Drink
Last Updated on Monday, 04 January 2010 10:25 Written by Elise Monday, 04 January 2010 00:00
My pal @Chrisbean was kind enough to invite me, The Goog and The Red Menace to join her and her boy at cocktail bar Drink last week. While learning more about cocktail culture is on my "list of things to learn more about", I hadn't made much headway until this outing. In this respect, Red is a great teacher, answering my ridiculous questions, and making sure I got to see the beautiful giant block of ice behind one of the bars...seriously, even the ice cubes were gorgeous...clear rough cut squares, prettier than diamonds.
The first thing I noticed on walking into Drink, was how pared down it was. Clean, sleek, the focus was clearly on the drinks, and the experience. There were piles of fresh citrus on a larger table, and that fresh scent met you at the door. The bartenders were really more like cocktail doctors. While there were some drink suggestions on the board on the wall, really they wanted to talk to you, find out what you like, and mix you up something special. Our bartender John asked questions like, do you like sweet or bitter...followed by, how sweet or how bitter?
For my first drink, I went an easy route, tempted by the piles of fresh fruit, and comforted by having menu items to work from, I choose something from the wall, an Aquaduct. As far as I could tell this was citrus based, with a sweet brandy and vodka. It was tasty and refreshing, if not a little bit safe.
After seeing The Goog order his Dark and Stormy, made with the most amazing (and I don't use that work lightly) house-made ginger beer, I knew I had to have something with that ginger beer. Now I was feeling more bold, and frankly I realized it was ok to be a "noob" here, John wanted to talk to me, he wanted to know what I liked, didn't like, and he wanted to give me a drink I loved. So I asked for something with the ginger beer. He suggested a Gin-Gin Mule, (lime, mint, gin, ginger beer), that refreshing profile sounded good to me, so I went for it. It was great, fresh, a little sweet, with a touch of that hot ginger spice.
After some fantastic bar snacks of candied nuts with bacon, hand cut fries with malt vinegar aoli, and my favorite, foie mousse with crostini, it was time for the last drink of the night...a dessert drink, as it were. I decided to let John do the picking for this one. I told him I love anise, a lot. His eyes lit up and he said "I'm going to make something great for you".
Before long...though it was a little longer than usual as the liquor, a Spanish anisette needed to be brought up from the cellar (exciting), this lovely thing was put down in front of me.
The drink itself was a shining pearl color, and the glass reminiscent of something in my Nana's china cabinet, a cordial glass with cut flowers. The anise scent was strong before I even tried it and my first sip took me back to holidays as a child when I was allowed a watered down thimble of Sambuca. It was delicious, and nostalgic and I could not have ended the night on a higher note. I will be returning to Drink, no doubt.
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Comments
I was told it was a Suissesse.