A drink is a drink, right?
Ask any bartender in Boston that question, and a smirk or a blank smile will reveal the answer: drinks are not just drinks. They are liquid art, a symphony of flavors, a rock-and-roll measure taken with a jigger or two and a vigorous, hair-tossing shake — or a prolonged stir. They’re conversation makers, laughter lubricators, and sometimes just a Slow Comfortable Screw Against the Wall.
Some of Boston’s top bartenders tend to have a secret or two on how to arrive at the perfect beverage. Fresh ice. Stirred, not shaken. Many times that perfect beverage may be the product of the bartender’s imagination, whipped up at a customer’s request, or inspired by a dark and stormy night.
" You always have bartenders’ own special shot, own special drink, own special name, " says Dally Irizarry, who shakes, rattles, and pours in the red glow of Lucky’s in Four Point Channel. Her own special shot ( " It’s very delicious. It tastes just like Kool-Aid " ) is such a secret she won’t divulge the recipe. So how do folks ask for it? " I haven’t found a good name for it yet, " she says.
In the meantime, the white-chocolate martinis at Lucky’s are still the darling with women and men. " It kinda looks like a sundae in a martini glass, " says Irizarry. You can order it by name.
Dally Irizarry’s white-chocolate martini (Lucky’s)
1 ounce Smirnoff vodka
½ ounce white Godiva chocolate
½ ounce clear crème de cacao
Combine contents in a shaker. Shake, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass with the rim lined with Hershey’s syrup.
IF TOM MASTRICOLA says " a cocktail can be anything, " then a cocktail can be anything. Mastricola, a bartender for 20 years, is one of Boston’s outstanding master mixers. His very name, Mastricola, evokes the Cuba Libre (made with Bacardi light — " Don’t forget the fresh lime juice, " he says) and a string of kudos from his peers.
At No. 9 Park, Mastricola mixed up Rain vodka, mint simple syrup, and fresh-squeezed lime juice to create the Palmyra; he also introduced Boston to the pear martini, now on several drink lists around town — including the recently opened Kings Lanes Lounge and Billiards in the Back Bay, where Mastricola now works. " I usually carry some drinks along with me, " he says.
Sparing no puns, Mastricola gave his revised classics a " bowling " twist. Take, for instance, his Big Ball Bowl, a Scorpion Bowl with three flavored rums served in a giant goblet. " It should be for four people, " says Mastricola, " but we do it for two. "
Tom Mastricola’s Big Ball Bowl (Kings Lanes Lounge and Billiards)
5 count Cruzan citrus rum
4 count Cruzan coconut rum
4 count Cruzan pineapple rum
3 count apricot brandy
2 count orgeat (almond) syrup
2 count simple syrup
Equal parts fresh lemon, fresh lime juice, and pineapple juice
3 count dark rum for float on top of drink
Put ice in large glass. Mix drink in the glass. Stir. Garnish with limes, cherries, and pineapple sticks. Float dark rum on top.
JOHN GERTSEN likes to make quiet cocktails. Gertsen, a bartender at No. 9 Park on Beacon Hill, prefers the careful, constant stir to the clattering, quick shake. That way he can have insightful conversations about bourbon, that secret brown mash made only in Kentucky, which is becoming more popular as a drink.
Combining his passions for a quiet drink and bourbon, Gertsen likes the Basil Hayden Manhattan — stirred, not shaken. " When stirred properly, you can get it just as cold as you can shaking it. Shaking makes a lot of noise. " (He notes, however, that drinks with fruit juices need a good shaking in order to mix them up.)
John Gertsen’s Basil Hayden Manhattan (No. 9 Park)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
½ ounce sweet vermouth
2 ½ ounces Basil Hayden bourbon
Fill a shaker with ice, then add liquids. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with maraschino cherry.
WAY BEFORE cosmopolitans, way before the froufrou era, " says Carah McLaughlin, she invented the French martini: a vodka martini with a whisper of blond Lillet and a burnt-orange twist.
Schooled in the ’70s here in Boston and bartending " forever, " McLaughlin has found a home behind Locke-Ober’s illustrious 19th-century bar. She calls it a " true lounge, the ultimate of lounges, " which perfectly matches the current cocktail scene. " [There’s] a lot more classic drinking, especially here at Locke-Ober, " says McLaughlin. So her burnt-orange garnish ( " It’s not just a stupid bartender trick, it’s a flavor enhancer " ) on the French martini is right on.
Carah McLaughlin’s French martini (Locke-Ober)
5 ½ ounces vodka
½ ounce Lillet blanc
Burnt-orange twist
Put liquid in shaker with ice; shake, strain, and serve straight up in a six-ounce cocktail (martini) glass. To make a burnt-orange twist, take the peel from an orange slice, squeeze the zest into the glass, and light a match to the zest. (Practice and a handy smoke detector might be your saving grace.) Put the twist in the glass.
WHEN PATRICK Sullivan opened the B-Side Lounge in Cambridge four years ago, he revived cocktails as old as Prohibition and shunned the trend toward larger glassware. " I never understood the 12-ounce martini glass, " he says, lamenting warm gin at the end of a big drink. Instead, he scoured old books for classic cocktails such as the Star Dust, and let rip the retro recall on names such as the Mullet (a Bud Lite and sambuca) and Windsor HiLo (a Chartreuse frappe named for B-Side’s predecessor, the Windsor Tap).
One night, cocktail connoisseur and B-Side regular Seth West rattled off a recipe he’d come up with. Sullivan mixed it up and loved it. The West Indie is now a B-Side favorite. " This is a true classic-style cocktail, " says Sullivan. " Of all the people I see trying to put together cocktails, this is the best I’ve ever seen. The balance of flavors — it makes perfect sense. "
Patrick Sullivan & Seth West’s the West Indie (B-Side Lounge)
1½ ounces Mount Gay Rum
¾ ounce ginger beer
¾ ounce fresh-squeezed orange juice
Shake liquid in shaker full of ice. Serve in six-ounce cocktail glass, straight up. Garnish with fresh mint sprig.
CHRIS SCHLESINGER, chef/owner of East Coast Grill & Raw Bar, in Cambridge, recently traveled to Tasmania, and all he brought back was a sticky idea. That is, he noticed people jabbing drinks with a stick, picking out luscious fruits that had been soaking in whatever beverage they were having.
" We call it a Stick Drink, " says East Coast bartender Kris Venegas, who says fresh orange and litchi make for good stick stabbers. Though their margaritas are top sellers, Venegas says the Stick Drink is catching on. " We got an early jump on summer, " he says.
Chris Schlesinger’s Stick Drink (East Coast Grill)
¼ orange
3 litchis
14-15 small mint leaves
½ ounce passion-fruit liqueur
1 1/5 ounce Absolut vodka
In the bottom of a pint glass, put in fruit and mint. Muddle together. Add ice, then passion-fruit liqueur and vodka. Give it a shake. Top off with soda water. Plunk in a pair of chopsticks. Drink and eat fruit as you go.
JOSH CHILDS, barkeep and owner of Silvertone Bar & Grill, discovered a ruby of a signature drink when he combined raspberries, vodka, and time. He let raspberries steep in a liter of vodka for a week; the result was a beautiful red liquid with the flavor of raspberries — a house liquor that’s used in a number of drinks. " It’s a real vodka flavor, " says Childs. " None of that candied-flavored stuff. "
Because it’s a tad bitter ( " It ends up being a little medicinal " ), he adds a little simple syrup to the raspberry vodka. He created the raspberry martini — his homemade raspberry vodka and simple syrup, shaken to chill — and served straight up in a sugar-rimmed (super-fine sugar) glass and garnished with fresh lime.
Josh Childs’s raspberry liquor and simple syrup (Silvertone Bar & Grill)
1-pound container frozen raspberries
1 liter vodka
Put contents in bucket and let steep for a week. Strain. With pestle or ladle, push excess juice from raspberries through sieve or strainer. Discard raspberries. Add simple syrup to taste. Funnel vodka back into bottle. Chill if desired.
For simple syrup: boil equal parts sugar and water. As soon as the water boils, take off heat (you don’t want sugar to darken); let liquid cool and use.
IF THERE’S one beverage to mark the turn of this century, it’s probably the mojito — the Cuban exile with fresh crushed mint, lime, and sugar-cane garnish. " You have to crush it uuuppp! " stresses Liz Moses, bartender at the Latin-influenced Bomboa. Crushed fresh mint is the secret to a great mojito, as well as fresh lime juice — none of that fake stuff or lime-flavored simple syrup.
Liz Moses’ mojito (Bomboa)
2 ounces light rum
1 ounce simple syrup
1 ounce fresh lime juice
Crush eight to 10 small mint leaves, with a little bit of ice, at bottom of an Old Fashioned glass. The ice adds friction and helps break up the mint faster. Add crushed ice, then lime juice, simple syrup, and rum. Top it off with a splash of club soda and 7UP. Garnish with sugar cane.
Naomi Kooker can be reached at nkooker@rcn.com
