danoots

Had a variation on a "Black Irish". A friend brought back a beautiful bottle of espresso liquer from Il Caffe di Sant Eustachio in Rome. Tried one part liquer to three parts Glenfiddich 12 year, over ice. Awful. Completely out of balance - wayyy too much smoke, and the scotch brought out the bitterness in the espresso beans. From this point on, I'll just enjoy the Eustachio on the rocks. If you haven't tried this... I'd recommend it. Just a little sweet, it's dark and thick, and tastes strongly of espresso. Don't know if it's available in the U.S.

For a better (in my opinion, of course) tamarind margarita, try Danny Meyer's Tabla restuarant. Don't know proportions, but I believe they use gold tequila, cointreau, tamarind juice, and orange juice (maybe lime juice too?). Bartender told me they extract the juice from the tamarind fruit. It's my favorite margarita in the city... it's $$ at $12, but hey, I'm worth it

I deal with this all the time. A lot of my female friends drink things like "Malibu Bay Breezes" - "drinks" in which there is no trace of the base spirit. My approach has been one which will, over time, convince them that it's a *good* thing to be able to taste the alcohol in their drinks. I've avoided throwing gin-based drinks at them, and generally stuck to long drinks. Mojitos have gone over well (too well), as have mai-tais (slightly bastardized), and whiskey sours. I think I'm beginning to chip away at their pre-conceptions, which is exciting. In a few months, they may even be ready for a trip to Pegu Club.

Bobby Flay has had cactus pear margaritas on the menu for years. It works well... you might want to try something along those lines.

Grammercy Tavern in NYC is serving a Campari Margarita on their summer menu (don't know if that just changed). If memory serves, it included a gold tequila, lime juice, campari, and cointreau. Sorry... no ratio info, but it was tasty

My god I love this place. We went twice yesterday... we went for a pre-dinner drink, and I was so taken with the place, we hiked back for a post-dinner libation. And I believe I've found a new favourite cocktail in the Jimmy Roosevelt, although I'm going to practice making them at home (at $16 a pop, it's a wonderful splurge, but I can't drink them all night).

Actually, I watched the moment slowed down (PVR is pretty cool) and I have to say they looked pretty much exactly right. And given the "they look like frogs" comment, I have a suspicion that those customers had never seen real shrimp (with heads on and not in shrimp cocktails) in their lives. Still... the cook was wrong, the customer was right - and a dishwasher had an excellent snack. Isn't that the rule? I had the red shrimp when we ate at Rocco's (during filming). I could understand how someone used to overcooked cocktail shrimp could be thrown off by what's served... they're brimming with juice, and the flavour is *much* stronger than your typically bland shrimp... a lot of "sea" in them. Not that I'm adding anything to the conversation, but our food at Rocco's was rather good... well prepared grey goose martinis, nice antipasti, really good meatballs... but the service was perhaps the worst I've ever had in an NYC dining experience. Waiter poured wine all over our table and didn't refill caraffe... no bread on table... we waited about 40 minutes between each course... we had four waiters during the course of the meal. We mentioned to staff when leaving that we left a crappy tip due to poor service. They seemed genuinely concerned and surprised... seeing some of the show makes me wonder how that was possible.