Revolver

Sadly, the cocktail world lost a titan a few weeks ago. Gary ‘Gaz’ Regan was born in the United Kingdom in 1951, but relocated to America in the 1970s, working as a bartender in New York. He went on to train barkeeps in major U.S. cocktail-loving cities including New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Boston. Arguably, Regan’s biggest contribution to the bartending profession was his two books on mixology- The Bartender’s Bible, written in 1991, and the Joy of Mixology, written in 2004 during the rebirth of the classic cocktail scene which spread throughout the country.

Lounge Lizards, however, probably know Regan best, however, for the orange bitters that sports his name and face- a mainstay here in the Firewater Lounge- Regans’ #6 Orange Bitters. Regans’ #6 is not only the bitters of choice for when we pour classics like the Martinez and Satan’s Curled Whiskers, but also for our own famed creations like the Swine and Vine Cocktail and the Nightfall on the Lake.

Our favorite use of Regans’ #6, though, is in the Revolver. Created in 2004 by Jon Santer, the reknowned barman behind the success of San Francisco’s Bourbon & Branch, the Revolver is a modern classic using ingredients that are easy for a Lounge Lizard to find. In honor of Gaz’s memory, raid your liquor cabinet and make one this New Year’s Eve with us. It will be a resolution you’ll love to keep.

Revolver (Classic Pours Series)

2 ounces of bourbon (Santer uses Bulleit)
½ ounce of coffee liqueur (Santer uses Tia Maria)
2 dashes of Regans’ #6 orange bitters

Mix all ingredients on ice in a stirring vessel. Stir until chilled. Pour into a coupe or cocktail glass.
Garnish with a flamed orange peel.

If you don’t have Bulleit or Tia Maria, remember Santer made this cocktail with home bar versatility, so substitute any bourbon you like and/or replace the Tia Maria with Kamora or Kaluha. Your Revolver will be just as good.

Life Well-Lived Cocktail

One of the Christmas traditions here in the Firewater Lounge is a showing of Alastair Sim’s version of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and, contrary to little Q.’s preferences, we always watch it in black and white. It enhances the atmosphere of the story in film form because, although many people forget it, A Christmas Carol is a ghost story first, a Christmas story second (Of course, this viewing also fits the family horror vibe, given that we have a second Christmas tree- the ‘scary’ tree which is made of bare black wire). I feel that A Christmas Carol can only be a ghost story, since it needs the element of fear as a central theme; without it, there would be no salvation for Scrooge.

So maybe you’re thinking I’m saying that Scrooge is ‘scared-straight,’ an idea borne out most explicitly by the story’s penultimate ‘stave’ when Scrooge is confronted by his own tombstone. While I think this is true on its face, there’s much more fear in the story. But I don’t think it’s genesis is in the four ghosts.

Instead, Scrooge is a mean miser because he’s afraid of everyone, everyday. Afraid to face his own failures in love as a young man. Afraid to face his failure to care for his beloved sister’s child, his only nephew Fred. Afraid to form a close bond to his employee Bob and his family because of those earlier love and family shortcomings. Afraid to part with his own money, because he uses it as a bulwark against social interaction. Money-making is a bloodless, emotionless pursuit and, in Western Civilization, a simultaneously universally-lauded enterprise. A perfect distraction for fearful men.

The ghosts’ job in the tale, then, is to remove Scrooge’s money from the equation and force Scrooge to face the fears he has too long ignored. His salvation is to reclaim his humanness.

The lesson is deep for us all. Don’t use money or anything else as a barrier between you and your family, your friends, your neighbors. The man whose birth we celebrate during this season, says it best- ‘For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’

Bob Cratchit’s gin punch, then, will be the
inspiration for our FWL creation this Christmas. We’ll mix it with Amaro Montenegro (whose original name meant ‘long life’ in Italian) and chai (which also means ‘life’ in Hebrew) and garnish it with stars on top.

Let’s toast to love, heath, and long life- the true human treasures. And, of course, a very Merry Christmas from us to you!


A Life Well-Lived Cocktail

1 ½ ounces London dry gin
¾ ounce Amaro Montenegro
¾ ounce chai syrup

If you do not have chai syrup, prepare some 1:1 syrup by boiling 1 cup of chai and 1 cup of white sugar. Cool before using. To prepare the cocktail, mix all ingredients in a stirring vessel with ice. Gently stir 40 revolutions to maintain the drink’s smooth texture and then pour into coupe or cocktail glass. Garnish with two pieces of star anise.

Sleepy Hollow Cocktail

Beer before liquor, never been sicker. By the time you get to be 21 years old in Wisconsin, you’ve definitely heard this old chestnut. It’s dumb. But when you don’t know any better, these alcohol myths spread like the plague. So let’s kill some of them off right now in the Lounge, and when you hear them next time in the bar, just pull up this post on your smartphone and educate the masses. Here are ten big alcohol myths busted!

#1) Beer before liquor, never been sicker; Liquor before beer, you’re in the clear.  Okay, I hate this myth so much. The key here is that a standard drink- 1 can of Miller Lite, one regular 5 ounce glass of wine, and one cocktail with 1 ½ ounces of 80 proof spirit - all have about 14 grams of pure alcohol. Alcohol is alcohol, no matter what other stuff is mixed with it, so it doesn’t matter what order you drink it in. The only thing that matters here is time; the faster you drink, the worse you’re going to feel later. So why do I hate this myth so much? Because most beer-drinking Wisconsinites use this myth to avoid cocktail drinking, likely because it’s easier to milk something hidden by a can or they can’t admit they aren’t very adventurous; i.e., “Sorry, can’t try your Ixtapa, I started with beer, you know!”

#2) Hard liquor makes me fight.  No, it doesn’t. If it did, beer would too if you were drinking it as fast as the tequila. See #1.

#3) Beer should be stored warm and drank cold. For best and freshest results for taste, most beers should be stored in an area that has a fahrenheit temperature in the 50s and should be drank somewhere in the 40s

#4) Martinis are any liquid poured into a martini glass. That V-shaped glass you are drinking from is properly called a cocktail glass. Martinis are drinks containing gin and vermouth, that’s it. Martinis are not even cocktails, so they are the worst drink to generalize everything to. So stop. Oh, and a ‘vodka martini’ is actually a Kangaroo. Remember it’s named that so you don’t drink them!

#5) Tequila is made from a cactus. Nope, not cactus juice. Tequila is made from the blue agave plant, a succulent, not a cactus. The Weber’s blue agave plant is more closely related to yucca plants and Joshua trees.

#6) Tequila bottles have a worm at the bottom. Generally speaking, tequila doesn’t have any worms at their bottle’s bottom. Mezcal sometimes has critters in the bottle, though, it’s not likely to be a worm, per se. Most likely it would be a larva of a Mariposa butterfly, a critter that loves agave plants which mezcal is made. Sometimes other creepy crawlies find their way into mezcal bottles; here at the FWL, one of our favorite mezcals has a scorpion in the bottle.

#7) Absinthe will make you hallucinate. This myth comes from the one ingredient in which absinthe is made: wormwood. Wormwood has thujone, which manipulates GABA, a neurotransmitter that is involved in anti-anxiety effects in the body (which causes body spasms, not bad trips). However, even classically distilled absinthe has only been shown to have trace amounts of thujone in it. So why the hallucinogenic reputation? Probably because absinthe is commonly anywhere between 110-150 proof.

#8) Alcohol in energy drinks makes us drunker. Energy drinks and alcohol just makes you more awake than you were. You aren’t any more drunk or any more sober.

#9) Putting pennies in your mouth avoids a breathalyzer. Nope. Neither does a breath mint. Breathalyzers detect alcohol by a chemical reaction, not by smell. If it was that easy to foil them, the police wouldn’t use them. Go by this rule: if you are so drunk that you think putting pennies in your mouth is a good idea for any reason, you’re too drunk to drive.

#10) My whiskey I bought in 1983 is better now than it was then. Your whiskey is not wine. Your whiskey only ages in the barrel, where the wood provides sugars and color to your whiskey. After it is bottled, it’s ‘good’ aging has stopped and it’s ‘bad’ aging (oxidization) begins.

Let’s give you a cool modern cocktail with the alcohols mentioned in our myths.

Sleepy Hollow Cocktail

½ ounce absinthe

2 ounces mezcal

1 ounce of allspice dram

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Pour enough absinthe into an old fashioned glass. Swirl to coat the inside of the glass and discard the remainder. Fill a stirring glass with ice. Add remaining ingredients to the stirring glass in the order above. Stir to drinker’s preferred dilution and strain into the absinthe-prepared glass. Garnish with a rosemary sprig, set afire briefly and left smoking.

Game of Thrones Whisky Series

This is a sad time for single malt scotch lovers in the Firewater Lounge. President Trump has decided to slap a 25% tariff on single malts for no apparent reason. So the bottom line is, you have until Friday, October 18th to buy your single malts before they rocket up in price. We did our shopping the last couple of weeks, securing our scotch stock for this years’ cold months and Winterfest 27.

We added four whiskies to the Lounge: a bottle of Glenmorangie Lasanta, a bottle of Glengoyne 12 year, and two expressions from the Game of Thrones Whisky Series. Of the latter, we selected the House Stark Dalwhinnie and the House Targaryen Cardhu, mostly because the late stage movie-promotional overstock provided for a great value on a couple of middle-of-the-road scotches.

The House Targaryen whisky is standard Cardhu Gold Reserve, easy to get in Europe, not as much in the States. A classic Speyside whisky, the Cardhu’s nose is light, sweet and full of red apple skin, like my mom’s marshmallow apple salad. On the palate, Cardhu is as light but not as sweet as the aroma, a gentle and easy-drinking whisky. It tastes like apples again upfront with a bit of orange and toffee, then ends in a black pepper finish. It’s not going to be a whisky that wows you, but it’s definitely drinkable at its overstock price point (which was $4 less in the same store).

The House Stark whisky is an expression of Dalwhinnie called Winter’s Frost. Another Speyside whisky, the Dalwhinnie has it traditional honey and floral nose common to Dalwhinnie 15 year (Winter’s Frost has no age statement). This whisky tastes of malt, honeycrisp apples, lemoned clover and sweet citrus; it’s a friendly draught for newbie single malt drinkers- not spicy or smoky, and, given the region, no peat. I prefer Dalwhinnie 15, but for the money Winter’s Frost will do.

Bakersfield, California

Lucky for us, we were in the Bakersfield area of California a couple of summers before the big earthquake. Obviously the area will need an influx of money in the coming years, so why not visit the historic Padre Hotel there on your way to seeing the Sequoias or driving south to a California beach.

The Padre Hotel was built in 1928 and has been recently renovated. The Padre hosts three different bars: the classy Prospect, the working man’s Brimstone, and the second-floor, outdoor Prairie Fire. If you get to the hotel late or on a week day, likely only Brimstone will be open, but that’s fine because Brimstone is a lot less stuffy and you’ll probably have a bartender who can pour all of Prospect’s drinks anyway.

Fat Washing with Bacon

Among life’s greatest pleasures, besides a glass of nice bourbon, is bacon. Fortunately for us, we have Jim Meehan’s Please Don’t Tell (PDT) to provide us a way to combine the two. Jim Meehan, now one of the world’s preeminent mixologists, started his bartending career serving us beers at State Street Brats in Madison back in the mid-1990s. He left for New York City in 2001, honing his skills at two landmark Big Apple bars: Gramercy Tavern and the Pegu Club.

Meehan struck out on his own and founded PDT, an East Village speakeasy whose famous entry is a phone booth in Crif’s hot dog joint. But that entrance is not the only thing that PDT is known for; Meehan’s speakeasy is where rising bar stars are born and modern cocktail classics are made.

One of those great PDT bartenders is Don Lee. Lee is America’s mad scientist of alcohol infusions, a true mixologist in the most literal definition of the word. He invented many of the great refined cocktails at PDT and at the same time perfected the jello shot and massaged marijuana into mezcal. Lee’s gift to the cocktail world, however, is fat washing bourbon, which we will show you how to do here.

Milwaukee, Bay View, Part 3

On to dessert! So, here’s the thing, since the north end of Bay View touches the Mitchell Street neighborhood, we could not help but to stop at my favorite bar in the world, Bryant’s. Now, the Lounge Lizards know Bryant’s well, of course, but the darkened, fedora-loving, classic cocktail bar doesn’t always have its upstairs Velvet Lounge opened up. On this night, though, we were in luck.

Milwaukee, Bay View, Part 2

Needing to return to a place more Milwaukee-like after eating at the Odd Duck, Cindy and I went to drink beer at The Stone, a mere five minute walk off Kinnickinnic Avenue to South Howell Avenue. Opened in 1997, The Stepping Stone, or The Stone for short, is a hidden beer mecca disguised as a local shot and a beer joint. Inside, a patron must decide from 21 draft lines and 120 bottle choices. The Stone also features a crowler machine, which allows you to can up one of their tap beers for the road.

Cindy grabbed a local stout and asked for a Deschutes Black Butte XXVII, but there was an honest mix-up from the cellar and a scotch barrel-aged imperial stout, of which I never knew the name, got mistakenly opened because it was in the Black Butte’s slot. Since there was no special Deschutes left in stock, I simply ordered a Fuller’s, and called it a visit. We had more cocktails to drink, so we moved on.

The main cocktail draw in Bay View at the time we were there was Boone & Cockett. Today, Boone & Crockett has moved a touch north to the Harbor View neighborhood, but the bar’s vibe is still intact. At the Bay View location, there was an Old West atmosphere fueled by a distinct interest in mixology and bartender friendliness. Cindy and I started with a glass of oak-casked bourbon old fashioned sweets, pumped by tap from the ceiling.
We followed with menu cocktails, mine was a fruity tipple called a cherry amelie. Our third and final round featured classic libations with upscale or local spirits. I ordered a Sazerac with Pow Wow whiskey, a botanical rye made by Georgetown Trading Company in Washington, D.C., mixed with Peychaud’s bitters, turbinado simple syrup, and Sirene Absinthe. Cindy settled on a refreshing Milwaukee G&T, Boone & Crockett’s local form of the traditional gin and tonic. If you want one this weekend, here’s how to make one.

Drink: Milwaukee G&T
Establishment: Boone & Crockett
Location: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
First Connoisseur: Cindy

1 part Rehorst gin
1 part Top Note Indian Tonic
Splash soda water

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Build starting with the gin, then tonic, then soda. Stir lightly to reserve carbonation. Garnish with lime wheel or wedge.

Milwaukee, Bay View, Part I

Five years ago, we guided the Lounge Lizards around the Downtown, Walker’s Point, and Historic Mitchell Street neighborhoods of Milwaukee. This time we’d like to take you just a touch south of that tour for a second drinking excursion of Brew City. The focus this time is on the reinvigorated Bay View neighborhood, whose classic buildings line Kinnickinnic Avenue, running its length north and south like a real-life picturesque electric railroad set. Bay View’s leisurely atmosphere is leagues apart from the hustle and bustle of Milwaukee’s downtown. If it’s turning summer, the denizens of Bay View are on the street sides, imbibing cold ones in the sun and sipping coffee in the cool evenings.

Our drinking starts at the Odd Duck, a eclectic, small-plate restaurant that specializes using local ingredients in its very tasty dishes. Bring your money, though, because it will take several plates for you to fill your belly and the small plates command large prices (average about $12 a plate). The cocktails will cost you $10 a piece and are named sparingly by number.

Cape Codder

In the midst of one of the coldest snaps to hit Wisconsin in a generation, we came across a tidbit of alcohol trivia on the internet. The claim was that 80 proof vodka freezes at -17 degrees. Sceptical as always, we thought that we might as well do an experiment ourselves, given that we still had a night left of -20-something temperatures.


So we poured Smirnoff into our round rubber molds and placed the tray outside for approximately twelve hours of temperatures well under -17. Verdict? Well, in the end we had four slushie one-inch diameter vodka ice balls. Not really what any Lounge Lizard would call frozen. Using a spoon, though, I could get them in their semi-round state into cranberry juice for a fun Cape Codder. I believe we would have greater success with much smaller cubes or by placing the vodka in a thin layer on a metal sheet pan, but, realistically, vodka frozen at -20 temperatures doesn’t have much practical cocktailing use. If you really need to freeze booze, liquid nitrogen is the way to go!

Cape Codder

Classic Pour

3 parts cranberry juice

2 parts vodka

Usually a Cape Codder is shaken on ice and garnished with a lime wedge. We just dropped our vodka slushie ice balls into cranberry juice and stirred!