Chicago, River North, Part 3

After drinks and a vaudeville act at the speakeasy The Drifter, we headed into the cool night air and traveled the seven or so blocks to the next bar of the night, the world-renown tiki bar Three Dots and a Dash. One of the first tiki bars in the country to focus on mixology, Three Dots made the 2014 World's 50 Best Bars list with the likes of famous bars like Milk and Honey, Dead Rabbit, and PDT. If you don't have a reservation for their Bamboo Room, you'll probably have to wait in line for a while.

The decor of Three Dots screams sunny beach shack; grass roofs, bamboo shelves, and tiki art abound. The drink menu is pan-island and separated into single and group drinks. The single drinks are divided into modern cocktails, classic cocktails, and Mai Tais (including the Trader Vic classic). The group drinks come in a monster cocktail bowl of some tiki design. We opted for one of the single drinks first. I nabbed a Caribbean Punch, a kitchen-sink tiki concoction comprised of aged Caribbean Rum, Panamanian Rum, Lime, Pineapple, Sarsaparilla, Falernum, and Fassionola Red. I won't bother assembling a recipe for you since there is very little chance you will find true Fassionola syrup. If I try my hand at making it in the future, I'll put it up in the FWL for all the Lizards!

Cindy ordered a tried-and-true Painkiller. We can gladly estimate that classic pour for you:

Drink: Painkiller
Establishment: Three Dots and a Dash
Location: Chicago, Illinois
First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces Caribbean Rum blend (the classic uses Pusser's Navy Rum) 4 ounces pineapple juice 1 ounce tangerine juice 1 ounce coconut cream

Combine all ingredients in a shaker with ice. Shake vigorously until cold. Strain into a hurricane glass or large tiki mug with shaved ice. Garnish with grated nutmeg and a pineapple wedge.

Now, we couldn't leave Three Dots without one of the really big group drinks. I elbowed my way through the busy bar and brought back a bowl of Lapu Lapu and two straws. Three Dots' Lapu Lapu is a mixture of aged Demerara rum, dark Jamaican rum, and a trio of fruit juices: passion fruit, tangerine, and lime. Needless to say, after a bowl full of rum and juice, we thought it appropriate to take a walk down to the Chicago River to finish off the evening.

A running drink total of my night in the River North Neighborhood of Chicago-

1 Whiskey Old-fashioned 1 Slam Banana Thank You Ma'am 1 Caribbean Punch 1/2 a bowl of Lapu Lapu

Chicago, River North, Part 2

In our last post, we left you at the Green Door Tavern in Chicago's River North neighborhood. Normally, in an Around America multi-post, we take you to three different bars in a city. But this time, we never left the Green Door. You see, the Green Door has a little secret. In the basement, there's a nondescript door with a rack of little knickknacks.  Behind that door, is an authentic speakeasy known as The Drifter.

Chicago, River North, Part 1

Some places in our Around America series are so big and boozy that we need to return and explore some more. That's definitely true of Chicago. In our last Chicago posts, we stayed in The Loop at the historic Palmer Hotel, ate and drank at Exchequer, and finished the night taking some blues at Buddy Guy's Legends with a number of double Seven and Sevens.

This time we'll go just north of The Loop, across the Chicago River to the River North neighborhood, arguably more congenial to a cocktail lover's taste. But before we take on a night of drinking, it's best to grab a bite to eat, so we headed into River North's Green Door Tavern for a burger.

Key West, Florida

Time to take the Around America Series as far south as humanly possible and crash Ernest Hemingway's haunts in Key West. Although the author has been dead for more than sixty years, both his home and his cocktails still hold sway over the island. 

Butte, Montana

 The Firewater Lounge has been on a hiatus since September 2023 due to a brutal work schedule, but we are back and better than ever. We have made some edits to our old pages, updated our cocktail recipe list, and set up a queue of future posts for you to peruse- everything a Lounge Lizard could ever ask for!

For our return post, we'll return to our continually-growing Around America Series. We have 12+ locations we want to detail for you over the next two years, and why not start again in one of our favorite states- Montana.

A few years back, we found ourselves in Butte, the 'richest hill on Earth,' a moniker earned through its mining history and its elevated geography. Halfway up the hill that is Butte, you'll find the tasting room of Headframe Spirits, one of the only woman-led corporations in Montana. The distillery offers its own versions of the traditional stock spirits: whiskey, gin, and vodka. We stopped at Headframe, though, for their bourbon cream liqueur, which they call Orphan Girl.

Orphan Girl is a mix of cream and Headframe's Neversweat bourbon. Like so many upper Rockies and Plains states, you aren't going to see a huge menu of froufrou Coastie cocktails. You can drink Orphan Girl straight on the rocks or in a Dirty Girl- a one-to-one mixture of Orphan Girl and root beer. That's right, an adult root beer float. What's not to like?

Drink: Dirty Girl
Establishment: Headframe Tasting Room
Location: Butte, Montana
First Connoisseur: Cindy

1 part bourbon cream (Orphan Girl)
1 part root beer

Build on ice. Stir to combine.

New Orleans, Louisiana

There is no question that our favorite bartender in the Firewater Lounge is New Orleans' Chris McMillian. He has been the head bartender at several classic New Orleans bars including the Library Lounge at the Ritz-Carlton and Bar UnCommon. He is the co-founder of the Museum of the American Cocktail, also located in the Big Easy. Imbibe Magazine named him one of the 25 most influential barmen of the last century in 2010. Likely, the average Lounge Lizard knows him from the Library Lounge mint julep video that we repost just about every May around Kentucky Derby time.

Today, if you would like to have a drink poured by Chris McMillian or his wife Laura, you'll have to visit their own café and bar, Revel, located in the Mid-City neighborhood off Carrollton Avenue. Decked out in bold navy, auburn, purple, and gold, the café sports an entry dining area that is overlooked by the bar in the back.

Pittsburgh, Part 3

 After a night out on the town of Pittsburgh, it was time to head back to our hotel, the Omni William Penn Hotel. But that didn't mean the drinking was over! You see, we booked the William Penn for its downstairs bar, Speakeasy. Like the name implies, Speakeasy is a throwback to the Prohibition 1920s with its dark, cozy corners and classic cocktails mixed with local spirits.

Cindy started with a Michael Collins, a potent mixture of Jameson 12 year, Antique Decanter Pittsburgh Seltzer, and House Lemon-Maple-Birch Bark Sour with a Luxardo maraschino cherry on top. I went with a Peak Scotch, which is likely the only cocktail from Speakeasy that would be easy to pour at home with a suggested recipe below-

Drink: Speak Scotch
Establishment: Speakeasy
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
First Connoisseur: Holly

1 part blended scotch (Speakeasy uses Chivas)
2 parts Pimm's
Orange oil

In an iced rocks glass, combine the scotch and Pimm's. Stir gingerly to lower the temperature and add a bit of melt water to the drink. Peel a swath of fresh orange peel. Express orange oil into the drink by squeezing the swath over the drink. Rub the swath's peel on the rim of the glass. Sink the swath completely into the liquid once it has completely expressed its oil.

For our nightcaps, we decided on Old Fashioneds. Speakeasy uses local spirits in their Old Fashioneds from Wigle Whiskey Distillery which is literally just across the Allegheny from Penn Brewery. Cindy ordered a Bourbon Old Fashioned which coontained Wigle William Penn Bourbon, orange bitters, and a rock candy swizzle stick. I elected their Gin Old Fashioned, a bright combo of Wigle Genever, muddled lime, maple foam, and lime zest.

The running total of my drinks in Pittsburgh-

-A Penn Pilsner
-A Penn Sour Stout
-A Japanese Garden
-A Manhattan Noir
-A Speak Scotch
-A Gin Old Fashioned

Pittsburgh, Part 2

COVID wasn't kind to hotels and their classy wine bars. Masks and social distancing is not conducive to the mingling of old men with money and middle-aged women that we saw chatting each other up at the Fairmont's wine and jazz abode named Andy's in pre-COVID times. The Fairmont, a Four Diamond, 185-room hotel in Pittsburg's downtown cultural district, shares a contemporary art and industry design theme with its downstairs bar. Although the Fairmont has reopened, Andy's has remained closed since COVID struck; it claims, though, like Douglas MacArthur, that is shall return!

When we visited, Andy's was awash in the sounds of piano jazz and the murmurs of the crowd in its expansive glass and industrial walled space. The cocktails smacked of over-the-top swank. We won't recreated them for you, because the Lounge Lizards cannot abide the pretension or time required for these pinky-in-the-air draughts. Cindy selected one of Andy's 'simplest' cocktails, a Smoked Caipirinha which consisted of cachaca, lime, and smoked cilantro syrup. I ordered up a Japanese Garden, an overwrought combination of dill-infused Tanqueray Ten, cucumber-infused sake, maraschino, and fresh-squeezed lime. And while the cocktails were good, we decided to move on to a different atmosphere.

We walked a couple of blocks closer to the confluence of the three rivers to Market Square and wandered into the champagne bar Perlé (now the Metropolitan Club), a wannabe club/wedding venue that was crazily schizophrenic enough to have $500 bottles of classy champagne but also served the cheaper stuff on tap!

Cindy and I scored seats on the back sofa and ordered our champagne concoctions- the classic Bellini for her (peach puree and champagne) and a Manhattan Noir for me- a combo of Dickel, cherry juice and champagne. The Noir is not complicated and gives you that excuse to buy that bottle of Dickel you know you wanted. Here's the recipe-

Drink: Manhattan Noir
Establishment: Perlé
Location: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
First Connoisseur: Holly

1/2 ounce Dickel 12
1/2 ounce chilled cherry juice
Champagne

Prior to making the drink, chill your Dickel in the freezer and your Champagne and cherry juice in the fridge. In a large Champagne flute, add the Dickel and cherry juice. Top with Champagne.

Pittsburgh, Part 1

If you asked us for a surprising American city that's a great location to drink, we wouldn't think twice before offering up Pittsburgh. For the Wisconsinite Lounge Lizard, Pittsburgh's vibe isn't (spiritually) far from the comfortable confines of Milwaukee, quintessentially a Midwestern suds-drinkers paradise, replete with German beer halls and their patrons spilling out to river overlooks.

One of these halls that you should not miss when you stop in Pittsburgh is Penn Brewery. Nestled on the plateau of the Troy Hill neighborhood in North Pittsburgh, the red-bricked Penn Brewery presents a dramatic view over the Allegheny River to the Steel City's downtown. Inside, German fare abounds, from wurst to schnitzel to the ubiquitous pierogi, while the beer styles are dominated by brews adhering to the strict quality standards of the 16th century Bavarian Reinheitsgebot purity laws.

We didn't hesitate to order a round of pierogi and our first two beers, a Penn Pilsner for me and a Penn Gold for Cindy. The Pilsner is the brewery's flagship beer, an amber-colored draught with a bready nose and a toasty toffee finish. The Penn Gold is their easy-drinking pale lager which filled the crowded tables of nearby pub crawlers.

After devouring our meals, we decided to grab two more brews- I elected for a Sour Stout and Cindy (of course) went straight to dessert with the Penn Chocolate Meltdown. The Sour Stout was as sour as advertised. The Meltdown is a milk stout married with the confections of Pittsburg's own 1938 chocolatier Betsy Ann. The Meltdown was as sweet as the Sour was sour; both beers were a one-time tipple.

Although Pittsburgh rivals Milwaukee for their brews, we ventured out to see what downtown Pittsburgh had to offer by way of cocktails. We will tell you what we found in the next post...

Bigfork, Montana, part 3

We couldn’t leave Bigfork without a visit to Flathead Lake Brewing Company’s Pubhouse on the northshore of Flathead Lake, just a mile up the road from Whistling Andy’s. FLBC’s pubhouse was packed full of people, noshing on brewpub grub, when we arrived in the early afternoon. In a refreshing change of pace, both the general manager and assistant general manager of the pubhouse are women, Nicole Harker and Sarah Peterson.

We only had time to grab a growler to go, and had twelve-plus options on tap to choose from. FLBC is known for its dark brews. In 2006, the brewery became the youngest brewery ever to win not just one, but two, World Beer Cup awards. They won the silver for their roasty 369′ Stout and the bronze for their full-bodied Painted Rock Porter.

In accordance, then, we just had to choose a stout or porter to take home with us. We decided on FLBC’s Rising Sun Espresso Porter. The Rising Sun starts as FLBC’s award-winning Painted Rock Porter with a coffee blend added later from local Bigfolk roaster, Fieldheads Coffee (which is literally right next to Whistling Andy’s).

The resulting brew is black as pitch with a peanut-colored head. The aroma teases the roasty malts and the coffee blend. The upfront taste is surprisingly hop-forward for its 26 IBUs and then tails off into coffee notes on the finish. Frankly, it’s not too far from Vintage’s Scaredy Cat (which took the World Beer Cup gold in 2016). As the Rising Sun warms, its depth of chocolate increases. If you are off to visit Glacier National Park this fall, stop off for a growler before you go.

Bigfork, Montana, Part 2

After having a Huckleberry Fizz at The Raven on the shores of Flathead Lake in northern Montana, it piqued our interest in the gin used in the drink: Whistling Andy’s Pink Peppercorn & Pear Gin. We found Whistling Andy’s in a small, mostly non-descript distillery storefront only five miles north of The Raven in Bigfork itself.

Whistling Andy’s look maybe be low-key, but its spirits are not. Big flavors abound in its generous four-glass flight of liquor. We snared two flights, one a piece, with seven different kinds of spirits: their typical whiskey, their bourbon, a harvest-select whiskey, their peppercorn & pear gin, their cucumber gin, their hibiscus coconut rum, and their Spirit of Sperry (which, of course, is their huckleberry vodka).

Their whiskeys were young, but very well-crafted; I found the harvest-select whiskey to be a grain flavor that wasn’t my favorite, but I could see how other people would enjoy it. The cucumber gin and coconut rum were fine examples of their kind; both with bold flavor. But the bottles we bought were the peppercorn & pear gin and the Sperry vodka!

I know what you’re thinking- Vodka in the Lounge? Well, this vodka was darn good, imparting a whisper of huckleberry love on each snip. In addition, the vodka’s electric pink color would be a welcome part of any Valentine’s Day couple’s aperitif.

I will leave you a cocktail from Whistling Andy’s distillery bar-

Drink: Bear Bait

Establishment: Whistling Andy

Location: Bigfork, Montana

1 ½ ounces of huckleberry vodka (or another berry vodka you have on hand)

2 bar spoons of huckleberry jam

½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice

Soda

Add vodka, jam and lime juice to a shaker with ice, shake until the tin frosts. Pour without straining into an iced Collins glass. Top with soda water. 

Bigfork, Montana, Part 1

Many of the Lounge Lizards were born and raised in a Great Lake state, so big lakes are not new to us. Big lakes that overlook mountains, though, are somewhat of a novelty. A beautiful example of such a lake is Flathead Lake which is nestled in the Rockies of northern Montana. Flathead Lake, which is just a bit smaller than Lake Winnebago, is dotted with bars, breweries, and distilleries for locals and visitors alike.

When we visited, we found little cabins to rent just outside the city of Bigfork which lies on the north shore of the lake. We got to the cabins too early for the staff and they recommended a casual bar on the lakeshore called The Raven. We suspect the cabins and The Raven have the same owners since they were both decked out in a Caribbean theme.

Cocktails at The Raven may have a tropical name and pedigree, but the northern vibe absolutely showed through. Its baskets of hand-cut fries, its small bar kitchen, and its locals slamming suds read more Wisconsin dive bar than Jamaican tiki bar. And nothing read ‘Montana’ more than the myriad of huckleberry elements in the drinks. See, Montana loves it some huckleberries. They have huckleberry everything- pies, jams, ice creams, and, yes, cocktails. So, when in Rome… here’s the huckleberry drink I had at The Raven.

Drink: The Huckleberry Fizz

Establishment: The Raven

Location: Bigfork, Montana

First Connoisseur: Holly

2 ounces gin (The Raven uses Whistling Andy Pink Peppercorn Gin)

½ ounce huckleberry syrup

7up or club soda

Combine gin and huckleberry in an iced mixing class. Stir to incorporate and cool the drink. Strain. Top with 7up or club soda. Gently stir to keep the carbonation.

Portland, Maine

Time to take the Lounge Lizards to the farthest-most northeastern locale of the long-standing Around America series- Portland, Maine. Along the sun-splashed early summer wharf, there are plenty of seaside offerings to be had, from Boston clam chowder at Becky’s Dinner to chocolate-covered Maine blueberries at Old Port. All the tasty treats require a bit of liquid refreshment, so why not partake in some of the in-house libations at Liquid Riot Bottling.

Liquid Riot does it all. They brew beer. They distill spirits. They serve lobster bao buns. We came for bottles of their booze. Their catalog includes five types of whiskey, vodka, a couple of beer spirits, rum and fernet; we purchase bottles of the latter two. Their standard rum, Dow’s Demise, is named after Neal Dow, the mayor of Portland in the mid-1850s. Dow, known as the Napoleon of Temperance, instituted the Maine Law, which prohibited alcohol in the city. When the city got wind that Dow had purchased $1300 of liquor at City Hall for ‘medicinal purposes,’ the people rioted and the militia Dow called out killed a man. The Portland Rum Riot of 1855 ended Neal Dow’s political career, but gave both Liquid Riot and their rum, Dow’s Demise, their names.

The Dow’s Demise itself is a blend of small batch rums aged in oak whiskey barrels. It’s funky and sweet; any cocktail you would use a deep Jamaican rum like Smith & Cross in, would be excellent with Dow’s Demise. The house fernet, named Fernet Michaud after Liquid Riot’s proprietors Eric and Ian Michaud, is a blend of 21 botanicals which is aged half a year in Maine blueberry wine barrels. The resulting amaro is mint-forward with grassy bitterness and a sea salt back. 

For a cocktail, we’ll go with a house special in the Resto-bar, the Rum Punch. The recipe is modified from its roots in that Liquid Riot eschews the typical orange juice and adds Benedictine. In addition, the sweetness and color of grenadine is replaced by cherry liqueur.

Drink: Liquid Riot Rum Punch
Establishment: Liquid Riot Resto-bar
Location: Portland, Maine
First Connoisseur: Holly

2 ounces Dow’s Demise Rum
1 ounce Benedictine
1 ounce cherry liqueur (Liquid Riot uses Rothman and Winter)
3 ounces pineapple juice
½ ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
Dash of Angostura bitters

If you don’t have Rothman and Winter cherry liqueur, Herring will work. Place all ingredients in a shaker full of ice. Shake until chilled and foamy. Serve over fresh ice in a Collins glass.

San Antonio, Texas

A five-minute walk down the San Antonio River Walk from the historic Alamo, sits a watering hole that has been satisfying thirsty Texans since the end of Prohibition: The Esquire Tavern. Opening in 1933, just six years ahead of the groundbreaking of the River Walk, the Esquire prides itself on an upstairs brimming with historical swank and a downscaled downstairs that offers a more laid-back setting on the river at the tavern’s rear. Both levels boast a separate cocktail list; the downstairs claims a more uncomplicated experience, but like the upstairs, the house cocktails are likely to contain five or more ingredients, many from the classic prohibition era. No Seven and Sevens here.

The Esquire didn’t mind if the whole family got a bite to eat upstairs, so we did; I grabbed their meatloaf sandwich, which may not seem very sophisticated except with a beautiful classic cocktail in tow. Mine was a Warpaint- a heady concoction of Norwegian Aquavit, Beet-Tarragon Shrub, Herbsaint, Cocchi Americano, and fresh-squeeze lemon juice. Cindy’s cocktail, the Scrubby Collins, was equally involved- a mixture of blanco tequila, strawberry-basil black pepper shrub, and mineral water, stirred on ice and served long.

In true Wisconsin-style, I couldn’t leave without an after-dinner (or lunch, in this case) drink, so I ordered up a Waking the Dead #1 (yes, they did also have a #2 too, which was too fruity for my tastes). Although we don’t know the exact proportions, I do have the ingredients, so here’s my best approximations...

Drink: Waking the Dead #1
Establishment: The Esquire Tavern
Location: San Antonio, Texas
First Connoisseur: Holly

1 ½ ounces bonded bourbon
¾ ounce Italian vermouth (I used Carpano)
½ ounce espresso-fernet (I used a mix of espresso liqueur and fernet branca)
1 ounce pineapple juice
Dash of fresh-squeezed lemon juice

Place all ingredients in a shaker full of ice. Shake until chilled. Serve up in a cocktail glass and enjoy in warm temperatures.

Minneapolis, Part 3

It’s pretty tough to leave Minneapolis without swinging by Surly Brewing Company. So we crossed over the Mississippi, drove through U of M campus and sauntered into Surly’s digs. Right at the front doors, you are met by Surly personnel giving the low-down on the beer-making operations at the beginning of their beer tour. Just beyond the tours, a hallway led to a large German-style beer hall fit for a hundred beer-swilling Vikings (except for the fact that they were pumping in reggae music). I ordered a Bender and Cindy ordered its sibling, the Coffee Bender. 

I like oatmeal brown ales and the Bender fits the bill. Dark as cola with a finger of tan head, the Bender smells slightly of chocolate and Nutella. Easy drinking and smooth, if you like sweet beer, this is a selection for you. Obviously, Coffee Bender is simply regular Bender except with the addition of Guatemalan coffee, roasted in Minnesota. In the Coffee Bender, the coffee aroma pushes out the Bender’s lighter hazelnut, and coffee bitterness stomps down the sweetness of the Bender with a longer, roastier finish. The question of which you would like to drink really only depends on if you like coffee or not. I prefer the Bender with food, and the Coffee Bender without.

As we left Surly, we stopped by their large gift store and had to purchase a couple of T-shirts featuring Surly’s most famous product by far, their annual Darkness offering- rich, black Russian Imperial Stouts graced with labels sporting some of the underworld’s creepiest denizens from Cerberus to minotaurs.

Minneapolis, Part 2

The Mississippi River, where Marvel Bar sits, is the northeast border of the revived Minneapolis warehouse district, while broad Washington Avenue cuts it right down the middle. On Washington, near the newly-restored lumber mill-turned hotel The Hewing (where we were staying), is a small liquor shop called the North Loop Wine & Spirits and it’s well worth your time. Tiny as it is, the NLWS is packed from ceiling to floor with bottles. Its floor displays are mainly devoted to world wines and craft beers. Its walls are lined with a surprising array of odd liqueurs, specialty vermouths, and wide-ranging whiskeys. The great thing about NLWS is its lineup of Minnesota products. Seemingly every liqueur Tattersall makes is here, including its glorious 80 proof grapefruit crema; Vikre aquavit, flavored and otherwise, and Norseman gins and rums also make an appearance.

I couldn’t wait to open my Tattersall grapefruit crema until I got home, so here’s the cocktail I made at the Hewing:

Viking Spring 

Holly’s Original

1 ½ ounces Tattersall grapefruit crema

½ ounce Farigoule

3 ounces Spruce Soda orange blossom tonic 

Just around the corner from the North Loop Liquor is the Red Cow, a upscale hamburger joint that features a good beer collection. Here we sampled a number of local brews including a Steel Toe Brewing’s Dissent, a dry wintertime stout; Lift Bridge Brewing’s Cow-laboration #5, a dark porter that is imbued with coconut flavor at the middle and through its finish; a Brau Brothers Moo Joos Red Velvet, which was a sweet milk stout that wouldn’t interest many beer drinkers due to its overwhelming cocoa forward nature, but chocolate cake lovers might dig it; and a Fulton’s Lonely Blonde, a rather ordinary pale ale that still went great with a Red Cow Philly cheesesteak.

Minneapolis, Part 1

We love that cities are revitalizing their old factory areas into art and entertainment districts. From Oklahoma City’s Bricktown, to Old Sugar in Madison, to Red Hook’s Widow Jane, America’s cities far and wide are converting their industrial and shipping areas to cocktail clubs and breweries. One of the best examples of this is the mill and warehouse districts of Minneapolis, where, slowly, abandoned buildings, one-after-another, are trading in their mill status for sophisticated cuisine and smartly-crafted libations.

We scoured the warehouse district for some of these tasty treats and found that our first destination was pretty darn hard to find- Marvel Bar. Despite its huge acclaim in bar circles, Marvel is a true modern speakeasy. If you use Google maps to find it, you still might not find it. It involves going to the Mississippi riverside at the end of the bar’s block under the Bachelor Farmer cafe, going down a flight of stairs on the outside and through two signless doors.

Once in, Marvel is almost as nondescript as the outside. It’s small with a few funky chairs surrounding short tables; its only distinctive feature is their golden maneki-neko forever beckoning cocktail lovers toward their next liquid treat. Marvel’s bar travels the entire length of the room with three barmen working so furiously concocting cocktails or cracking ice that it prevented the smallest of talk. We started with Marvel’s most famous drink, the Oliveto. The Oliveto is a velvety mixture of olive oil, egg, lemon, and liquor that lives up to its reputation. Though its recipe looks challenging (both in pour and in taste) to the novice cocktail drinker, it is not as intimidating as it appears; it only entails a couple of shakes and it tastes like lemon meringue. Yummy! That recipe is below:

Drink: Oliveto 

Establishment: Marvel Bar

Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota

First Connoisseur: Cindy

2 ounces dry gin

1 ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice

¼ ounce rich simple syrup (2:1)

¼ ounce Licor 43

½ ounce full-bodied extra virgin olive oil

1 fresh egg white

Combine all the ingredients in a shaker in preparation for a dry shake. Shake hard, without ice, for about 20-30 seconds to emulsify the egg white and olive oil. Add ice to the shaker and shake again for 20 more seconds. Strain into a chilled coupe.

Of course, we couldn’t leave Marvel without trying a few more cocktails. And although we don’t know the proportions of these, they do make for interesting combinations if you are an amateur mixologist! Strongwater: a mixture of Farigoule (French thyme liqueur), Carpano Antica Formula vermouth, Marvel’s own select Old Scout 8 year bourbon, Maison Rouge, and water. The Oakenshield: salt, Cynar, Toschi Nocello (Italian walnut liqueur), Isle of Skye 8 year scotch whisky.

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.

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.