combination.

But what about this worm salt stuff? Its Mexican appellation is sal de gusano, made from moth larvae that feed on agave plants. The larvae are toasted, ground up, and mixed with rock salt and dried chile peppers. Worm salt is as varied as mezcal. It can be made from countless varieties of chiles. The proportions of salt to chile to larvae can differ. What is the general taste of worm salt? Just what you'd imagine- it's salty, spicy, and smoky. Perfect for mezcal.

But, hey, this is a cocktail blog, so while you are contemplating trying mezcal with worm salt, warm up with our longtime favorite south-of-the-border cocktail- the lime Ixtapa.

Lime Ixtapa (Classic Pours Series)

1 ounce mezcal (or tequila if you like)
3 ounces coffee liqueur (we use Kamora)
1/2 ounce freshly-squeezed lime juice

Mix all ingredients into a cocktail shaker with ice. Shake until cold. Strain into a cocktail class. Garnish with a lime twist.

Strawberry Top Vodka

2023-05-31T17:16:00.005-05:00

Ah, it's almost strawberry season. Whether you pick your own or just buy from the local farmstands or grocery stores, most likely you'll take them home, wash them up, cut the tops off them and toss some sugar on them. Shortly thereafter, you'll throw the tops in the garbage.

Stop! Don't do it. Instead, why not do what any decent Lounge Lizard should do- chuck those tops into vodka to make strawberry top vodka! How do you do it? Here's how.

Grab yourself a large mason jar with a lid. Cut the tops off a pound of strawberries (about 1 cup). Throw the tops into the mason jar. Add 1 1/4 cups of vodka to the jar (we used French Vanilla Ciroc). Shake. Sit the jar in cool, dark place for two days. At the end of that time, strain the vodka and now toss the tops in the trash (any fruit parts of the top should be a zombified white color). Store final product for a week in the fridge. Don't forget to drink it, it will go off in time.

Here's a fun drink that you can try with strawberry top vodka-

Strawberry Blonde Russian (Holly's Original)

2 ounces strawberry top vodka (we used infused French Vanilla Ciroc)
1 1/2 ounces Kahlua (we alternate with Kamora Coffee Liqueur)
1 ounce Irish cream (we use Five Farms)

Build over ice in an old fashioned glass. Either stir all ingredients to combine or stir the vodka and Kahlua first and float the Irish cream on top. We like both preparations.

Sweeney Todd Cocktail

2023-04-30T12:31:00.004-05:00

For the first time in over 40 years, Steven Sondheim's original Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street is coming back to Broadway. Now, I'm not much of a musical kind-of-cat, but I am quite fond of the tale of the demented barber, what with all the slit throats, copious corpses and cannibalism to spice up the affair. Let's just say it's not the Sound of Music.

Sondheim's musical was also the vehicle for the late, great Angela Lansbury to win her fourth Tony. Lansbury passed last October. So in her memory, a Firewater Lounge concoction inspired by the musical made full of fire and bitters (but no people). It's a husky blend of Kirk and Sweeney Dominican Rum and Minnesota small craft bourbon from Douglas & Todd. Get it?

Sweeney Todd Cocktail

Holly's Original

1 1/2 ounces dark rum (use Kirk and Sweeney if you have it)
1 1/2 ounces bourbon (use Douglas & Todd if you have it)
1 dash Angostura bitters
1 dash Bitter Truth wood bitters

Combine and serve neat or sparingly with ice. Garnish with a lemon garnish- swath, twist or dry wheel.

Brass Stallion Cocktail

2022-12-12T21:17:00.001-06:00

It's been almost two years since I gave you a new original cocktail recipe from the Firewater Lounge. So it's high time that I corrected that. This cocktail I invented when I was looking for a cocktail to drink with a pretzel and cheese snack at midnight. I know what you are thinking, pretzels and cheese call for good ol' Wisconsin beer. You would be right. But cocktails sit much better on this near 50-year-old's stomach than beers do at this point, especially at midnight. Thus the Brass Stallion cocktail was born. It is as refreshing as a cocktail can get in the winter months and riffs what a yummy apple Manhattan might taste like.

The core of the Brass Stallion is applejack. This is a liquor you commonly see on Wisconsin shelves that most people confuse with apple brandy. Classically, it's not. In history, applejack gets its name from freeze distillation, or jacking, which involves freezing hard cider and then removing the ice, which 'jacks up' the alcohol content and concentrates the apple flavor (and, yes, folks, it's where Americans get the phrase 'jacked up' from).

The jacking process means that applejack will have more sweet apple flavor than, say, a typical Calvados (the French tend to use sourer apples as well). So I picked applejack because apples go so well with cheese spread, but I was worried that it would be too sweet so I had to add a little something bitter. Enter Sanpellegrino Chinotto. Chinotto is a bittersweet soda made from Italian chinotto oranges. Chinotto is a favorite beverage to wash down salty dishes in Italy, ones that are fried or loaded with anchovies; it definitely couldn't hurt in my situation with my salty pretzels. In addition, I added a bit of licorice-cherry bitter twang that comes from Peychaud's Bitters.

The end result was much better than I anticipated. Easily something that I would pour any time of the year, but specifically between the 'Ber months (September and December). Do note that the ingredients here seem much more exotic and expensive than they are. Woodman's should easily have numerous bottles of all three.

Brass Stallion Cocktail

Holly's Original

2 ounces Applejack

3 ounces Sanpellegrino Chinotto.

1 dash Peychaud's Bitters

Build in an iced old fashioned glass. Add applejack and the Peychauds, then add the Chinotto. Stir sparingly to reserve the carbonation of the soda. Garnish with bourbon cherries, dried apple wheel, or both.

New Orleans, Louisiana

2022-07-20T18:00:00.012-05:00

There is no question that our favorite bartender in the Firewater Lounge is New Orleans' Chris McMillian. He has been the head bartender at several classic New Orleans bars including the Library Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton and Bar UnCommon. He is the co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, also located in the Big Easy. Imbibe Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential barmen of the last century in 2010. Likely, the average Lounge Lizard knows him from the Library Lounge mint julep video that we repost just about every May around Kentucky Derby time.

Today, if you would like to have a drink poured by Chris McMillian or his wife Laura, you'll have to visit their own café and bar, Revel, located in the Mid-City neighborhood off Carrollton Avenue. Decked out in bold navy, auburn, purple, and gold, the café sports an entry dining area that is overlooked by the bar in the back.

When we were at Revel, it was in the afternoon, and the legend himself was putting up tables outside. Laura was providing our cocktail fare.

Obviously, we had to have a mint julep, but we already have given you McMillian's way for that particular American standard here at the Lounge. So, we had an after-dinner round as well (and it should be pointed out that the shrimp & tomato arugula salad I had was possibly the best salad I've ever eaten).

For my second cocktail, I ordered a time-honored New Orleans tipple, the Milk Punch. This frothy concoction of cream and cognac is definitely makeable in every Lizard's home bar. Cindy partook of the Doctor's Orders. This drink, created by McMillian around 2010, belongs with the Paper Plane and Red Hook as a contemporary cocktail classic. Here's how to make both.

Drink: Milk Punch
Establishment: Revel
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
First Connoisseur: Holly

1 1/2 ounces cognac (Revel uses Pierre Ferrand 1840)
1 ounce Demerara sugar syrup (you can use light brown sugar syrup if you like)
1/2 barspoon vanilla
2 ounces of cream (Revel uses half and half)

Select a shaking tin or two glasses, depending on whether you will roll or shake the drink (which will make the drink smooth or frothy respectively). In one tin/glass, add ice. Pour all ingredients over that ice. If rolling the drink, use a strainer to pour the contents without the ice into the second glass. Then pour the drink back into the first glass with the ice; repeat 4-5 times until the drink is cold and incorporated. Finally, strain into the glass which you intend to drink the punch. If shaking, cover your shaking tin with the ingredients and ice inside and shake until frothy. Strain into the glass which you intend to drink the punch. McMillian prefers his frothy. Either way, finish the drink with freshly-grated nutmeg.

Drink: Doctor's Orders
Establishment: Revel
Location: New Orleans, Louisiana
First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces bourbon (Revel uses Woodford)
1/2 ounce creme de cacao (Revel uses Marie Brizard)
2 dashes Benedictine

Ice a mixing vessel. Add all the ingredients to the vessel. Stir until chilled. Strain into a regular coupe or a Nick & Nora glass (pictured).

How to Read a Bourbon Label

2022-05-03T17:00:00.004-05:00

There are many dates on the calendar that are celebrated with drink. The Lounge's favorite, as you know, is Christmas. But for most people, New Year's Eve, Mardi Gras, and St. Patrick's Day are the big ones, probably followed closely by the ever-growing-in-popularity Cinco de Mayo and Blackout Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve for Wisconsinite Lounge Lizards who don't know that the Northeast drinks itself stupid on this night). One date that might fly under the radar though is Kentucky Derby Day (which sometimes, like most recently in 2018, falls on Cinco de Mayo). With possibly the exception of Cinco de Mayo, most of these 'drinking holidays' don't have a specific liquor in mind, but, for Derby Day, only bourbon will do. So, with only a couple of days remaining, and a whole shelf of bourbon whiskeys staring you in the face at your local liquor joint, how do you know which one is for you? Well, let me be your guide on what is and what is not important on a bourbon whiskey label.

Age Statement- one of the most important elements of the bottle. The age statement tells you how long the bourbon distillate was in its barrel. One of the mistakes novice drinkers make is that they think that whiskey ages in the bottle like wine. Sorry, nope! Bourbon only 'ages' in its barrel. That's where it picks up the characteristic flavors of newly-charred virgin American oak- you know, the sweet ones you love in the whiskey- like toffee, caramel, vanilla, and chocolate. Now the age statement cannot alone tell you everything about the whiskey's flavor, but you can bet most bourbon that as aged four or more years are going to be more complex and sweeter than their younger moonshine-y counterparts. If the bourbon is a blend, the age statement denotes the youngest whiskey in the mix- some can be older, but none can be younger.

Straight- the term 'straight' matters. If a bourbon is straight, it needs to be aged for at least two years and nothing can be added to the whiskey except water to reach the desired proof. What it means in practice is that you don't have any artificial color or favors added to the bourbon.

Bonded or Bottled in Bond- Like 'straight,' there is a legal requirement for a bourbon to be bottled in bond. This bourbon must be made by one distiller at one distillery in one distillation season. It needs to be aged for a minimum four years and must be bottled at 50 percent alcohol or 100-proof.

Proof- most Lounge Lizards know that the proof of a bourbon is a measure of the amount of alcohol in the whiskey. Proof is double the percentage of alcohol by volume. A typical bourbon is bottled at 80 proof or 40% alcohol.

Barrel Strength or Barrel Proof- Legally, the bourbon that is poured into a bottle cannot be 2 proof less than it was when it was aging in its barrel. That makes this whiskey strong, oftentimes between 104-138 proof. Good for cocktails and spring water; too hot for most palates neat.

Distilled and Bottled By- The only phrase that denotes that the bourbon was distilled and produced by the distillery on the label and ONLY that distillery. If it is labelled with 'Selected by' or 'Bottled by' or 'Produced by' or any other such vague statement, you have no idea where you bourbon has been sourced from. The beverage mass producer Diageo is infamous for having secret sources for their Bulleit bourbon (and other liquors under their label), which has drawn the ire of many drinkers nationwide, including the boys that make Bittercube, who turned one whiskey tasting that the Lounge Lizards attended into a huge Diageo hatefest.

Single Barrel- This is a bourbon that has been aged in one and only one barrel. It has not been blended with other whiskeys to make a more uniform flavor.

Small Batch- This is bourbon from a selection of barrels that the distiller has deemed superior. There is no legal limit on how small a 'small batch' has to be. So it's basically a gimmick for you to pay more.

Limited Edition- Like 'small batch,' an expression of a particular bourbon that is limited at the distiller/producer's whim. Doesn't mean it's good or bad, just that they are claiming that they will only produce it for a limited amount of time.

Handcrafted- Meaningless. All bourbon is handcrafted by someone.

Family Reserve or Special Reserve- Fancy-sounding, but as meaningless as 'handcrafted.'

There you have it, so take this guide into the store with you on your phone and buy some of the best bourbon America has to offer. Then go to our mint julep post from the past and pour yourself one for Derby Day. Cheers!

Vanilla Mezcal Crema

2022-03-17T17:00:00.001-05:00

One of the oldest and most infamous bottles in the Firewater Lounge is a 375 ml bottle of cheap Gusano Rojo (Red Worm) mezcal that actually had a worm in it at one time (eaten at Winterfest IX in 2002). Marish picked it up for us years ago and, although it is one of the first mezcals to be exported from Mexico, it's arguably one of the worst. That's not a slight to Marish- we asked him to get it because it had a worm in it, not knowing in our youth that good mezcals don't have worms in them.

The other thing about that bottle of Gusano Rojo is that it colored our idea of what great mezcal can be- smoky, elegant, and mysterious- as interesting as single-malt scotch or limestone spring water bourbon. Thankfully, in our old age (approaching 50!), we now know the truth about mezcal. It's really great.

The mezcal we're currently drinking is Del Maguey, made from the Espadin agave straight from Oaxaca. Del Maguey is making 'single-village' expressions from small Oaxacan hamlets that each have their own mezcal-distilling traditions. The mainstay for Del Maguey is Vida from the village of San Luis Del Rio and its tongue-blanketing sibling Crema de Mezcal.

As a fun project, we took the Crema and infused vanilla into it. Given that grade A vanilla is pricey right now, feel free to capitalize on some good grade B (cooking) beans. Here's our method.

Vanilla Mezcal Crema

12 vanilla beans, uncut, 5-7 inches
1 750 ml bottle of Del Maguey Crema de Mezcal

In a clean quart Mason jar, insert the vanilla beans. Pour in the mezcal; the spirit should reach just short of the jar's neck. Bend the beans so that they will stay under the surface of the mezcal; it may help to use two forks since the beans like to float. Lid the jar. Agitate the jar every week. Allow the vanilla to infuse for 4-6 weeks. Enjoy neat, with oranges, or in a cocktail.

Pittsburgh, Part 3

2022-03-03T17:00:00.002-06:00

After a night out on the town of Pittsburgh, it was time to head back to our hotel, the Omni William Penn Hotel. But that didn't mean the drinking was over! You see, we booked the William Penn for its downstairs bar, Speakeasy. Like the name implies, Speakeasy is a throwback to the Prohibition 1920s with its dark, cozy corners and classic cocktails mixed with local spirits.

Cindy started with a Michael Collins, a potent mixture of Jameson 12 year, Antique Decanter Pittsburgh Seltzer, and House Lemon-Maple-Birch Bark Sour with a Luxardo maraschino cherry on top. I went with a Peak Scotch, which is likely the only cocktail from Speakeasy that would be easy to pour at home with a suggested recipe below-

Drink: Speak Scotch
Establishment: Speakeasy
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
First Connoisseur: Holly

1 part blended scotch (Speakeasy uses Chivas)
2 parts Pimm's
Orange oil

In an iced rocks glass, combine the scotch and Pimm's. Stir gingerly to lower the temperature and add a bit of melt water to the drink. Peel a swath of fresh orange peel. Express orange oil into the drink by squeezing the swath over the drink. Rub the swath's peel on the rim of the glass. Sink the swath completely into the liquid once it has completely expressed its oil.

For our nightcaps, we decided on Old Fashioneds. Speakeasy uses local spirits in their Old Fashioneds from Wigle Whiskey Distillery which is literally just across the Allegheny from Penn Brewery. Cindy ordered a Bourbon Old Fashioned which coontained Wigle William Penn Bourbon, orange bitters, and a rock candy swizzle stick. I elected their Gin Old Fashioned, a bright combo of Wigle Genever, muddled lime, maple foam, and lime zest.

The running total of my drinks in Pittsburgh-

-A Penn Pilsner
-A Penn Sour Stout
-A Japanese Garden
-A Manhattan Noir
-A Speak Scotch
-A Gin Old Fashioned

Pittsburgh, Part 2

2022-02-18T17:00:00.001-06:00

COVID wasn't kind to hotels and their classy wine bars. Masks and social distancing is not conducive to the mingling of old men with money and middle-aged women that we saw chatting each other up at the Fairmont's wine and jazz abode named Andy's in pre-COVID times. The Fairmont, a Four Diamond, 185-room hotel in Pittsburg's downtown cultural district, shares a contemporary art and industry design theme with its downstairs bar. Although the Fairmont has reopened, Andy's has remained closed since COVID struck; it claims, though, like Douglas MacArthur, that is shall return!

When we visited, Andy's was awash in the sounds of piano jazz and the murmurs of the crowd in its expansive glass and industrial walled space. The cocktails smacked of over-the-top swank. We won't recreated them for you, because the Lounge Lizards cannot abide the pretension or time required for these pinky-in-the-air draughts. Cindy selected one of Andy's 'simplest' cocktails, a Smoked Caipirinha which consisted of cachaca, lime, and smoked cilantro syrup. I ordered up a Japanese Garden, an overwrought combination of dill-infused Tanqueray Ten, cucumber-infused sake, maraschino, and fresh-squeezed lime. And while the cocktails were good, we decided to move on to a different atmosphere.

We walked a couple of blocks closer to the confluence of the three rivers to Market Square and wandered into the champagne bar Perlé (now the Metropolitan Club), a wannabe club/wedding venue that was crazily schizophrenic enough to have $500 bottles of classy champagne but also served the cheaper stuff on tap!

Cindy and I scored seats on the back sofa and ordered our champagne concoctions- the classic Bellini for her (peach puree and champagne) and a Manhattan Noir for me- a combo of Dickel, cherry juice and champagne. The Noir is not complicated and gives you that excuse to buy that bottle of Dickel you know you wanted. Here's the recipe-

Drink: Manhattan Noir
Establishment: Perlé
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
First Connoisseur: Holly

1/2 ounce Dickel 12
1/2 ounce chilled cherry juice
Champagne

Prior to making the drink, chill your Dickel in the freezer and your Champagne and cherry juice in the fridge. In a large Champagne flute, add the Dickel and cherry juice. Top with Champagne.

Pittsburgh, Part 1

2022-02-03T17:00:00.001-06:00

If you asked us for a surprising American city that's a great location to drink, we wouldn't think twice before offering up Pittsburgh. For the Wisconsinite Lounge Lizard, Pittsburgh's vibe isn't (spiritually) far from the comfortable confines of Milwaukee, quintessentially a Midwestern suds-drinkers paradise, replete with German beer halls and their patrons spilling out to river overlooks.

One of these halls that you should not miss when you stop in Pittsburgh is Penn Brewery. Nestled on the plateau of the Troy Hill neighborhood in North Pittsburgh, the red-bricked Penn Brewery presents a dramatic view over the Allegheny River to the Steel City's downtown. Inside, German fare abounds, from wurst to schnitzel to the ubiquitous pierogi, while the beer styles are dominated by brews adhering to the strict quality standards of the 16th century Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity laws.

We didn't hesitate to order a round of pierogi and our first two beers, a Penn Pilsner for me and a Penn Gold for Cindy. The Pilsner is the brewery's flagship beer, an amber-colored draught with a bready nose and a toasty toffee finish. The Penn Gold is their easy-drinking pale lager which filled the crowded tables of nearby pub crawlers.

After devouring our meals, we decided to grab two more brews- I elected for a Sour Stout and Cindy (of course) went straight to dessert with the Penn Chocolate Meltdown. The Sour Stout was as sour as advertised. The Meltdown is a milk stout married with the confections of Pittsburg's own 1938 chocolatier Betsy Ann. The Meltdown was as sweet as the Sour was sour; both beers were a one-time tipple.

Although Pittsburgh rivals Milwaukee for their brews, we ventured out to see what downtown Pittsburgh had to offer by way of cocktails. We will tell you what we found in the next post...

New Year, New Cocktail Bars

2022-01-18T17:00:00.003-06:00

Our last two Christmas posts were sad, I admit, but with the advances in the science surrounding COVID, it's look better than ever that we are rounding the corner of this pandemic. And while it is good to remember the great cocktail clubs we have lost, we have to look forward to those that are on the horizon.

I was just surprised that we found one so soon. Late this fall, we happened upon the startup bookstore/cafe/bar near the UW-Madison Campus named Leopold's. Sharing an entry with a Rocky Rococo's on Regent Street, the quaint and cozy Leopold's opens up to shelves of texts for sale from around the world. Past the books, the back opens up to a marble-topped custom bar with a large espresso maker at its center. A trio of friendly barkeeps tended to the clientele with a variety of cocktails, wine, tea, and coffee.

The first drink I ordered was a modern classic made famous by Madison barman-turned-NY-mixologist-author Jim Meehan known as a Newark (which was on Leopold's menu) and Cindy grabbed one of her favorites, a expresso martini. Both drinks were well-balanced and granished smartly. Our coffee night caps were just as good. I ordered a Cappuccino Con L'Arancia, an orange and ginger warmer with Grand Marnier; Cindy preferred the Cappuccino Brancha Mocha, a minty dark chocolate tipple spiked with Fernet Branca Menta.

Here's to hoping Leopold's and other new cocktail clubs can start a second cocktail movement in the 2020s. In the meantime, let's show you how to pour Meehan's Newark, Leopold's-style.

Newark

2 ounces Laird's apple brandy
1 ounce sweet vermouth
1/4 ounce Fernet Branca
1/4 ounce maraschino liqueur
Dash Angostura bitters

Combine all the ingredients into an iced mixing glass. Stir and strain into a coupe. Garnish with a dried apple slice.

Bittersweet Christmas

2021-12-26T21:12:00.002-06:00

Like nearly every small city in America, Madison’s booming cocktail scene of the early 2000s ended with the beginning of the COVID era. Truth be told, cocktails were dying prior to the pandemic, but the coronavirus was the proverbial coffin nail. Madison’s Capitol Area bars took huge hits when bar manager Grant Hurless left Heritage Tavern, Brocach closed its doors, and owner Mandy Arnold shuttered the Opus Lounge, one of our favorite bars in the world. The Merchant and Maduro remain, but the city is more about food again. Because of the current shortage of aluminum, small craft beer joints will also likely go the way of the dinosaurs, or like Lake Louie, get purchased by a big competitor. It’s sad times for the Lounge Lizards. As the Christmas season rolled around, we took one more blow- the announcement that the venerable Smoky’s Club is closing after 69 years to make way for one more dime-a-dozen apartment building. The end of Smoky’s is a huge deal in the history of drinking in Madison. Before Smoky’s, the club’s name was “Justo’s” from the surname of Madison’s Queen of the Bootleggers Jennie Justo. Jennie Justo was famed for running her Greenbush neighborhood speakeasy at 921 Spring Street during Prohibition (and another in Fahrenbrook Court), which was hardly secret on the University of Wisconsin campus. Her loyal patrons cried in their beers when the infamous scofflaw was sent to the Milwaukee House of Corrections for selling booze in 1931. She made her triumphant return to Madtown in 1932 to much fanfare and defiantly continued to flout the law in brazen fashion. Not to be outdone, the cops busted Jennie again; this time in April 1933 for selling gin. Even though a man who owned the property that Jennie was serving in claimed responsibility for Jennie’s actions, the state revoked Jennie’s probation and she was back in prison once more, this time serving 10 months. By the time she got out, Prohibition was over. Madison, of course, welcomed the Queen back. Five years later in 1939, Jennie met professional baseball player Art Bramhall and they opened a bar and restaurant on University Avenue not named “Bramhall’s,” but “Justo’s” to cash in on Jennie’s Prohibition notoriety. The two would run Justo’s at that location for thirty years. Then in 1969, Leonard ‘Smoky’ Schmock and his wife Janet bought Justo’s in order to move the original Smoky’s restaurant to this special location. Passed down to their sons, Larry and Tom, the Schmock family have run the establishment continuously until February 2022 when they will be forced to shut down. At that time, the Justo-Schmock families’ historic alcohol landmark will be demolished. Another curt reminder that nothing lasts forever. We’ll say goodbye to Smoky’s with the best way I know how, with a drink on Smoky’s menu that fits both the vibe of the bar during the 80s-90s and also has, at its core, the classic Manhattan recipe that harkens back to Justo’s heyday. The recipe for that drink, ‘Marty’s Tini,’ is below. Of our many much-loved Christmastime entries in the Firewater Lounge, this may be the most bittersweet. And while Smoky’s bar and Jennie’s speakeasy may be physically gone, their legacy is not. You see, back in 1996, Cindy and I moved off campus, I grabbed Stiff’s makeshift bar, and started pouring drinks for UW students in the know- the beginning of our own Firewater Lounge. Those that drank there probably didn’t realize they were on Spring Street, the same short Madison street where Jennie and her speakeasy patrons reveled at sixty-plus years before.

Marty's Tini

Classic Pours

2 ounces bourbon (Smoky’s uses Woodford) 1 ounce sweet vermouth ½ ounce Chambord

Pour all ingredients into an iced stirring vessel. Stir until cold, about 40 revolutions. Strain into a cocktail glass. Smoky’s always used a big cocktail glass, which we used in our picture- it holds a double of the recipe.