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    Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks
    Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks
    Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks
    Ebook243 pages1 hour

    Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks

    By Robert Simonson

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    About this ebook

    60+ recipes for today’s modern classics with entertaining backstories from the cocktail revival of the past thirty years, by a two-time James Beard Award nominee and New York Times cocktail and spirits writer.
     
    “No proper drinking library is complete without Robert Simonson’s volumes, and Modern Classic Cocktails is one of the best yet.” —Adam Platt, New York magazine restaurant critic and author of The Book of Eating

    One of the greatest dividends of the revival in cocktail culture that began in the 1990s has been the relentless innovation. More new cocktails—and good ones—have been invented in the past thirty years than during any period since the first golden age of cocktails, which lasted from roughly the 1870s until the arrival of Prohibition in 1920 and included the birth of the Martini, Manhattan, Daiquiri, and Tom Collins.
     
    Just as that first bar-world zenith produced a half-century of classic recipes before Prohibition, the eruption of talent over the past three decades has handily delivered its share of drinks that have found favor with arbiters on both sides of the bar. Among them are the Espresso Martini, White Negroni, Death Flip, Old Cuban, Paper Plane, Siesta, and many more, all included here along with each drink's recipe origin story.
     
    What elevates a modern cocktail into the echelon of a modern classic? A host of reasons, all delineated by Simonson in these pages. But, above all, a modern classic cocktail must be popular. People have to order it, not just during its initial heyday, but for years afterward. Tommy’s Margarita, invented in the 1990s, is still beloved, and the Porn Star Martini is the most popular cocktail in the United Kingdom, twenty years after its creation. 
     
    This book includes more than sixty easy-to-make drinks that all earned their stripes as modern classics years ago. Sprinkled among them are also a handful of critics' choices, potential classics that have the goods to become popular go-to cocktails in the future.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherClarkson Potter/Ten Speed
    Release dateOct 4, 2022
    ISBN9781984857774
    Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks

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      Book preview

      Modern Classic Cocktails - Robert Simonson

      Cover for Modern Classic Cocktails: 60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks, Author, Robert SimonsonBook Title, Modern Classic Cocktails60+ Stories and Recipes from the New Golden Age in Drinks, Author, Robert Simonson, Imprint, Ten Speed Press

      Text copyright © 2022 by Robert Simonson

      Photographs copyright © 2022 by Lizzie Munro

      All rights reserved.

      Published in the United States by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

      www.tenspeed.com

      Ten Speed Press and the Ten Speed Press colophon are registered trademarks of Penguin Random House LLC.

      Hand image on Table of Contents © Suraphol - stock.adobe.com

      Geometric shape pattern © zionbalkon - stock.adobe.com

      Paper texture © nata777_7 - stock.adobe.com

      Newspaper image © LiliGraphie - stock.adobe.com

      Print typefaces: Monotype's Bauer Bodoni Std, Linotype's Bodoni LT Pro, Colophon Foundry’s Central Avenue, and Klim Type Foundry’s Founders Grotesk

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Simonson, Robert, author. | Munro, Lizzie, author.

      Title: Modern classic cocktails : 60+ stories and recipes from the new golden age in drinks / by Robert Simonson ; photographs by Lizzie Munro.

      Description: First edition. | California : Ten Speed Press, [2022] | Includes index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2021052404 (print) | LCCN 2021052405 (ebook) | ISBN 9781984857767 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781984857774 (ebook)

      Subjects: LCSH: Cocktails. | Alcoholic beverages. | Cookbooks. lcgft

      Classification: LCC TX951 .S583633 2022 (print) | LCC TX951 (ebook) | DDC 641.87/4—dc23/eng/20211230

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052404

      LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021052405

      Hardcover ISBN 9781984857767

      Ebook ISBN 9781984857774

      Acquiring editor: Julie Bennett | Editor: Kim Keller

      Print designer: Annie Marino | Print production designers: Faith Hague and Mari Gill

      Print production and print prepress color manager: Jane Chinn

      Contributing photo retoucher: Jeremy Blum

      Copyeditor: Kristi Hein | Proofreader: Kathy Brock | Indexer: Ken DellaPenta

      Publicist: David Hawk | Marketer: Chloe Aryeh

      rhid_prh_6.0_148359408_c0_r0

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Equipment

      Ingredients

      Modern Classic Cocktails: Stories and Recipes

      Acknowledgments

      About the author & Photographer

      Index

      MODERN CLASSICS

      Amaretto Sour

      Jeffrey Morgenthaler, Clyde Common, Portland, Oregon, 2010

      Ancient Mariner

      Jeff Berry, Los Angeles, 1994

      Art of Choke

      Kyle Davidson, The Violet Hour, Chicago, 2008

      Basil Gimlet

      Greg Lindgren, Rye, San Francisco, 2006

      Benton’s Old-Fashioned

      Don Lee, PDT, New York, 2007

      Bitter Giuseppe

      Stephen Cole, The Violet Hour, Chicago, 2007

      Black Manhattan

      Todd Smith, Cortez, San Francisco, 2005

      Bramble

      Dick Bradsell, Fred’s Club, London, 1991–92

      Breakfast Martini

      Salvatore Calabrese, Library Bar, London, 1996

      Cable Car

      Tony Abou-Ganim, Starlight Room, San Francisco, 1996

      Chartreuse Swizzle

      Marcovaldo Dionysos, San Francisco, 2002

      CIA

      Tonia Guffey, Flatiron Lounge, New York, 2011

      Corpse Reviver No. Blue

      Jacob Briars, New Zealand, 2007

      Cosmopolitan

      Toby Cecchini, Odeon, New York, 1988

      Death Flip

      Chris Hysted-Adams, Black Pearl, Melbourne, 2010

      Division Bell

      Phil Ward, Mayahuel, New York, 2009

      Earl Grey Marteani

      Audrey Saunders, Bemelmans Bar, New York, 2003

      Eeyore’s Requiem

      Toby Maloney, The Violet Hour, Chicago, 2010

      Ellison

      Charles Hardwick, Blue Owl, New York, 2007

      Fitzgerald

      Dale DeGroff, Rainbow Room, New York, 1995

      French Pearl

      Audrey Saunders, Pegu Club, New York, 2006

      Gin Basil Smash

      Joerg Meyer, Le Lion, Hamburg, 2008

      Gin Blossom

      Julie Reiner, Clover Club, Brooklyn, 2009

      Gin-Gin Mule

      Audrey Saunders, Beacon, New York, 2000

      Gold Rush

      T. J. Siegal, Milk & Honey, New York, 2000

      Greenpoint

      Michael McIlroy, Milk & Honey, New York, 2006

      Gunshop Fizz

      Kirk Estopinal and Maksym Pazuniak, Cure, New Orleans, 2009

      Hard Start

      Damon Boelte, Prime Meats, New York, 2009

      Jasmine

      Paul Harrington, Townhouse, Emeryville, CA, 1990

      Juliet & Romeo

      Toby Maloney, The Violet Hour, Chicago, 2007

      Kentucky Buck

      Erick Castro, Bourbon & Branch, San Francisco, 2009

      Kill-Devil

      Erin Williams, Pegu Club, New York, 2008

      Kingston Negroni

      Joaquín Simó, Death & Co., New York, 2009

      La Perla

      Jacques Bezuidenhout, Peche/Tres Agaves, San Francisco, 2005

      Little Italy

      Audrey Saunders, Pegu Club, New York, 2005

      Mezcal Mule

      Jim Meehan, PDT, New York, 2009

      Naked and Famous

      Joaquín Simó, Death & Co., New York, 2011

      Oaxaca Old-Fashioned

      Phil Ward, Death & Co., New York, 2007

      Old Cuban

      Audrey Saunders, Beacon/Tonic, New York, 2001

      Paper Plane

      Sam Ross, Milk & Honey, New York, 2007

      Penicillin

      Sam Ross, Milk & Honey, New York, 2005

      Piña Verda

      Erick Castro, Polite Provisions, San Diego, 2012

      Porn Star Martini

      Douglas Ankrah, Townhouse, London, 2001

      Red Hook

      Vincenzo Errico, Milk & Honey, New York, 2003

      Revolver

      Jon Santer, Bruno’s, San Francisco, 2004

      Siesta

      Katie Stipe, Flatiron Lounge, New York, 2006

      Single Village Fix

      Thad Vogler, Beretta, San Francisco, 2008

      The Slope

      Julie Reiner, Clover Club, Brooklyn, 2009

      Tia Mia

      Ivy Mix, Lani Kai, New York, 2010

      Tommy’s Margarita

      Julio Bermejo, Tommy’s Mexican Restaurant, San Francisco, circa 1990

      Trident

      Robert Hess, Seattle, 2002

      Vodka Espresso, aka Espresso Martini

      Dick Bradsell, Soho Brasserie, London, 1985

      Whiskey Apple Highball

      Sydney, 2010

      White Negroni

      Wayne Collins, Bordeaux, France, 2001

      Wibble

      Dick Bradsell, The Player, London, 1999

      Winchester

      Brian Miller, Elettaria, New York, 2009

      Modern Classics to be

      Cab Calloway

      Tiffanie Barriere, One Flew South, Atlanta, 2013

      Ce Soir

      Nicole Lebedevitch, The Hawthorne, Boston, 2010

      Democrat

      Jon Santer, Bourbon & Branch, San Francisco, 2007

      Maximilian Affair

      Misty Kalkofen, Green Street, Boston, 2008

      Mr. Brown

      Franky Marshall, Clover Club, Brooklyn, 2011

      Wildest Redhead

      Meaghan Dorman, Lantern’s Keep, New York, 2011

      1910

      Ezra Star, Drink, Boston, 2011

      INTRODUCTION

      The greatest dividend of the cocktail revival of the early twenty-first century has been the relentless creativity of its participating bartenders. More new cocktails—and good ones—have been invented in the past thirty years than during any period since the first golden age of cocktails, which lasted from the 1870s until the arrival of Prohibition in 1920.

      That initial bar-world zenith produced dozens of classic recipes—drinks we still enjoy today—like the Martini, Martinez, Manhattan, Rob Roy, Daiquiri, Clover Club, Tom Collins, Sazerac, Jack Rose, and many, many more. This century’s eruption of talent has handily delivered its own trove of drinks that are likely to endure.

      But what actually makes a new cocktail a modern classic?

      It is a question I’ve devoted a lot of thought to over recent years (and an entire cocktail app, Modern Classics of the Cocktail Renaissance, created with Martin Doudoroff). Calling a drink that was invented five, ten, or even twenty years ago a classic can sound like a bit of a stretch. It’s doubtful anyone in 1899 was already calling the Manhattan a classic cocktail, or even thought about drinks in such terms. But the cocktail renaissance has moved along at breakneck speed. So much progress was crammed into the aughts that each year of that decade felt more like dog years. And those achievements spread like wildfire, thanks to the advent of the internet, which coincided almost exactly with the rise of cocktail culture and opened up multiple avenues of information among bartenders, as well as between bartenders and the media and cocktail enthusiasts. Within the framework of this hive of activity it was possible for a new drink like the Oaxaca Old-Fashioned—an early cocktail using mezcal, invented by Phil Ward at Death & Co. in New York—to be created in 2007 and become recognized as a benchmark achievement by 2010.

      The Oaxaca Old-Fashioned embodies one characteristic any modern classic cocktail must have: it traveled beyond the bar where it was created. It is possible, surely, for a drink to become famous and still be served only at its place of origin. The Dukes Martini, for example, is known the world over for its arctic-cold, undiluted presentation and its use of only a few dashes of vermouth, but very few bars serve a Martini the peculiar way the Dukes Bar in London does. That makes it not a modern classic, but a house specialty.

      The Oaxaca Old-Fashioned, on the other hand, was not only a common order at Death & Co. but within a year or two of its debut was being served at numerous bars around the world. A drink’s adoption by dozens of additional bars is a certain signifier that a cocktail is on its way to attaining classic status. (Sometimes this particular drink—a simple Old-Fashioned riff made with reposado tequila and mezcal—is sold under a different name, but it is the same cocktail nevertheless.)

      No drink lands on a competing bar’s menu if the new bar’s owner and the bartenders don’t approve of it. Therein lies a second tip-off that a drink has made the grade: brothers and sisters in armbands like it, drink it, and freely acknowledge that one of their colleagues has cooked up something unusually good. There is great camaraderie among members of the

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