Keeping it Real...

The last few weeks have been extraordinarily exciting—and at the same time, frustrating. Our conversion to fresh juices has been fairly seamless, though we’re still working out the kinks with the production. We use between 250 oz. and 400 oz. of fresh juice on a busy night, which means cases of fruit must be squeezed many times a week. Who does this squeezing, you might ask? This guy:

McGillionaire

Mr. Mike McGill, AKA McGillionaire; our lowly bar assistant. In his work time, Mr. McGill handles our fresh juice, infusions, syrups and tinctures, and supply inventory. In his off time, he enjoys long walks on the beach and learning about muddling. If you see him running around the hotel in his cute little vest and tie, make sure to say hello. We don’t normally allow him out of his cocktail dungeon, so he’s lonely.

One of the newest additions to the Congress cocktail arsenal is REAL housemade grenadine. We feel that it’s important that our cocktails have the correct flavor profiles. We’ve always been lacking in the syrup department until recently, and grenadine was one of the biggest culprits. Most “grenadine” nowadays is made using high fructose corn syrup, red dye, and a bunch of flavors and preservatives… nothing natural. Our new grenadine? Pure pomegranate juice and simple syrup. This makes for an entirely new flavor experience. Even Shirley Temples taste delicious. It is impossible to quantify the difference that these changes make in your everyday drinks, like for instance the Tequila Sunrise. This college standard takes on a whole new life when it’s made with 100% agave tequila, fresh OJ and REAL grenadine.

To test our new toy, I had McGill make a drink he used to make when he was a humble barkeep at Barrio (RIP). He called it a Desert Sunset Margarita.

Desert Sunset in Bad Lighting

Desert Sunset Margarita

2 oz. Sauza Hornitos Plata

½ oz. Mathilde Orange Cognac Liqueur

1 oz. Fresh lime

½ oz. Agave Nectar

Real grenadine

Combine first four ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake very vigorously. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Drizzle approx. ¼ oz real grenadine on the top (it will sink, of course.) Garnish with a lime wheel.

Pretty good stuff. The same drink made with fake grenadine would be horrid and undrinkable swill, unless it was served at midnight in a college watering hole, probably chock-full of fake “sweet ‘n sour” mix.

I had a nice lunch meeting today with Regan O’Kon from Maker’s Mark. She’s a real smart cookie; apparently she is also a professor of Italian at Arizona State University. A woman with smarts and a taste for alcohol? Isn’t that every cocktailian’s dream? But I digress… We got to talking about using Maker’s Mark during Kentucky Derby season in the most sacred of bourbon cocktails, the Julep. The traditional mint julep, in its somewhat modern definition, is made with bourbon, mint, and some form of sugar (simple syrup works better than granulated, and I especially like demerara). Kentuckians literally drink thousands of these during a three-day stretch leading up to that magical first day of May, when a few really bizarre rich people pay life-choice-challenged dwarfs to frantically whip their equestrian slaves around a dirt track for about a minute. This creates a mob scene in Louisville, and pretty much everywhere in the state, for that matter, and the drink of choice is the ol’ standby, the Mint Julep

All the talk of bourbon and mint got me to thinking about a completely different cocktail I’ve been toying around with for a while. I wanted to deconstruct the disgusting “Georgia Peach” drink and make a real peach-flavored cocktail I could be proud of. What’s more southern than bourbon? And although it’s not made in Georgia, I thought it would blend well with the peach flavor I intended to use: namely, Sathenay Crème De Peche liqueur. This unbelievably tasty resurrection of a forgotten liqueur is made in one of France’s finest wine regions, so naturally it carries with it more cachet than, say, crème de banana.

I named the drink the “Decatur” after the hometown of a very lovely lady from that very state, and as I served it to her, I hoped it would encompass all of the flavors and sensations I wanted to capture; I wanted to re-create the spirit of the South in a glass. Which is difficult, mainly because I’ve never been to the South. So I am completely full of it.

Give It Up For The Dirty South

Decatur

2 oz. Maker’s Mark Bourbon

½ oz. Sathenay Crème De Peche

¼ oz. Lavender Honey Syrup

2 sprigs Fresh mint

Dash Fee’s Peach bitters

Gently muddle approx. 10 mint leaves in a mixing glass with the lavender honey syrup. Add bourbon, Crème de Peche, and ice. Stir vigorously. Strain into an old fashioned glass filled with CRUSHED ice.

What a lovely surprise this drink is. The high wheat content of the Maker’s makes it smoother and sweeter than, say, Bulleit bourbon, so it meshes well with the drink. For those who like less sweet, I recommend replacing 1 oz. of Maker’s with a high-proof rye whiskey like Rittenhouse or Sazerac.