Recipes By Robert Simonson
110 recipes found
Red Hook Cocktail
The Hippocrene
Cave Creek
This mildly elaborate Collins-style drink offers a tasty study in contrasts. The sweetness of the Rock and Rye is balanced by the light smokiness of the Scotch, while the tartness of the lemon and the bitter Campari provide accent notes. The pomegranate of the savory grenadine finds a kindred spirit in the cherry flavors lurking within the rock and rye. Yet, for all the complexity, this is a straightforward refresher at the end of the day.
Root Beer Butterfest Float
This low-alcohol, post-dinner drink tastes a bit like a root beer float after the ice cream has melted. It is named after the Butter Festival that takes place every June in Mr. Bartels’s hometown, Reedsburg, Wis. If you have a butter cookie or vanilla wafer on hand, it makes a nice accompaniment.
Act of Faith
This dark winter cocktail from Dan Greenbaum, who has mixed drinks at The Beagle in the East Village and Attaboy on the Lower East Side, pairs sweet Pedro Ximénez sherry with two kinds of rum and a sizable dose of Angostura bitters, which adds spice elements. The mixture comes on like a rich, rum old-fashioned, the forthright flavors of the rum, sherry and bitters intertwined in a fruitcake-like medley of clove, allspice, nuts, molasses and dried fruits. It’s a nightcap, to be sure, made to accompany dessert at your holiday feast.
American 25
This drink, intended as a holiday-season quaff, is a simple riff on the French 75, a Prohibition-era Champagne cocktail that includes lemon juice, simple syrup and —depending on which scholar or bartender you consult — gin or Cognac. (Both versions taste good.) Substituting for the traditional spirit is flavorful, fruity apple brandy (make certain you get the bonded version) and peaty Scotch (either single malt or blended will do, as long as there’s plenty of smoke on it). The two are natural liquid partners. The aromatic, effervescent result is as pleasing to the nose as it is to the tongue. The name is a nod to the provenance of the primary spirit (apple brandy is as old as the republic) and the day of year it’s meant for, Christmas.
Andean Dusk
Mr. October
The Mr. October was created as a fall cocktail, using Laird’s bonded apple brandy as a base. Cinnamon syrup, lemon juice, Galliano liqueur, a couple of dashes of allspice liqueur and freshly ground nutmeg add to the seasonality. This cocktail tastes not only like apple pie, but apple pie à la mode, thanks to Galliano’s vanilla notes.
Champagne Cobbler
How to toast the new year? Perhaps some Champagne. Or maybe a cocktail. Then again, why choose when you can have them both in one glass? The Champagne Cobbler, a luxe refreshment featuring the classic combination of champagne and strawberries, is a best seller at the Raines Law Room in the Flatiron district.
Turkey Legs
This holiday drink is “Bob Hope’s Christmas in Hawaii” in a glass: a tiki-like creation with some spice, owing to the rum and allspice dram, and tropical notes from the mint and lime. Its creator, Jon Santer — the proprietor of The Prizefighter, a bar in Emeryville, Calif. — says it’s easy to make: “It requires no special tools, not even a shaker tin or a strainer or anything. Most importantly, it requires no technique. It’s easily batched and has no time-sensitive ingredients like sparkling wine or soda, so one could make the whole thing ahead of time, measure 3.25 ounces into glasses and be ready to swizzle when guests arrive.”
The Yellow King
This simple and breathtakingly beautiful aperitif drink (it is golden in hue) is an acquired taste. The floral and fruity Cocchi Americano, an aperitif wine, balances out the bitter bite of the Aveze, but not too much. Once you get used to the herb garden of flavors, the drink serves admirably as a palate cleanser and appetite whetter, all in an appealingly low-alcohol package. After two or three, you may even think it delicious. (I thought so after only one.) Think of it as a distant, sunny cousin of the Negroni.
Calvados and Tonic
This simple mix is drunk in Normandy, where Calvados is made, and at the San Francisco restaurants run by Thad Vogler, a Calvados advocate. He likes to enjoy it the way he was introduced to it. That is, simply—just two ounces of brandy and twice as much tonic, perfectly chilled and served without ice or garnish. In this form, it is a bracer, one that concentrates the mind wonderfully.
Paul’s Club Cocktail
