FrogPrincesse

Oops. Good thing I was not there; I could not have resisted saying something. Is he still in training perhaps? OMG. I love how you think.

Hmmm. Here they are: St. George gin sampler (dry rye, terroir, and botanivore), and a bottle of Willet 4-year single barrel rye. They ended up in London in excellent hands.

I almost never use Grand Marnier in cocktails, but it's essential for Crêpes Suzette and chocolate mousse, so I have a bottle. I really like the Pierre Ferrand dry curacao. Recently it was spectacular in a Sidecar. I mostly use Clement Creole Shrubb in rum drinks (Mai Tais), but it also works very well in other applications like here.

I would have enjoyed this post anyway, but you just had to throw in a gratuitous (and sanitized) Lebowski quote. I find that life is more fun when enjoyed through the prism of The Dude's sunglasses. You really should. I had a blast. And you live much closer than me so you have no excuse.

Very sad to read about Dave's passing. My thoughts go to his family and friends. I feel lucky that I got to read about his adventures in France, including recently with his blog.

Plantes Vertes already did a fantastic job of narrating an evening I had a chance to share with her and another illustrious eG member. I would just like to add my impressions to hers. After a long flight from San Diego to London, I dropped off my things at the Zetter Hotel and had just enough time to enjoy a quick and restorative meal at a neighboring restaurant (St John) before meeting my fellow eG cocktailians. I suggested starting our cocktail adventures at the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel and they were kind enough to agree. Going to the Savoy felt surreal in many ways. I had read so much about it, and of course when you are there you cannot help but think about all of the history. Recently, I had followed with great interest the events around the 50th anniversary of Harry Craddock's death that were chronicled by Erik Ellestad on his blog. Being able to finally go there was a little overwhelming. The space has an interesting layout. The main room, which could have used a little more charm or character, has a piano in the middle. The bar itself is quite small and breathtakingly beautiful, but sadly it's not well visible from most of the space. When we got there, the piano was silent which I lamented about, but regretted as soon as the piano player started what was without a doubt a nod to my visit with a rendition of the Beach Boys' California Girls, and Hotel California (not the Eagles, man, anything but the Eagles...). I would have thought that jazz music from 20s or 30s would have been more appropriate, but what do I know... We got our drinks which were large. There was something not quite right with my White Lady. Interestingly it seemed to contain a touch of absinthe (hopefully this was intentional and not the result of a dirty shaker...) which was actually nice. The gin used was Sapphire, which would not have been my first choice. The egg white foam was a little bit thin, not a thick lucious foam. It looks like I am nitpicking but we all agreed that there was something wrong in the overall taste and balance, and the cocktail did not feel crisp and bright as it should have. The Ruby Bullet was an interesting and adventurous choice from Plantes Vertes. To me it tasted like Champagne with bitters in it. Not offensive but completely forgettable. The caraway from the aquavit was barely noticeable. It was diluted down with soda. The Norman Conquest with its Calvados & Bourbon combo was the best drink of the group, although it would have benefited from a more distinctive sweet vermouth than Martini Rosso, and also more of it. I would not mind having one again in the future; with minor tweaks it would have been great. It reminds me of a practically identical cocktail by Sam Ross called the Grandfather that I mentioned a while back in the Manhattan thread. After doing some reading about the Norman Conquest I found out that this was the drink that Erik Loricz had decided to seal into a flask and bury in a wall at the Savoy during a recent renovation, following a long tradition started by Harry Craddock. Apparently he does a version of that cocktail with Scotch, which sounds really nice too. Norman Conquest on the left, White Lady on the right, and Ruby Bullet on the back. Semi-stale nuts & things in the middle. Who eats those things anyway? Midway through my drink I worked up the courage to go to the bar and introduce myself to Erik Lorincz, whom we had seen making his entrance earlier, and dragged Plantes Vertes along with me in the process (I did not have to ask her twice). We saw him prepare a couple of drinks including one with a spray of violet liqueur (I think it was a Purple Bird), and got to observe his shaking technique first hand. He listening politely to my babbling; we realized in the process that we had not just one but several common friends named Erik, and at the end of our discussion he very nicely agreed to sign my copy of the Savoy Cocktail Book. Then we went back to our table and, after finishing our drinks, decided to cut our losses and move to a place with cocktails that would be more to our liking. (No offense, Erik. In his defense I should make it clear that he was not the one preparing our drinks.) Before leaving, we paid a visit to the museum and admired their collection of vintage bottles.

So the spillage had more to do with the shape than the size of the glasses then (as you suspected). Which glasses did you end up buying?

Maybe I should give this another try one of these days. I had one a while back was not in love with it despite the Campari and the French inspiration. I just noticed that you posted it in the Negroni thread. For me it does not have the feel of a Negroni.

I use mine regularly to shake 2 cocktails (6 oz total of ingredients). I really like the way they feel, they are really well made. I have cheapo imitations but they don't even come close. Even though they weight about the same, the weight is not distributed in the same manner (the korikos have a heavy base and thefore are more stable), and the seal is not as good. [As Erik just wrote] The Koriko tins are 28 & 18 oz. I don't find them small, but based on your previous questions about shaking issues we already established that you must have huge arms & hands!

And part 3...

That looks SO much better. Thanks Dan.

That sounds good. Unfortunately most of the Canadian whisky we get around here does not have much personality.

This one made last weekend, with orgeat and a cinnamon-absinthe combo, is unmistakably a tiki drink in the vein of Don the Beachcomber's best creations, even though it's rye-based. But don't tell anyone or they may call it tacky... Winter Diamondback from El Dorado Cocktail Lounge, another hipster hangout in downtown San Diego that just celebrated its 5 years. Rye, lemon juice, homemade orgeat, cinnamon syrup, black walnut bitters, egg white, absinthe rinse, and a grated nutmeg garnish. It is essentially Harry Craddock's excellent Rattlesnake with a sweetener change, with cinnamon syrup and orgeat replacing the simple syrup. I don't have black walnut bitters so I make do with Fee's whiskey-barrel aged bitters. It still worked for me.

Finally got to try Rafa's Man Comes Around. Also a Waldorf Cocktail, which is a bourbon Manhattan with an absinthe rinse (I used St. George).

The Man Comes Around by Rafa. His reputation is well deserved. He is really good.

Not a fan of that one when made with Remy Martin VSOP, but maybe I should give it another try with the Pierre Ferrand.

Humboldt Fog with a romaine salad. A decent goat cheese, although it does not reach the heights of French-made goat cheeses.

Got a new packet (or rather, brick - it's the Costco size) of yeast so I am making bread again. Italian semolina bread. Crumb a bit dense but it was decent. Is it worth getting the revised edition of the book? The update includes weight measurements (finally!).

I got a very large butternut squash in my CSA so I made David Lebovitz's butternut squash pie. I used a 10-inch pan this time and ended up with just a small excess of filling.

Cool.

Yep, that one is a San Diego cocktail creation, by Christian Siglin (cf. the Negroni thread) who now heads the bar at Banker's Hill for those who keep track of that kind of thing.

Made Jon Santer's Revolver with my newish bottle of House Spirits coffee liqueur (they use coffee roasted by Stumptown in Portland). The creator describes this cocktail as a coffee Manhattan. It's 2 oz rye-heavy bourbon (I used Buffalo Trace), 1/2 oz coffee liqueur, 1 dashes orange bitters, flamed orange zest.

It looks like a kaffir lime to me.

Too much negativity around here. I am going back to tiki-land.

Me again. Restocking on La Favorite & Cynar. Decided to get the dry rye gin to try in Negronis and genever cocktails. (Plus a few more things that cannot be revealed at this time).