The Bar Towel

There is a wine/spirits thread but thought cocktails are kind of enough on their own to warrant their own thread, so here it is.

Last night was an old fashioned night for me. It was 2 oz Rittenhouse, 1/4 oz of rich simple and 2 dashes of Angostura, orange peel oil, stirred for a bit on a tumbler with ice. This is my go to cocktail.

Anybody had any good cocktails lately?

Just recently started getting in to cocktails after going to Notturno cocktail bar in Vancouver.

My favourites at the moment are:

Boulevardier:

A cousin of the Negroni, the Boulvardier subs in bourbon for gin.

1 1/2 oz. bourbon
1 oz. Campari
1 oz. sweet vermouth
Ice cubes
Tools: mixing glass, barspoon, strainer
Glass: cocktail
Garnish: orange slice, lemon twist or cherry

Stir long and well with ice in a mixing glass and strain into a cocktail glass.

Clubland:

1.5 oz vodka
1.5 oz white port
1 dash Angostura bitters
Stir and serve up in a cocktail glass with an optional orange or lemon twist for garnish.

The Lucien Gaudin Cocktail:

1 ounce gin
1/2 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce Campari
1/2 ounce French vermouth

Stir in a mixing glass with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and garnish with an orange twist.

The Boulevardier & Lucien are very bitter.

Also had a cocktail of 1/2 oz Campari mixed with a good, hoppy, bitter IPA in an 8oz cocktail glass.

Bit of a coincidence: I just discovered the Boulevardier at Momofuku (listed as "bourbon, vermouth, campari, aperol, maraschino") and served on draught. Apparently it had been in the barrel for a week or so. Best mixed drink I've ever slugged back.

The Boulevardier is a thing of beauty. I do admit I am more a fan of the old pal which follows the same recipe but using dry instead of sweet vermouth.

And I've had the Campari + IPA a few times both in restaurants and at home. I do find it works amazingly well with Green Flash West Coast IPA. You need something like that to bring the sweetness of the Campari down.

Another beer cocktail I had recently was a reverse-engineered version of the Rico Suave from some place a place called the Raymond Station in LA:

1.5 oz American Rye (used Rittenhouse)
2 oz Freshly squeezed pineapple Juice
Pinch of kosher salt
Dash of Angostura bitters

Shake all these with just a small amount of ice, as most coldness will come from a Hefe you'll be topping this with. I strained some 2/3rds of the mixture into a hefe glass and topped with some Denisson's. It was really good and will be making more of these once the weather settles down a bit!