Beverages

The story of the Bellini begins during Prohibition with American playboy Harry Pickering, who drank at the Europa Hotel in Venice with bartender Giuseppe Cipriani. Pickering’s family had cut off his funds in a last-ditch effort to get him back home and quit drinking. Pickering asked Cipriani for a loan of 10,000 lire—the equivalent of $61,000 today—to get his affairs in order. Cipriani lent him his life savings, only to not hear a word from Pickering for over a year. Legend has it that when Pickering returned to the bar, he ordered a drink and paid Cipriani 50,000 lire as a show of gratitude so he could open his own bar. In 1931, Harry’s Bar in Venice opened and the Bellini cocktail was created there shortly afterward.

The Bloody Mary is by far the most universally known pick-me-up. Legend has it that the Bloody Mary was born in Paris in or around 1921 at Harry’s New York Bar by a Frenchman, Fernand “Pete” Petiot. In those days, it consisted merely of a shot of vodka mixed with tomato juice and maybe a squeeze of lemon.

Also known as South Side Fizz, the South Side seems to have first been published by famous American bartender Harry Craddock in The Savoy Cocktail Book. His recipe called for dry gin, powdered sugar, the juice of half a lemon, and two sprigs of fresh mint, finished with a splash of siphon soda water. The birthplace is disputed among Jack & Charlie’s (now the 21 Club) in New York City, a forgotten speakeasy in the South Side of Chicago, and a Long Island country club in the late 1800s known as the South side Club. There is no controversy that the 21 Club has served more of these than anyone over the decades and they can lay claim to the South Side as their house cocktail. We’ve altered it a bit by replacing the powdered sugar with simple syrup and adding a splash of soda to the cocktail to “wake it up,” as some recipes dictate. We do not recommend double straining it; that would reduce the body and the ornamental presence of the shaken mint.

The Yellow Jacket cocktail was inspired by chance circumstances and a little harassment. For weeks, we had toyed with the idea of mixing together Partida Reposado tequila and St-Germain elderflower liqueur, but there was a piece of the puzzle missing. Then one evening, a bunch of obnoxious cocktail geeks came into Employees Only to stump the bartenders by ordering the Last Word cocktail. After being satisfied with that drink, they asked if we knew of another drink with Chartreuse. At that moment, Yellow Chartreuse became the ingredient needed to bind together the elderflower and tequila. So pretty and elegant, the rich yellow color grabs your attention. The true beauty of this drink, though, is the interplay of the ingredients. The light oak on the Partida Reposado tequila works so well with the St-Germain, and they in turn produce a perfect ground for Yellow Chartreuse to bring it all into balance. The orange bitters play a key role. This cocktail is similar in style to the Widow’s Kiss cocktail (page 141), as they both contain very sweet herbaceous ingredients balanced by high alcohol content. It’s named for the yellow jacket wasps that inhabit agave farms and tequila distilleries.

This cocktail is an Employees Only variation of the famous South Side cocktail (page 130), first served in the 1920s at the New York speakeasy Jack & Charlie’s—now known as the 21 Club. We replaced the gin with Meyer lemon–infused vodka to achieve a more balanced, subtler concoction. God only knows how many West Sides we have pushed over the bar in the last five years. It is by far the most popular cocktail served at Employees Only and lends itself naturally to being enjoyed in the sun. Why is this cocktail so popular? Even if we ignore the fact that it is a vodka cocktail and the fact that we are witnessing the end of the reign of vodka, the simplicity of a cocktail with just lemon and mint flavors makes it addictive and refreshing. It will definitely be a favorite at any cocktail party, served over ice or in pitchers.

Ah, Waterloo—the monarch of Employees Only long drinks. Seasonal to the core and perfect from mid-June until early September when watermelons are in their prime. This cocktail combines fresh, ripe watermelon; gin; and Campari in a taste explosion. The most important ingredient is the watermelon, as the flavor directly corresponds to the sweetness of the cocktail. Therefore we advise you to use organic watermelon with seeds rather than the genetically engineered seedless varietals. The seeds also provide a nice visual touch when the cocktail is served. This cocktail is also a great exercise in mixing and building flavors. You start with fresh fruit, add sugar to open up the natural flavors, then add sour to balance it out. Altogether, this mixture creates a pumped-up watermelon bomb with the body to stand up to even gin. The gin and Campari bring out the savoriness of the melon to make this cocktail a modern classic.

This is a cocktail that was composed by one of our bartenders, former U.S. Marine Steve Schneider. According to him, he got tired of mixing White Ladies and wanted something more exciting and powerful to offer as a gin cocktail. When asked to describe his intention, he simply said: “Alongside a beautiful lady should be a handsome man in a tux. By replacing Cointreau with a touch of simple syrup and orange bitters, you are getting an easy, yet stunning White Lady variation, which is more appealing to the modern palate.”

This Prohibition-era cocktail is not very ladylike on the surface. On paper, it looks like a Sidecar made with gin, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We tasted this cocktail at the Savoy in London where it was invented, according to Harry Craddock, author of The Savoy Cocktail Book, which was published in 1930. Three high-quality ingredients and a master technique make this cocktail a high point of everyone’s evening. We suggest you pack your freezer full of large ice cubes, squeeze a lot of fresh lemon juice, and get going. Play some slapstick movies while you drink it—it is said that this cocktail was the favorite of Laurel and Hardy.

We were surprised to discover the Frisco Sour, as it was so close in ingredients to our Ruby Tuesday cocktail. This very tasty cocktail provides a multidimensional gastronomical experience. We serve it mainly to people who are exploring whiskey cocktails other than Manhattans and traditional sours. We have little information about this savory cocktail besides its recipe as it appears in Charles Schumann’s American Bar and later editions of Mr. Boston.

This cocktail was first made on a Tuesday with the namesake song from the Rolling Stones playing in the background. When the drink was strained into a cocktail glass and its vibrant ruby beauty came to life, we said in unison, “Ruby Tuesday.” This cocktail combines 101-proof straight rye whiskey, Benedictine, fresh black cherry purée, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup. Rye whiskey is the native spirit of the northern United States, where rye grains grow in abundance. The spirit was traditionally matured in new American oak barrels and bottled at least 50 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) or 100-proof. Its raw nature, combined with slightly sweet overtones and the herbal infusion of Benedictine, give this cocktail a beautiful long, lingering finish. It is a perfect representative of such classy whiskey cocktails as the Frisco Sour.

Dark and Stormy was created specifically for Gosling’s Black Seal rum in much the same way that the Moscow Mule was created for Smirnoff. The original recipe called for Gosling’s, ginger beer, and a lime. This simple combination works very well to create an interesting highball, but to expand on its potential, many mixologists have reconstructed it, and its popularity has approached that of the mojito. Over the years, we have created many recipes for our Dark and Stormy, using varying ingredients such as fresh gingerroot, lime juice, and even walnut liqueur. Today, we have settled on using dark rum, homemade ginger beer, and lime juice with the addition of Velvet Falernum—a clove-almond-flavored liqueur that bridges the flavors of molasses and fiery ginger.

The Moscow Mule became the flagship drink for Smirnoff vodka in the 1950s and started the vodka craze in the United States. Previously, vodka was not widely known. But this cocktail saved a vodka distillery and a restaurant in West Hollywood from going bankrupt. The first American vodka distillery was started in Connecticut by John G. Martin, using a recipe he acquired in Paris from Pierre Smirnoff. For fifteen years, vodka sales were minuscule, and the Smirnoff vodka was known as “Martin’s Folly.” At the Cock ’n’ Bull restaurant on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, Martin met the owner, Jack Morgan, who was sitting on a large quantity of ginger beer he had produced under his restaurant’s name. Coincidentally, Morgan was also about to lose his shirt. With both sitting on a large stock of unsold product, the myth is that they got drunk and decided to marry their miseries with a squeeze of lime. They named the concoction Moscow Mule because of the kick of the ginger. They served the new drink in a personally engraved copper mug to every movie star, and it became an overnight smash. Cold War controversy added to the appeal among the liberal Hollywood bons vivants. But it wasn’t long before vodka outshone the cocktail that had given it celebrity. Once Zsa Zsa Gabor declared that she only drank Martinis made with Smirnoff, vodka sales soared.

Inspiration for the Quiet Storm comes from hot, steamy New York City summer days. EO bartender Milos Zica wanted to find a refreshing bourbon cocktail that would transcend age and gender. His journey began by creating an infusion using T Salon’s Silence tea, made from rooibos or South African red bush tea with roses, vanilla, orange, and almonds—ingredients all known for their soothing properties. He steeped it in bianco or sweet white vermouth to help retain the softer flavors while showcasing the terra-cotta hue of the tea. Finished with ginger beer, lemon juice, and simple syrup, this drink lives up to its intended purpose as an elegant yet simple refreshing whiskey cocktail. The name hints at the Silence tea moniker while also hinting at the ginger beer found in a Dark and Stormy (page 120).

Pisco became popular on the West Coast, especially in San Francisco, during the days of the Gold Rush. Many ships would bring men from the East Coast around Cape Horn, through the Strait of Magellan and up the West Coast. One of the stops for provisions was the popular port town of Pisco. There they would load up on the eponymous brandy and bring whatever was left with them to Northern California. Soon the spirit became a commodity on the trade route of the western seaboard. (This would, of course, later decline with the creation of the Panama Canal cutting Peru out of the route.) The Pisco Punch was created during the late 1800s by a barkeep named Duncan Nicol at the Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon in San Francisco. The exact recipe was never shared with anyone but was enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain and Jack London. After Nicol’s passing, those who knew offered up their interpretations of the Pisco Punch.

The Pisco Sour is the official drink of Peru; there is even a National Pisco Sour Day, celebrated the first Saturday in February. Pisco brandy was first established by Spanish conquistadors, who planted grape vines as they traversed the mountainous terrains of Chile and Peru—and Chile also claims the Pisco as a national treasure. There is good reason for the debate, as Pisco was the first distilled spirit in the New World. The now-classic Pisco Sour was created in the 1920s by ex-pat American bartender Victor V. “Gringo” Morris at the Morris’ Bar in Lima, as a local variation on the Whiskey Sour. The cocktail became a favorite among the locals and quickly spread up the West Coast of America as far north as San Francisco, where it was popular by the late 1930s. This version contained pisco brandy, egg white, lime juice, simple syrup, and aromatic bitters served frothy and straight up. A specific kind of lime called Limon de Pica is the right ingredient for the Peruvian classic. Some places in Peru grate nutmeg or cinnamon on top of the cocktail to finish it; our version includes the nutmeg. The Peruvian Pisco Sour is the perfect brunch companion as a restorative drink: musky and clean, with a rich texture and alluring bitters.

Pimm’s is as British as cricket or a cup of tea and has gained in recognition with the general rebirth of the classic cocktail. The original recipe for the Pimm’s Cup is a very simple affair of Pimm’s No. 1 and lemon-lime soda served over ice with slices of cucumber. The Brits refer to this simply as Pimm’s and Lemonade (“lemonade” being the UK term for lemon-lime soda). What is fantastic about this recipe is the simplicity of ingredients. Add some cucumber and even a little mint and you have already elevated the cocktail. Try substituting champagne in the cocktail or even adding seasonal fruits to the mix, and you are light years beyond a simple highball.

We have served this variation of the Pisco Sour ever since we first learned about the drink in the mid-1990s. There weren’t many Pisco choices available back then, so we worked with what we had. One brand we used was Pisco Capel Reservado from Chile, a blend of 30 percent Muscat and 70 percent Pedro Jimenez and Torontel grapes, which give the spirit a nice sweet full flavor, as it’s aged in wood for up to 6 months. Because of the slight oak, it combines beautifully with fresh lemon juice, so our variation was a gringo-styled sour, tall over ice. Little did we know that the true Peruvian Pisco Sour (page 115) was created by a gringo as well.

Pimm’s is a proprietary cocktail in a bottle created by James Pimm in 1820 for his London oyster bar. His first blend, Pimm’s No. 1 Cup, was a gin-based liqueur infused with quinine, fruit extracts, and a secret blend of herbs. The word “cup” in this case refers to a punch made with spirits, wine, and soda or sparkling wine. Pimm started commercially offering Pimm’s No. 1 Cup around 1859, and by the end of World War II five more bottled blends had been developed: Pimm’s No. 2 Cup, based on Scotch whisky; No. 3, on brandy; No. 4, on rum; No. 5, on rye whiskey; and finally, No. 6, on vodka. Originally, most cups were garnished with cucumber or cucumber peel. Employees Only pays tribute to this forgotten trend in our Pimm’s Cup cocktail, which can be made as a long drink or in large batches or pitchers for parties. We build the base of the cocktail with Cointreau and fresh lime juice to add more alcohol and firm up the body. Fresh mint and delicious thinly sliced cucumbers are lightly bruised in the shake to release aroma, and we top it off with ginger ale, which adds to and opens up the bright flavors of the cocktail.

Have you ever heard the slang term “the bee’s knees”? It was used in the 1920s during the Noble Experiment to describe something really cool and hip. The cocktail itself appeared sometime during Prohibition. The recipe appears in cocktail books printed after 1936, which helps back this theory. It is fairly easy to make—the trick is to use honey syrup instead of honey itself, as honey will not dissolve when shaken with ice in a cocktail. We suggest Cadenhead’s Old Raj saffron-infused gin, at 55 percent alcohol by volume. Some authorities claim this cocktail can also be made with rum. If you’re game, we suggest the Flor de Caña four-year-old clear rum, which adds the perfect amount of grassiness and earthiness to the overall flavor profile.

This all-year-round cocktail, an Employees Only original, is a fine example of what you can do with a lessinspiring spirit like vodka. We wanted to combine traditional Mediterranean flavors such as figs, lemon, and honey. Mixing with vodka is a challenge similar to that of cooking with tofu; no matter what you do to it, it’s still tofu. All the flavor and texture comes from the other ingredients in the mixture; vodka really contributes only alcohol to the structure of the cocktail. In the case of the Mediterra, any other spirit would interfere with the clean balance of fig to honey.