Return of a spirits culture brings a few twists to classic drinks

Chicago Tribune (MCT) - When Prohibition ended in 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt quipped, "What America needs now is a drink." Today, facing the most serious economic crisis since the Great Depression, it's safe to say many Americans could certainly use a drink or two.

Fortunately, there's a growing cocktail culture out there ready to sing "Happy Days Are Here Again." And they are happy days for a new generation of bartenders and mixologists. Seventy-five years after hooch became legal again, many drink pros insist the cocktail is only now regaining its stride. Savvy tipplers across the country are calling for drinks as finely crafted as their food.

As with food, Chicago is leading the way.

Today's drinkers are thirsty not only for classic drinks first popularized a century or so ago, but they also are looking for original twists, new interpretations that bring fresh, local and seasonal ingredients together with artisan booze and, often, house-made bitters and infusions. These are drinks to be enjoyed not only out-on-the-town but at-home as well; all you need are some simple tools and an assortment of spirits, liqueurs and seasonings. A well-stocked refrigerator can help, too.

"People have an expectation of quality," said Charles Joly of The Drawing Room. "How we spend money is particularly important now. If I spend $12 on something, it won't be a vodka and Red Bull."

This rising interest in so-called "craft" cocktail is affecting restaurants, bars and lounges here and across the nation in ways both sweeping and subtle. The National Restaurant Association surveyed 1,600 professional chefs, who ranked "micro-distilled/artisan liquor, culinary cocktails and organic wine" among the top 20 culinary trends for 2009.

What's behind it? A growing consumer interest in "the culinary arts and the foodie movement" that extends to cocktails and alcohol, the association reported.

Consumers view alcoholic beverages as "affordable indulgence" for the holidays, reports The Nielsen Co., a market research firm.

The cocktail is hitting home, literally, as the economy continues to sour. Rye, given up for dead only a few years ago, is surging in popularity as drinkers rediscover its unique flavor. Vodka's iron grip is broken; gin in all its aromatic glory is in. What's great is this is happening not just in restaurant dining rooms and tap rooms but in living rooms, too.

"We're taking a second look at home entertainment," said Bridget Albert, author along with Mary Barranco of "Market-Fresh Mixology: Cocktails for Every Season."

"The happy hour has returned to our home, which is fantastic," she said. "Why not take some extra time and care at your cocktail party with a signature cocktail for your friends?"

Home mixologists looking to throw such a party during the holidays can turn to Albert and the pros for advice.

Albert writes in her book, "My only rule is that cocktails must be balanced with freshness." It's a theme she returns to often in an interview.

"Use proper tools and seasonal ingredients, fresh ingredients from the grocer or farmers market," said Albert, who is a master mixologist with Southern Wine and Spirits of Illinois. "Keep it very simple and fresh, use premium spirits. If you could change only one thing, make your own sour mix."

Toby Maloney of The Violet Hour also points to top ingredients and clean, simple presentations.

"When you have good ingredients, you don't need to throw in frozen strawberries and bad apricot liqueur," he said.

Don't forget bitters either. These taste-shapers are made from aromatic herbs, barks, flowers, roots, plants and seeds.

"Bitters are the salt and pepper of a cocktail," Maloney said.

For Joly, key to home cocktails is a lime press for fresh lime juice and a good cocktail shaker.

Making your own sugar syrup is important, too, because it allows you to control how sweet the drink is, he said.

"Ice is the single most important ingredient," said Albert, who recommends using larger cubes that melt more slowly. There are many trays for producing bigger cubes out on the market, she added.

New Orleans-based Kirk Estopinal, a mixologist who serves as a consultant to Chicago's Spring Restaurant Group and other restaurants nationwide, said accurate measuring is as vital to cocktail-making as it is in baking.

"The point is to point up the flavoring of the basic spirit," he added.

For Sonja Kassebaum, co-founder of the North Shore Distillery, a boutique distillery in Lake Bluff, the crucial factor is "balance."

"Maybe there's a little surprise, an unexpected ingredient or an unexpected note," she added.

Kassebaum is also founder of the Chicago chapter of Ladies United for the Preservation of Endangered Cocktails. The group, whose motto is "Dismantling the patriarchy, one cocktail at a time," celebrates and studies classic cocktails from the past.

"There was this time before Prohibition when cocktails were glamorous and then for so many years they were sugary schlock," she said.

Each month, the group tackles a different cocktail or theme. In November, for example, they explored the wild world of tiki drinks, sipping test pilots and mai tais before finishing up with a round of dark 'n stormies.

But don't think this group is rooted in the past.

"A number of people here are doing incredible things with cocktails," Kassebaum said. "They're kicking it up a notch or two."

Mixologists are getting out from behind the bar and raiding the kitchen for ideas and ingredients. You can do it, too.

At North Pond restaurant, noted for its locally sourced produce, there's a gin and carrot juice cocktail on the menu called "What's Up, Dock-tail." Over at Blackbird restaurant, the staff is pouring seasonal drinks jazzed up with ingredients like clove syrup, fennel, elderflower and winter spices. Out in the 'burbs, at SugarToad in Naperville, diners are sipping the Cactus Blossom made with blue agave tequila, lychee liqueur, grapefruit and white cranberry juice with a fresh strawberry for a garnish. Even Charlie Trotter, who famously gave up serving cocktails in 1994 in favor of wine, has a sophisticated roster of "mocktails" that would put anyone gladly on the wagon.

"More and more there's a convergence between the bartender and the chef," said Adam Seger of Nacional 27. "There's more fresh produce and herbs and seasonal ingredients at the bar as in the kitchen."

It's the strong culinary connection that gives Chicago's cocktail culture a distinct flavor. That's why Estopinal ranks the Second City as No. 2 for cocktails_right behind New York.

"It seems to me Chicago is moving a lot faster than New York in terms of culinary cocktails," he said. "People are getting into the manufacture of ingredients here, not so much in New York."

But it would be wrong to assert Chicago has one monolithic cocktail style.

"All of our bars are different," said Joly, noting that some watering holes make classic drinks, others produce so-called "farmers market" cocktails, and others are neo-classicists, putting new spins on old drinks.

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EL CORAZON

Prep: 5 minutes

Makes: 1 cocktail

Adam Seger of Nacional 27 restaurant describes this drink as a "new classic." He specifies using tequila made from 100 percent agave, tripled distilled from the highlands of Jalisco in Mexico _ such as Corzo Silver Tequila, which served as inspiration for the cocktail. "El corazon" means "the heart" in Spanish.

2 ounces blanco or silver tequila

Juice of 1 lime plus 1 lime wedge

1 ounce passion fruit puree, see note

ľ ounce pomegranate juice

3 tablespoons each: coarse salt, coarse ground pepper

Pour the tequila, lime juice, passion fruit puree and pomegranate juice into a cocktail shaker. Fill with ice; shake vigorously. Mix together salt and pepper in a shallow bowl. Moisten rim of a chilled martini glass with the lime wedge. Set glass upside down in the bowl to coat rim with salt and pepper. Strain cocktail into the glass.

Note: Passion fruit can be found fresh in some supermarkets that carry specialty tropical fruit. Strain the pulp to remove the seeds.

Variation: To make a smokier version, add ˝ ounce blood orange juice to the drink before shaking; pour ˝ ounce chilled mezcal (Seger uses Del Maguey Chichicapa Single Village Mezcal) into a squeezed lime half that has been flipped inside out. Float the lime "boat" in the cocktail.

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FRENCH 75

Prep: 5 minutes

Makes: 1 cocktail

Peter Vestinos of Sepia is trying to put the spark back into this classic cocktail. He uses a French sparkling rose, a Cerdon du Bugey, and balances its sweetness with a more sour base. He uses Hendrick's gin, saying it is "a gin most non-gin drinkers have come to accept." A coupe is a wide saucerlike glass popularly used for Champagne before the flute glass came into vogue. (See the tips sidebar for directions on making a simple syrup.)

2 ounces gin

1 ounce fresh lemon juice

˝ ounce simple syrup

3 to 4 dashes orange bitters

2 ounces chilled sparkling rose

Quarter-size round of orange peel

Pour the gin, lemon juice, syrup and bitters in a cocktail shaker. Shake briefly, 10 seconds; strain into a chilled coupe glass. Top with the sparkling rose. Rub the orange peel around the rim of the glass while squeezing a bit; squeeze peel over the top of the drink and drop in.

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MANHATTAN

Prep: 5 minutes

Makes: 1 cocktail

Charles Joly said the Manhattan was the first drink he put on the cocktail menu at The Drawing Room. He uses Templeton rye and Noilly Pratt sweet vermouth. Serve over ice in an old-fashioned glass as Joly does if you are able to use larger pieces of ice than normal ice cubes. If not, use regular ice cubes in mixing the drink and then pour straight up into a chilled cocktail glass.

2 ounces rye

1 ounce sweet vermouth

3 dashes aromatic bitters

Pour the rye, sweet vermouth and aromatic bitters into a cocktail shaker filled with ice. Stir until desired temperature and/or dilution is reached. Strain into an old-fashioned glass filled with large ice cubes. Garnish with a macerated maraschino cherry (see tips sidebar).

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THE NOONER

Prep: 5 minutes

Makes: 1 cocktail

A mishap at Sunday brunch was the inspiration for this cocktail by Charles Joly of The Drawing Room. He accidentally spilled maple syrup into his Bourbon, tried it, and liked it. Joly uses Maker's Mark but says you can turn the nooner into a "12:15" by replacing the Bourbon with Rittenhouse 100 rye _ "a great, spicier alternative." This recipe calls for flaming orange zest (see tips sidebar).

2 ounces Bourbon

˝ ounce vanilla liqueur, such as Navan

Ľ ounce maple syrup

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated ginger

3 dashes orange bitters

Orange zest

Put the Bourbon, vanilla liqueur, maple syrup and ginger in a mixing glass; fill with ice. Shake. Strain through fine-mesh strainer; pour into a chilled coupe glass. Stir in orange bitters; flame with orange zest.

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WINTER SAZERAC

Prep: 10 minutes

Makes: 1 cocktail

Violet Hour mixologist Toby Maloney uses Old Overholdt Rye in this drink as well as Herbsaint, an anise-flavored liqueur; substitute another anise-flavored liqueur if need be. Maloney uses two types of ice, crushed and 1-inch cubes. You can use regular ice. Serve in a rocks or old-fashioned glass without ice.

Crushed ice

Ľ teaspoon anise-flavored liqueur

2 ounces rye

1 teaspoon brown sugar coffee syrup, see note

9 drops Peychaud's Bitters

Orange peel

Put crushed ice and anise liqueur in one rocks glass. Pour rye, syrup and bitters in another rocks glass; stir. Add ice cubes to the rye mixture; stir. Throw out the crushed ice and anise liqueur from the first glass. Strain the rye mixture into the first glass. Twist orange peel over drink to release oils; discard peel.

Note: For syrup, stir 1 tablespoon each espresso and water into ˝ cup brown sugar. It will be a thick mixture. Let steep overnight. Keeps for one week refrigerated.

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© 2008, Chicago Tribune.