Boston, Part 3

After spending the better part of the day wandering Boston’s Freedom Trail in the hot sun, we ventured back to Quincy Market for some late night chow.  Lucky for us, most of the market’s restaurants were open, which still granted us a wide variety of fare. Sated, we went back to the hotel to freshen up a bit and contemplate whether we should hit the town once more before going back to Wisconsin. Obviously (since I’m writing Part III), that contemplation ended in a willing but measured affirmative.
Sore feet notwithstanding, we walked a few blocks into the city to the Silvertone Bar and Grill. The Silvertone is a cozy subterranean retreat that revels in retro Hollywood advertisement and art nouveau chic. The bar area is intimate; every stool looked to be filled with regulars. We grabbed a table across from the bar under the warm orange glow of candlelight. The bar was traditionally mirror-backed, which reflected its eating area lighting- purple pseudo-neon sprinkled with cream stars.
I went up to get a drink menu, which is peppered with drinks made by and named by seemingly current or past Silvertone bartenders. Cindy requested a cocktail with the kitschy, but fun name, Joey Joe-Joe Jr. Shabadoo, and I got the much more restrainedly-appellated Elena. Wisconsin could definitely adopt Joey Joe-Joe, but all but the most old-timey cocktail connoisseur would likely tempt the Elena. Here’s our shot at recreations.

Drink: Joey Joe-Joe Jr. Shabadoo

Establishment: Silvertone Bar and Grill

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

First Connoisseur: Cindy 2 ounces rye

4 ounces ginger beer

Splash Angostura bitters Build in an iced collins glass. Stir gently. Prepare a swath of lemon peel. Spritz a bit of lemon oil into the cocktail by bending the peel. Rub the peel around the rim of the glass and drop in drink. Drink: Elena

First Connoisseur: Holly 1 ounce Amontillado

½ ounce Punt e Mes

½ ounce Montenegro

Pinch of salt Pour all ingredients in a mixing tin with ice. Stir 20 revolutions. Strain into an old-fashioned glass without ice. Add a pinch of salt to center of the glass. Express lemon oil from a twist over the drink and drop the twist in. From the Silvertone, we inched around the block to Hotel Zero’s popular Highball Lounge. The Highball is a second-floor, swanky, chandeliered hangout for professional twenty-somethings looking to cut loose for several hours. To that end, a quartet of hunky barmen sling sophisticated cocktails garnished with mini rubber duckies as the patrons challenge each other to classic board games like Connect Four, Battleship, and Hungry Hippos. As I was about to order, the Highball was absolutely slammed with customers; the girls flirting with the barmen, their boyfriends (or wannabe Mr. Right Nows) trying to get the girls attention back to them.

I screamed our order over the din of hip hop music and mass-hook-up-small-talk to the barman that looked like a younger Ryan Reynolds. Despite being a few feet from him, I wondered for a moment what ‘Get me a freaking drink’ is in sign language. When we did get our drinks, here is what we got- Drink: Tea-Ball

Establishment: Highball Lounge

Location: Boston, Massachusetts

First Connoisseur: Cindy 1 part Grey Goose vodka

1 part earl grey soda Build in an iced collins glass. Stir gently so not to lose the carbonation. You can create earl grey soda with a SodaStream. Or make 1:1 simple syrup (1 cup water to 1 cup sugar) and steep two earl grey tea bags in the syrup as it cools to room temperature. Then add 3 spoons of the tea syrup to club soda to desired sweetness and combine gently. Drink: Barnyard Punch

First Connoisseur: Holly 1 ½ ounces bourbon (Highball uses Maker’s Mark)

½ ounce velvet falernum

½ ounce Suze Liqueur

½ ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice

2-3 dashes celery bitters Shake all ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice. Strain into an iced rocks glass. Garnish with mint and lemon half-wheel. The running total of my drinks in the Boston leg of our trip out east- -A whiskey ginger

-A Fort Point cocktail

-A Blue Blazer

-A pisco sour

-A sidecar

-A Vesper martini

-A glass of Bell in Hand ale

-An Elena cocktail

-A glass of Barnyard Punch