A Valentine for you

Please except these recipes as a token of our love and appreciation for you. Happy Valentine's Day!

Lost Saint

1 1/2 oz Whiskey or Bourbon - we used Leopold Bros

1/2 oz Benedictine

1./2 oz Honey Lavender Syrup - we used Chicago Co-op Honey

1/2 Lemon

1 oz Caramel or Vanilla Rooibos Tea - we used Adagio tea

Add all to shaker with ice. Shake, strain and serve in coupe or rocks glass. Garnish with brandied cherry - we used Mess Hall cherries.

Notes: We made these cocktails for the Logan Square Kitchen Pastry Market and they were a big hit. In an effort to be as local we were pretty specific the selection of our ingredients (see above). Brew tea double strengthen. Make honey syrup by combining equal parts honey and water. Add lavender and heat until honey melts. Let steep and cool.

Named from Sonnet 43 by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

 
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, --- I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! --- and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

The Look of Love
1/2 oz hazelnut orgeat syrup
3/4 oz blood orange juice
4-5 oz dry champagne

Combine orgeat and blood orange juice in champagne flute. Top with champange.

Notes: depending on the dryness of the champagne you may need to increase the amount of orgeat.

Hazelnut Orgeat Syrup
1 1/2 hazelnuts (skin can be on)
3 cups water
3 cups sugar
1/4 cup brandy
1/8 tsp orange flower water

Cover hazelnuts with cold water and let soak for 30 min.  Strain and chop pretty fine in food processor.  Cover chopped hazelnuts with 3 cups water and let stand for 2 hours.  Place damp cheesecloth over strainer on top of bowl.  Strain hazelnuts and water, squeezing cloth to extract all liquid.  Add hazelnut pulp back to water, let soak for another hour and strain again.  Repeat again if time allows.  The flavor of the syrup will come from the oils and fat in the meat of the hazelnuts which you are helping to release in squeezing process.

Strain once more and discard hazelnut pulp.  Warm liquid gently over mild heat and add sugar stirring until fully dissolved.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Add brandy and orange flower water.

Named after Burt Bacharach's "The Look of Love" famously sung by Dusty Springfield. I prefer Nina Simone's version. xo.

San Francisco: Cocktails & Coffee

Land's End

San Francisco is a strange and remarkable place - for a lot reasons. One of those is a love of fine cocktails and handmade coffee. Here were a few of my favorite moments from a recent visit.

Cask in Union Square, Artisan Spirits and Supplies

Cask has a great selection of... everything. Small batch whiskeys, scotches, gin, amari, tons of bitters, syrups, bar tools. It's well curated so you really can't walk away without something good. From what I can tell, it's the only place you can buy Pineapple Gum Syrup, essential to Pisco Punch. See below for a couple of my Cask purchases.

Vieux Carre Cocktail at Alembic, Haight-Ashbury

Alembic is what you would want in a cocktail-centric bar. Well-honed menu and staff with encyclopedic-knowledge of their wares. I felt good with my Vieurx Carre and just fine with my Corpse Reviver subbed with Tequila for Gin. It was a reminder of why I used to go Sundays to DeVille in West Town - you get the best drinks when bartenders have the time (or take the time) to make them.

Locanda, Mission District

Locanda serves fashionable Italian fare with cocktails to match. Considering all the bitter and sweet spirits of Italy, it's not a bad source to mine. Plus, it's a pretty gorgeous place to hang out.

Sightglass Coffee in SoMa

Sightglass - a beautiful warehouse of hand-roasted coffee! You order your coffee by country, region and tasting nuances. After you order, you must wait for your coffee while it slowly drips. But it's not a bad wait. There are soul records spinning and delicious pastries to nibble. It's worth noting that here is a good place to compare the San Fran portion size to the Chicago portion - the large cup at Sightglass is a small cup in Chicago. Which is fine if it tastes that good.

Blue Bottle Coffee at SFMOMA

Blue Bottle Coffee is sorta taking over San Francisco. We visited the Blue Bottle in the Mint building and there was a line out the door most mornings. Our visit there was the start of little game I played on how many poached eggs could I spy being served in San Francisco. It's great coffee, poured in a Japanese tradition with vintage equipment within 48 hours of being roasted. It's a good success story of one man's labor of love turning into his fortunes. And by the way, order the Gibraltar! It's not on the menu and it's not a to-go - served in its namesake cup, it's milky and elegant.

Click to read more and for lover's cocktail recipe and gift idea:

Cocktails & Pastries

His 'n' Hers

Crème de Cassis: We thought it would be fun to take a long forgotten, dusty bottle off the shelf and serve up two completely different cocktails, a his 'n' hers if you will.  The Mr. Beaumont is a take on a Manhattan, while the Kir Royal is a classic cocktail we wanted to revisit.   

Mr. Beaumont
1 1/2 oz bourbon
1 oz ginger/cinnamon infused vermouth (see below)
1/2 oz crème de cassis
Angostura bitters

Stir over ice and strain into chilled rocks glass.
Garnish with brandied cherry

Kir Royal
1/2 oz crème de cassis
Chilled sparkling wine

Serve in flute.
Garnish with lemon peel

Notes:  Ginger is a nice compliment to currants.  To make ginger/cinnamon infused vermouth, we followed a recipe from the Hungry Mother, published by Imbibe Magazine.  Combine 1 liter of sweet vermouth with 1 ounce of grated ginger and 2 sticks of cinnamon, broken into pieces.  Steep overnight, fine strain into a bottle and store in the refrigerator. 

What's In Your Home Bar: Ina Strauss and Jacob Hand

We were excited to interview our friends Ina and Jacob about their home bar.  It is a perfect example of a small bar, easily disguised and selectively and purposely stocked with all of the essentials.  Ina Strauss is an actress and server at Nightwood restaurant. Jacob Hand is a professional photographer. They live together in a charming vintage loft in Chicago’s Ukranian village with their dog Dakota, A.K.A. Bear.

We love your bar.  It is incognito.  Where did you find it and what got you interested in making cocktails and collecting for your homebar?
Jacob: I inherited the bar as part of a Heywood-Wakefield furniture set previously owned by my great-aunt. It was probably originally intended to be a buffet or something. I have no recollection of my aunt owning this set because she had it covered with table-cloths and doilies. After she passed, and I was moving to Chicago, my Mom gave the set to me to furnish my apartment. I fell in love with the wood finish and it's how I started getting interested in Mid-Century Modern furniture.

Ina: Ooh, Mid-Century Modern. So hip. Jacob takes great pride in having a fully stocked bar. He makes a hell of a Manhattan. I think it's how he got me to spend the night the first time. We are prepared for you to come over and spend the night too. What's your poison?

We have a little something for everyone. Except maybe for vodka drinkers- you'll have to try the bison grass vodka. There's no real bison in it and it's good. We will ALWAYS have some bourbon. The favorite right now is Bulleit. 

You have a themed cocktail night with some friends. What is the idea behind it, how did it get started?
Jacob: We belong to a group of friends who decided to watch the entire Twin Peaks series as a regular gathering. There are lots of food referenced in the show which we prepared as snacks for the gatherings: donuts, "damn-fine" coffee, cherry pie, creamed corn, etc. After we exhausted those we started getting a little creative; one couple made organic vegan sugar-cookies in the shape of Douglas Fir pine-trees, another couple made a cherry pie cocktail made from Chambord, vanilla vodka, and a sugar-cookie rim. So we took that idea and decided to make an pine-related cocktail. We sought out a pine liqueur and ended up making The Douglas Fir (a variation on The Evergreen).  See recipe below.

What was one of your most exciting new purchases for your homebar?
Ina: I think some of the recent cool acquisitions are the liqueurs. As Jacob mentioned, the pine liqueur is cool. I really like Hum (from Chicago)- it's like a punch in the face when had neat. Perfect nightcap. We also keep a variety of serving glasses. None of them are customary or fancy but we have from thimble size to Jacob size. 

What are your top 5 staples for your homebar…can’t live without, always gets replenished?
Jacob: It's not a huge bar, so we have to be selective. As for the staples of our bar, as Ina said, we have something for everyone. We've got a couple kinds of rum, a couple kinds of tequila, a couple kinds of gin- usually Right Gin (for gimlets) and Hendricks (for martinis), a scotch or two (one blended, one single-malt). Ina insists on a bottle of St. Germain, but most of all it's about the bourbon. We usually have 3-5 bottles of bourbons and/or rye at one time.

Would you care to share a favorite recipe?
The Douglas Fir
1.5 parts Bulleit Rye
.5 parts Zirbenz Pine liqueur
muddled sprig of mint

Wishing you a Ziegfeld New Year's Eve

We hope that you have a grand New Year's Eve... be it a small soiree, lavish party, a crowded bar or safe at home. We hope you dress up a bit, drink a little champagne and get a kiss.

The Zeigfeld Follies were our inspiration for this year's final cocktail. It's decadent with champagne like the ladies of the New York stage revue, boozy like the 1920's and fruity like one the Follies most infamous entertainers W. C. Fields (enjoy the clip below). Fields, a boozehound on and off-screen, carried a flask of "pineapple juice" on set. When a prankster replaced the flask liquor with actual pineapple juice, he reportedly said "who put pineapple juice in my pineapple juice?!"

The Toast of Manhatten (makes two drinks)
1 1/2 oz Rye
3/4 oz Sweet Vermouth
1 oz Pineapple Syrup
Several Dash Peychaud's
6-8 oz Champagne

Add first four ingredients to mixing glass with ice and stir to chill. Strain into two champagne glasses, dividing equally. Top with dry champagne and garnish with a brandied cherry.

Make the pineapple syrup: Add one cup brown or cane sugar with water. Heat to combine into syrup and cool. Add 1/3 to 1/2 fresh pineapple cut into 1 inch chunks. Let sit for several hours or chill overnight.

Cheers to 2012! Be merry, be happy, be safe. xo Rabbit and Alice

All photos compliments of the interwebs.

Bear Paw

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season. If you're out and about, stop by the liquor store and pick up a bottle of allspice dram - Christmas in a glass! Below is our recipe for the very satisfying Winter cocktail, the Bear Paw. We served it for Una Mae's Boutique party recently and it was a big hit.

Bear Paw
1 1/2 oz Bourbon or Rye
1/2 oz Allspice Dram
1/2 oz Brown Sugar Simple Syrup
1/2 oz Lemon


Shake all on ice and strain into a coupe glass or in an ice-filled rocks glass. Garnish with bitters.



Notes: Allspice dram is easy to make, but it takes a good month. We used the recipe from the Cocktail Chronicles here, but St. Elizabeth Allspice Dram is delicious and straight from the source (Jamaica).