Classic cocktails making a comeback

[LabelKing]

Nobody knows what a Berry Wall is.

 

[Huntsman]

Oh, some do. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?...post&p=1325887

 

[Johnny_5]

Originally Posted by rdawson808

Which I've never ordered. I always order a Rob Roy, which in every bartending book I've seen is made with sweet vermouth. With dry vermouth it's called a Dry Rob Roy and with both sweet and dry it's called a Perfect Rob Roy.

b

Yep. It's pretty easy to make these drinks and its pitiful that so many people don't know how to make them.

 

[Lel]

I'm a young one so I don't have experiences with real cocktails. However I can say that I am not really fond of beer, especially the ones that most people around me drink. I like some darker, heavier beers but I find light ones just to be water, filler, nothing, and at best, bland. I don't understand, as a younger person, why cocktails have fallen out of popularity so much as the idea has always intrigued me and I think that, when I move out, I will make a small bar just for mixing cocktails.

 

[Douglas]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

I'd hoped I didn't come across as a snob, at least in that I don't think I speak poorly of people who just don't know any better.

As for the Rob Roy, well I don't know. I make them with Johnnie Black, but I didn't see any there. I really like Jameson, much more than.....I guess it was Dewar's that I saw, which I really dislike. I like to think that when you have some respect for how things are supposed to be that is the time when one can alter the 'rules' to suit one's taste, and perhaps, the circumstances.

Begging your pardon all the same.

Snob was harsh - I didn't intend it quite that way... I was just surprised that someone so clearly well-versed and apparently something of a stickler for the rules would bend them in quite such an ethnically incorrect fasion.

 

[chorse123]

I can see the trend consuming itself. There's a lot of weird nerdery and faux-exclusivity around quality cocktails right now, as well as a lot of garbage riding the coattails of the better places.

 

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by chorse123

I can see the trend consuming itself. There's a lot of weird nerdery and faux-exclusivity around quality cocktails right now, as well as a lot of garbage riding the coattails of the better places.
I can see this. The novelty of 'rediscovery' has a lot to do with cocktails' popularity. I'd bet that the number of people who genuinely enjoy them enough to continue ordering them in the long term is much, much lower.

 

[lefty]

Originally Posted by chorse123

I can see the trend consuming itself. There's a lot of weird nerdery and faux-exclusivity around quality cocktails right now, as well as a lot of garbage riding the coattails of the better places.

Like Apotheke?

This preciousness of the place drove me a little crazy so I finally asked for a "Screaming Viking." I don't think the waitress was amused.

lefty

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by holymadness

The industry has seen a resurgence of drinks that hark back to the prewar eras of Prohibition and the Great Depression, such as the Sidecar, the Old Fashioned and the Manhattan.

[...]

"You're seeing a lot of darker flavours - honeys, blackberries and raspberries, versus things like pomegranate and papaya," Cohen said. "When times are tough we want to go to things that are comfortable ... that are part of our history."

http://www.nationalpost.com/life/story.html?id=1123769

Wouldn't mind trying a Hemingway.

I'm been drinking manhattans for nearly two decades, as my drink of choice. I had no idea I was so avante.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Originally Posted by Piobaire

I'm been drinking manhattans for nearly two decades, as my drink of choice. I had no idea I was so avante.
No ****. While I don't drink them, I cannot remember a night out with my mother when she did not order a Manhattan. A few years ago people started asking what kind of bourbon she wanted. She was not amused.

 

[Cordwinder]

Originally Posted by Huntsman

Yeah, but the training is to meet the demands of the customer, and by and large that does not mean an education in the classics.

My favorite Rob Roy story is when I walked into a bar, and noticed a bottle of sweet vermouth. I'm now really happy to have a Rob Roy to start. I say to the barkeep, "That bottle of vermouth tells me I can get a Rob Roy here, can do?" The barman assents, and I add "make it with Jameson's, up, thanks."

It has a....funny color. Well, I don't use M&R vermouth, so it's probably that. I taste, and what the....? I apparently couldn't keep it off my face, and the I asked the concerned-looking bartender what was in it -- it was 2:1 Jameson's to maraschino cherry juice.

You might enjoy this:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...IG3CI3E761.DTL

Both sides have some value. As a patron, I will lay off a complicated drink in a packed house, but then again on the other side it seems that many barkeeps never want the challenge of a Manhattan, not that they're really that annoying.

~H

I can understand. Went to a classy bar and ordered a grasshopper. What I got was mint milk shake poured in front of me. (it was the same place that told me the Manhattan was the Queen of cocktails). If the waiter can attempt to impress a customer that the Manhattan was the Queen of Cocktails, why can't they make a decent grasshopper?

 

[LabelKing]

I blame those yuppies.

 

[Piobaire]

Originally Posted by Cordwinder

I can understand. Went to a classy bar and ordered a grasshopper. What I got was mint milk shake poured in front of me. (it was the same place that told me the Manhattan was the Queen of cocktails). If the waiter can attempt to impress a customer that the Manhattan was the Queen of Cocktails, why can't they make a decent grasshopper?

We will never be going to a "classy bar" together.

 

[Huntsman]

Originally Posted by Douglas

Snob was harsh - I didn't intend it quite that way... I was just surprised that someone so clearly well-versed and apparently something of a stickler for the rules would bend them in quite such an ethnically incorrect fasion.

Well, I wasn't offended, it's just something I actively try to avoid. As for the rules, well I don't know. Really. My hope would be that my concern is always with preserving and extending the number of quality experiences -- ones with some depth rather than a quick and dirty sensory overload. But I also respect standards that exist, and while I don't mind playing fast and loose with the rules (all creation broke some rule or other), I would hope that it would be in a good cause. I also try to avoid dumbing-down things that are a particular way for a reason. As the Rob Roy is itself a variant, it doesn't feel too sacrilegious to me.

Originally Posted by chorse123

I can see the trend consuming itself. There's a lot of weird nerdery and faux-exclusivity around quality cocktails right now, as well as a lot of garbage riding the coattails of the better places.
+1 on that. I was always pretty down of places like PDT and such with all the theatrics, but after leaving, say, Flatiron when you can barely hear yourself think on a Friday night, and walking into PDT where all is peaceful I can't begrudge them. I've never been to Milk, which seems to ratchet that faux-exclusivity up to it's proudest notch, but many serious people I know give major respect to Petraske, so I am ambivalent about the aura of Milk & Honey.

Originally Posted by Cordwinder

I can understand. Went to a classy bar and ordered a grasshopper. What I got was mint milk shake poured in front of me. (it was the same place that told me the Manhattan was the Queen of cocktails). If the waiter can attempt to impress a customer that the Manhattan was the Queen of Cocktails, why can't they make a decent grasshopper?
See, this is kind of funny to me because the Grasshopper seems to be such a girly drink -- the pink squirrel of its generation. It's also pretty typically green. I really dislike artificially colored spirits -- I have to eat it in my Campari and Creme de Violette, but only because I physically cannot get a hold of the more genuine articles, which are common in Europe. I have to assume that Americans' tacit acceptance of these things (starting with the cremes) is why manufacturers believe they can (and do) get away with it for the price of the quiet cries of purists. I really don't know that I have a problem with anyone calling a Manhattan a Queen of Cocktails, though I don't really think it fits -- how was it presented? Were they trying to offer you options?

Originally Posted by Piobaire

We will never be going to a "classy bar" together.

~ H

 

[TheIdler]

The article from sfgate opens with this line which made me lol:

Being in the hospitality industry, bartenders don't like to grumble.

Earlier this week I asked for a Manhattan at a bar in L.A., and the bartender sighed loudly and said she didn't feel up to it right then and could I ask for something simpler.