The Brooklyn Hills Are Alive with Alpine Liqueur

Recently I put on my new modified Dunhill Saturday Night Survival Belt and trekked through the DUMBO area of Brooklyn. Over treacherous cobblestones and old railroad tracks — treacherous

when you are wearing heels — we made our way through the picturesque neighborhoods that make up Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass. We passed dangerous bands of emos and hordes of hipsters in search of the ubiquitous St. Germain elderflower liqueur.

Like many aspects of Brooklyn as Scenester Heaven, all the bars try to be different, and they are all different alike and together. Right now, the trendy liqueur is St. Germain elderflower liqueur. Three bars all within flask of each other offered the same variation on the St. Germain cocktail.

A product of France, St. Germain is made from handpicked wild elderflower blossoms. By the Von Trapp family themselves? It has a distinctive floral flavor and has proven wildly popular. Perhaps more for the stylish bottle than for anything truly remarkable it brings to the bar top. But that remains to be seen.

First stop: the wonderful Water Street and its St. Royale: Chandon Champagne and St. Germain, garnished with a cherry and a sugar rim. Bartender Joe was quite pleased with my drink order since it was he, himself, who concocted the cocktail. This news was impressive until the end of the evening when I realized that all the bartenders, Joes or otherwise, were throwing some St. Germain in a sparkling or white wine. Water Street's was made somewhat distinctive by the sugar rim, but it comes off as a sweet cocktail despite its low sugar content, and the sugar rim is redundant.

Water Street could be serving nothing but PBRs (wait, they are! Pabst Blue Ribbon being the beer du jour in the borough), and they would still be deserving of frequent visits. In a genius marketing move, Water Street is the first Brooklyn restaurant lounge to offer on site babysitting during dinner hours. Catering to the stroller set is brilliant. I'm sure you've heard by now that Brooklyn is full of young families not even counting Maggie Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard's.

On to reBar around the corner. A beautiful space with elegant ironwork throughout, reBar was lively and anticipating even more activity with some poor soul's surprise birthday party. The flannel shirts behind the bar - as elegant as the surroundings are, this is still Brooklyn - were friendly and efficient and served up their version of the St. Germain cocktail: white wine, St. Germain, club soda with a lemon twist.

Last stop was Superfine, an outstanding spot down Front Street with mix-matched decor, an orange felt pool table, and an 'organic to the neighborhood' warehouse feel to the space. The owners of Superfine are longtime residents of DUMBO - from before the developers came in and kicked out all the small industries in the area to make room for residential condos. Before Superfine, they were proprietors of Between the Bridges, a legendary burger joint. Superfine's St. Germain cocktail was a variation on Water Street's: Prosecco, an Italian sparkling wine and St. Germain with a lemon twist.

There are many more bars to visit in the neighborhood but I had my fill of elderflowers. I hear the apple brandy sidecar is quite good. I will be back with flannel and flask.

Survival Belt Photo: Valerio Mazzanotti

The Side Car: A Drink That Tastes Much Better than It Sounds

I have been thinking about Sidecars a lot lately. Hasn't everyone?

Well, apparently yes, they have. In yesterday's mail, amidst all the Christmas catalogs, there arrived fashion designer Trina Turk's new advertising flyer. Trina is recommending the Sidecar for holiday entertaining. I say, "Sure! Let's! I was just thinking the same thing!"

The Sidecar came up frequently during my research into the Whiskey Sour. The Sidecar is a cousin, or at least it's in the same family--the Family Sour: a liquor base with a balance of sweet and sour.

The Sidecar is a Whiskey Sour relation: the relation with the much more intriguing name. Why a sidecar? What does this cocktail have to do with an extra seat attached to a motorcycle?

Perhaps the answer lies in the beginnings of the drink, which were at the end of World War One. It originated maybe in Paris, maybe in London, maybe on a motorcycle. Who knows?

A bartender needed to make an emergency cocktail while commuting. His only transportation--a motorcycle. Hilarity ensued.

One of the first mentions of the Sidecar is in Robert Vermeire's 1922 Cocktails: How To Mix Them,for those of you keeping score at home. The drink was supposedly invented by legendary bartender MacGarry of London's Buck Club, a true visionary not only of mixology but of the need to have only one name as a celebrity.

Here is the trusted recipe:

The Sidecar:
2 oz. of brandy or cognac
3/4 oz. of Cointreau or triple sec
3/4 oz. of fresh lemon juice
lemon wedge

With the lemon wedge, moisten rim of a coupe glass (it looks like an old-style champagne glass). A martini glass will do just as well. Sprinkle wet rim with superfine sugar. A true bartender will only coat half a glass with sugar to give the customer the option - to sugar or not to sugar.

Place the first three ingredients into a cocktail shaker full of ice. Shake well until a frost forms on the shaker. Strain into glass. Start your engines.

I recently visited the Chelsea area of New York City. At the always funHalf-King, a necessary stop on anyone's literary pub crawl since it is partially owned by Sebastian Junger of The Perfect Storm fame, I had the brainstorm to order a Chelsea Sidecar, a variation on our theme that calls for gin rather than brandy. I was confident that the bar would stretch to the occasion, not only because of geography but also because the Sidecar was on their drinks menu.

What resulted was a rather unpleasant gin gimlet. Lime juice and too much of it. There's nothing wrong with a gimlet, but that's for another column.

Moving onto Astoria, Queens, I tried again. That could have been a mistake too. Astoria has its own cocktail, basically a very wet martini with orange bitters. The neighborhood might not have been welcome to the idea of a Sidecar on 31st Avenue and 33rd Street, or 31st Street and 33rd Avenue, or 31st Road and 33rd Street. Astoria can be confusing. You don't want to have too many Sidecars, or you won't find your way out.

We visited the Brick Cafe, a charming little rustic chic Euro restaurant. Far from being defensive about the Astoria Cocktail, the waiter at the cafe was undaunted by the order of the Sidecar. And after the drink arrived, I could see why. It was excellent. So much so that visions of award ceremonies danced in my head. The Speakeasy's Award for most Unfazed Waiter, and maybe even The Speakeasy Award for Best Cocktail. Awards ceremony season is rapidly approaching. I'd better get to work on that. Just one more cocktail. I'll make it a stylish one on Trina Turk's good advice.

A Manhattan in Manhattan

Walking into T-Bar Steak & Lounge on the Upper East Side of Manhattan is like walking into a Noel Coward play – or rather walking into a Woody Allen movie describing a Noel Coward play: "someone should be mixing martinis."

Instead they were mixing Manhattans. Seemingly appropriate except…

Is a Manhattan made with Canadian Whiskey a Manhattan – even if it's made in Manhattan?

Maybe it should be something like a Saskatchewan? But that's hard to order after a couple of drinks.

Commonly made with Canadian Whiskey because that's what is at hand, Manhattans if at all possibleshould be made with rye. Accompanying the rye will be the requisite short dash of sweet vermouth and the picturesque maraschino cherry. Occasionally you will come across a Bourbon Manhattan, but that sounds like an oxymoron, doesn't it?

There's some dispute as to the origins of the name Manhattan for this strong, masculine drink – whether it is for the borough itself or a derivation on the name Martinez for the vermouth – but there's no argument that this is a cocktail your grandparents made by the pitcher. At 4 p.m. Manhattans were put in the fridge. At 5 p.m., they were consumed.

T-bar is a steak house with more fish and vegetarian courses than steaks. The menu is for the Upper East Side type – you know – the larger the Manhattan apartment, the thinner the occupant. With my steak (seeing as how I neither have a Manhattan apartment nor am thin), I ordered a jalapeno margarita. T-Bar was T-short on anything but sweet cocktails on their signature menu, so I thought the jalapeno concoction would be a nice balance to my carnivore leanings. It was.

Jalapeno Margarita

- El Tesoro Platinum Tequila
- Triple Sec
- A healthy portion of sliced jalapenos
- Fresh lime juice

And instead of the sickeningly sweet simple syrup you might find in other margaritas, T-Bar used Sprite because "it's a natural!"

It took a couple of sips to get past the pepper shock, but by the end of the drink and the middle of the steak, it was a drink and dinner made in heaven.

T-Bar is a very noisy bar, not like a Noel Coward play at all, now that you mention it. All the bon mots are lost in the din. You'll need to learn to lip read. But there's probably an app for that now.

The end.

Kill-Devil Punch

A lot has been made of the newly restored Minetta Tavern in Greenwich Village. It's all deserved. At least from a cocktail p.o.v.

Take the Kill-Devil Punch for example. Diplomatico Rum from Venezuela, Dumante Pistachio Liqueur (yes, Pistachio!), citrus juice, AND dark rum-soaked raisins.

Service was cordial, enthusiastic even. I was there with some of the cast from a neighboring theatre production. It was a Sunday afternoon so I didn't have to deal with any of the noise that the reviews for the Minetta have complained about. One review said it was the noisiest restaurant he/she had ever been in.

Isn't that why Sunday afternoons in bars were created?

Next time, I'll try the food.

La Paloma, La Philomena and Arthur Guinness

Another great place for the solitary woman to sit at the bar is at North Square on Waverly Place. Actually the restaurant is on Waverly, the lounge is accessed on MacDougal St.. Don't be afraid. It may look like you're walking into a residential building, but it's the Washington Square Hotel, and there will be a nice man to point you to the lounge.

I was early for a show at Manhattan Theatre Source down on MacDougal. The North Square was perfect for waiting. I could sit at the bar and have a chopped salad and a La Paloma in perfect peace. Plus they played Lloyd Cole and the Commotions Perfect Skin: "at the age of ten she looked like Greta Garbo and I loved her then but how was she to know that..." Perfect.

The La Paloma. Cabrito Blanco Tequila, Agave Nectar, lime juice and pink grapefruit juice - muy bonita.

Back to 59 East 59t Theatre bar, the Flagrant Philomena awaits. Created by Alberto for the Rough Magic Theatre company and their production of Improbable Frequency: rum, vodka, blue curacao, and tonic with a twist of orange. The imbibing of this blue concoction with frequency is improbable.

And finally, a toast to Mr. Arthur Guinness, whose concocted 250th anniversary was this past week. All cocktails raised to the stout!

An Irishman's Margarita

Last week-end, there was a long line at Magnolia Bakery again. The only line I would stand in would be to enter Bar Centrale. Just to have a chance at those tiger-striped bar stools. That's worth standing - to have a seat.

Jeff Riedel for the NYT

Here is a lovely picture of Maureen Dowd, sitting comfortably at the Bar, wondering if men were indeed necessary. See? Single woman at ease, alone at the bar. This is a true test. Can you go there alone?

Yes, you can. However, Ms. Dowd does look like she could use a cupcake.

Confections aside, bartender Paul O'Halloran recommends his margaritas, made with Sauza Hornitos Tequila."We Irish know our tequila more so than the Mexicans...." he said with a wink and then gave us some El Tesoro Platinum Tequila for sipping and blurriness ensued....

The wasabi peas just weren't enough to balance out the alcohol. Thank goodness we had a designated driver.

The Fresh Wind

A defeated superhero: "The Evil Masterminds tried everything, then one of them offered me a cosmo," C. Barsotti.

Speaking of cosmos, Carrie Bradshaw is back in town. Sex and the City 2 is filming in midtown these days, at Bergdorf Goodman's.

Right around the corner from the 59 East 59th Street Theatre. Best theatre bar in NYC!

Sort of like a cosmo, The Fresh Wind was created by Sir Alan Ayckbourn. This is probably the first and last time that I discuss a cocktail devised by a knight. Sir Alan took some time from writing his 73 plays to put together this gem. It consists of vodka, french vermouth, pink grapefruit juice and a splash of Cointreau. It will quell your public fear of private places. Or is it a private fear of public places?

And speaking again of cosmos, here's a tasty one from one of my favorite NYC spots, Bar Centrale, on Restaurant Row. Bartender Paul O'H is one of the best in town. More on his skills later! This one is made with Hangar One Vodka Mandarin Blossom. Delicious! A couple of cosmos and tomorrow's weather forecast is foggy.

Love You a Long Time

Photo by Carmen E. Lopez

I have a new camera with a setting specifically for taking pictures of vintage cocktails. So this blog is renewed! I probably won't mention the children...much. But they are one of the reasons why I drink.

First stop is the Park in Chelsea, 118 10th Ave. Right off the High Line. Fantastic way to spend a beautiful September Sunday afternoon. Remember - walk the High Line, then drink cocktails. Not the other way around.

One of the Park's signature cocktails was the Love You a Long Time. A thing of beauty! Ingredients were Hendricks Gin, muddled lemon and cucumber, St. Germaine Elderflower Liqueur. All with a sugar rim.

Service was lovely. Waitress accurately described the drink as "sweet, but not too." Atmosphere was pleasant with extra stars for the appearance of Michael Richards doing his best Cosmo Kramer.

What Would Margo Order @ Slainte?

Well, a glass of Jameson Reserve 1780, of course.

Sláinte, 304 the Bowery, has a wonderful mahogany bar and exposed brick. Packed with hip young things but not too cool to be polite.