Lavender & Cucumber Sour

Here it is, early September, and I still haven't gotten around to writing about the cocktail that most impressed me at this summers Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans (aside from the refreshing Bud Light I shared with Rocky Yeh and Jeffrey Morgenthaler at the Hotel Monteleone pool). That award goes to Charlotte Voisey's Lavender & Cucumber Sour, sampled at the spirited cocktail pairing at August.

Okay, Charlotte Voisey. Let's get this out of the way, right now. She's beautiful. I can safely say this because I'm a happily married man, but look at her..... She's one of those people who, I think, probably has to fight against her natural good looks in order to be taken seriously in her career. Trying to talk to her, I got the feeling that might definitely have been the case. Anyway, the woman who is also the face of Hendrick's Gin is extraordinarily gifted, and this cocktail deserves to be published and admired on its own merits. Certainly those sitting with me at the table (including such luminaries as Rocky, Dayne and Wendy, and Anita and Cameron) agreed.

Lavender & Cucumber Sour

1 1/2 oz. Hendrick's Gin (what, you were expecting Boodles?)
1/4 oz Domaine de Canton Ginger Liquer
3/4 oz Sonoma Lavender Syrup
1/2 oz fresh squeezed lemon juice
1/2 egg white
2 slices cucumber
2 dashes lavender bitters

Muddle cucumber with lavender syrup. Add Hendrick's and other ingredients and shake well. Serve over fresh ice in a rocks glass. Garnish with a cucumber slice and sprig of fresh lavender.

La Rocio

Once upon a time, I worked with a guy at Union named Dave Nelson. Dave had worked his way from being a busser, to a waiter then to bookkeeper. But what he really wanted to do was tend bar.

What the hell he was thinking, I'll never know. But he worked a couple times for me and I showed him a few things I knew. Dave always has (probably always will, God bless him) been extremely confident in himself, bordering on cocky. After a few shifts, Dave declared himself ready to be a full-time bartender/mixologist. Eventually, he found himself doing just that at Campagne, a renowned French restaurant with a bar that sat something like 5 people.

Somehow, someway, within two years, Dave was asked to be the bar manager for a new gastropub called Spur. Dave threw himself into the task of opening the joint and has, within a few months of Spur being open, thrown himself into the mix as one of Seattle's better bartenders.

He's grounded in the classics (I like to think I helped hammer that into his head) but his own creations are amazingly inspired. Take his tequila drink currently knocking them out at Spur, La Rocio. He wrote it out for me, so I'll just copy verbatim what he wrote:

1 1/2 oz silver tequila
1 oz stone fruit syrup*
1/2 oz red wine
top with red wine foam**

"Chill rocks glass with ice. Shake tequila, syrup and red wine. Discard ice in rocks glass and fill halfway with red wine foam. Strain drink over foam into glass. When performed correctly foam should rise to the top without spilling over."

*Stone Fruit Syrup
1/2 qt rainier cherries
1/2 qt white peaches
1/2 qt plums
1/2 qt apricots
1/2 qt nectarines
2 cups sugar
3 cups water

"Boil water and add sugar. Cut, pit and juice fruits. Steep in sugar water for 25 minutes on low heat. Strain off ffruit and cool in fridge before serving."

** Red Wine Foam

2 cups red wine
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup simple syrup
1/2 tsp egg white powder
1 tbs methyl cellulose

"Blend all ingredients until creamy and foamy. Load into canister and add CO2 charge."

That's a lot to do for a lazy guy like me, especially when I can just beat over to Spur and have Dave do all the work (which I'm glad to do). Let's just say, though, that this is a revelatory tequila cocktail, absolutely delicious and goes down FAR too easy, which is a compliment.

I'm definitely proud for Dave and the kick-ass work he is doing at Spur and glad to share his cocktail recipe. It deserves to duplicated in kitchens and bars around the globe.

Oh, and the name? Apparently some hot chick Dave met in Argentina or Mexico and still has a red-hot jones over. . . perfect.

Look, Ma, I Made the Paper!!!!

. . . . and in the good section, too (The What's Happening section...quick aside, as just saying the phrase What's Happening reminds me of The Rerun Dance... sigh, I miss the 70's), and not the Front Page, which is definitely not where my mom wants to see me.

In any case, the Hemingway Daiquiri I once made for Leslie Kelly inspired her to include it in her list of the top 8 cocktails of this summer, appearing in this Friday's Seattle Post Intelligencer. For those of you who prefer to read their news online as opposed to buying a paper, you can find that article here.

Andy Rogers, the photographer, is a really cool and laid back guy, and I'm sure he's too busy with fatherhood to mind if I shamelessly swipe his photo for the blog, and since I'm encouraging EVERYONE to buy the paper, I'm hoping the PI doesn't mind as well.

Oh, and the Hemingway Daiquiri?

2 oz. white rum
3/4 oz. fresh grapefruit juice
3/4 oz. fresh lime juice
1/4 oz. maraschino liquer
dash of simple syrup

Shake above, then strain into a goblet (or Cognac glass) filled with crushed ice. Garnish with a lime twist and two cherries on a pick.

We Did It!!!

August 3rd, Seafair weekend here in Seattle, with boats plying the waters of Lake Union and seaplanes soaring overhead, Christine Nylin and I got married on the Skansonia Ferry. Words hardly do the experience justice. It was the greatest day of my life, and I'm humbled and lucky to be Christine's husband.

Some shout-outs are in order. . . Thanks to both sides of our families, to all who came and celebrated with us, to the staff at the Skansonia, to our photographer Erich Ruff, to Ethan and Angela Stowell for helping procure the booze, and to all at the Zig Zag, who hosted an extravagant and special after-party with all the class we've all come to know and love.

Finally, I'd like to thank our wedding party. Each and every one of you mean the world to us and all of you worked so hard to help make our day one we will never forget. I'd especially like to thank Kate Halfwassen, Christine's Maid Of Honor and Sean Twomey, my Best Man. You two worked tirelessly and took amazing care of us. We can't thank you enough, although we will certainly try, again and again.

To all who were there, whether bodily or in spirit, we raise our glasses to you. Thank you for the best wishes.

I'm Still Drunk!!!! Tales of the Cocktail, Day One

Dang.... That's two nights out of the last three in which I've woken up still drunk from the night before. I guess, if anything, that's a pretty decent return on investment, better than I'm getting in the stock market right now.

So, you've all endured the pain of drunk dialing.... making a mistake phone call when you're drunk and regretting it fully the next morning. I'm going to drunk blog. . . though I'm hedging my bets and posting here as opposed to the Tales Blog or Slashfood. I may be drunk, but I've still got some wits about me.

Okay, first, lets get this one out of the way. Rocky, Dayne, I love you guys, but fuck whichever of you brought me that absinthe frappé. It's now 8 a.m., two hours until I'm due at TOTC, and I'm still buzzed up. This isn't promising. Maybe for you guys, and everyone else, but not for me.

Now that that's off my chest, I'm going to unload my notebook from Day One at Tales Of The Cocktail.....

First, Christine and I got loaded the night before I left. Went out and pinballed around town, got food at 611, then went to the Saint, Liberty, Sun Liquor and finally back to Union (I'm too drunk to put links to all these, Google it yourselves, and that's just going to have to be true for the rest of this post). Got home, then woke up a couple hours later to finish "packing" so I could fly to NOLA. Well, being drunk from the night before, I forgot to pack extra pairs of shorts and shirts. The shirts I did pack look exactly alike, so now everyone at Tales is going to think I'm wearing the same clothes everyday, which will only partially be true.

Interjection: the coffee down south absolutely sucks!!!! You're going to hear a whole lot of bitching from the PNW guys about the lack of quality coffee.... ignore us at your peril....

SOOOOOOOO, being tired from sobering up while traveling, I missed out on the blogger party and was quite glad I did. I was able to make the very first session of Tales and all the subsequent panels I wanted to get to and was reasonably lucid and able to retain most of what I learned. Probably. Guess we'll find out when I try to write coherently for the Tales blog or Slashfood.

Highlights of Day One? Number One, meeting and partying with my fellow bloggers. This was and still is the one thing I wanted to do this week. As much as I read and love Degroff, Wondrich, Regan and everybody else, I think I still learn more from the collective blogging community than I do from my collection of books and authors. Yeah, I'm drunk, but I will happily stand behind that statement any day. I was (and still am) thrilled to meet the cocktail bloggers. And I'm looking forward to a few more nights like last night....

Other highlights? All three panels I attended yesterday were great in their own way. I'll write about these when (if) I sober up. I'm really looking forward to getting a chance to write about the sparsely attended first panel of the day, moderated by Doug Frost.

I got to meet David Wondrich, who is a great and charming guy, the kind of guy you'd like to drink with (I mean really, is there a better compliment?), Martin Cate, Robert Hess (funny that I should finally meet Robert in New Orleans rather than in our mutual hometown). I'm far too shy to introduce myself to Degroff or Regan, though given enough to drink anything is possible. Oh shit, yeah, I met Chris McMillan!!!! On my julep post, I provide a link to his Youtube video, and if you haven't seen it yet, I have no idea why you're even reading this blog!!! Chris is just the most gentle, humble bartender you're ever going to meet. He's a bartender's bartender, which is the second best compliment you can pay someone, and yes, I would LOVE to sit down with Chris and have a cocktail and listen to him spin New Orleans history all night, so now I've given him my highest compliment. I hope I get a chance to spend more time with him, as he is truly remarkable.

The Tales reception/Beefeater hoohah was fun, though a little crowded. Rocky, Dayne and I skipped the rest of the evening festivities and went to Cochon for dinner, which was pretty awesome. Those two know how to eat. Rocky has some pornographic pictures of the food we ate, if you're curious, and I'm sure he'll put some up for public drooling on his Flickr account. I remember lots of eating, lots of shouting, and lots of laughter, which in my mind means a perfect way to spend an evening.

Then, some bastard handed me an absinthe frappé at LaFitte's. And now everyone gets to read a drunk post from Slowpoke Rodriquez, the slowest mouse in all of Mexico (btw, this is how I always think of/refer to myself when I'm hungover or still drunk from the night before). It's going to be a long week....

That's all I have. You've been briefed. You've been drunk blogged.

You're welcome.

See you tomorrow. If I'm lucky.