An online speakeasy of potent potables and other pabulam.

Normally I am not a fan of “specialty” ingredients.  What’s economical and easy to make in a restaurant, for instance, can be a pain in the butt to make at home, or worse yet, end up giving you a container full of a specialty mix that’s only used in one cocktail.

That’s by no means a theory held by all mixologists.  Some love to make things of their own – like our very own Marshall here.  I’m often limited in what I can store, particularly in terms of refridgerated items, and my lack of ice can mean I drink less cocktails in a week than some people do.

That being said, some work has turned out really well.  I made strawberry-infused tequila for my mom and she loved it.  A horseradish-infused vodka that I initially made for horseradish egg sours (from David Wondrich’s _Imbibe!_) also works well for bloody marys.  I also always make my own simple syrup, and sometimes my own grenadine.

Last night was another Thursday Drink Night.  I actually didn’t drink that much and hadn’t read Kaiser Penguin’s post on it before it started.  But after a couple glasses of wine (a rather nice 2003 Tintara cabernet sauvignon) I saw the discussion was highly focussed on cinnamon syrup.  Checking KP’s website, I found the recipe he posted for it.

To be honest – it sounded really good.  I had some ideas of what I wanted to do with it so finally I gave in and made it.

One caveat: it boiled over a bit.  D’oh!  But my roommates thought it smelled great and told me I could make it any time I wanted.  Another one: I didn’t have stick cinnamon so I used .5 ounces of ground.  Yet another: man, this stuff is THICK.  It’ll take quite a while to seep through cheesecloth.

I didn’t have a lot of time to experiment with it so I just came up with one drink that I tentatively entitled “The Rachael Ray” to annoy people.  This was:

The Rachael Ray
2 ounces Scarlet Ibis rum
3/4 ounce cinnamon syrup
1/2 ounce Castries
Shake and strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Given that this was a TDN drink, it still needs a bit of adjusting.  Honestly, it might even could use more rum, or less of the other ingredients – maybe making both the Castries and cinnamon syrup 1/2 ounce, or something like that.  I also haven’t decided what kind of garnish to use with it – a peanut, or a tiny bit of ground cinnamon, or a stick of cinnamon?  If the later, we’d probably want to dial down the cinnamon syrup even more.

Rick should have the recap of TDN up soon, so keep an eye on Kaiser Penguin.  And if you make your own simple syrup, you’ll find the cinnamon syrup pretty easy, and probably a versatile enough addition to your bar, especially as we head into fall and winter.

The Museum of the American Cocktail is continuing their DC Seminar program with an event on Tuesday October 14th at the Tabard Inn.  The theme of of the seminar is “The Great Hotel Bars, Part 1.”  Derek Brown and Phil Greene will be hosting and discussing classic cocktails which were created at some classic hotels.  These include the Vieux Carre Cocktail (Hotel Monteleone, New Orleans), the Rob Roy (Waldorf = Astoria, New York), the Singapore Sling (Raffles Hotel, Singapore), the Bloody Mary (St. Regis Hotel, New York), and the Side Car (The Ritz, Paris).   The Tabard Inn’s very own Chantal Tseng will also be mixing up the Tabard Cocktail in honor of the event.  Appetizers will also be served.

The event costs $45 and lasts from 6:00-7:30pm.  You can purchase tickets here. Tickets, if available, can be purchased at the door, but the price may be a little higher than $45.

The Tabard Inn is located at:
1739 N Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036
Some interesting background on the Inn can be found here.

I think this is going to be a great event and tons of fun.  Derek and Chantal are awesome folks and any events thrown by the Musuem of the American Cocktail are always a blast.

I hope folks can make it.  If you do go and you saw this announcement, introduce yourself.  I’d love to meet you.  How will you recognize me?  I’ll be the bald-headed cocktail geek talking history and soaking up as much booze . . . I mean knowledge . . . as I can!

Cheers!

For regular readers of the Scofflaw’s Den, you may have noticed a few changes. I wanted to take a quick moment to let you know about what we’ve done.

First, we have a new theme. The old theme was very old and partially written in an asiatic language. That made things pretty difficult to navagate and update code since niether SeanMike or I speak Chinese/Japanese. This new theme also renders our page on mobile clients much better. Go ahead! Fire up your Iphone or Ipod Touch and give it a go!

Along with the new theme we were able (with the assistance of our friend and WordPress guru Victor – whose photography you should check out via the link under “DC Sites”) to fix our RSS feed. Now you can add us to your feed reader of choice!

Our new theme is also widget compatible, so you should see some fun stuff with that coming up. One of our first widget-enabled upgrades is in the left sidebar. We have added a font size changer to make the site more accessable for some and easier to read if you like larger or smaller text.

And finally, a new aspect of the site that only really helps me is that I can now write posts and publish them directly from my Iphone. In fact, this post was written entirely on my mobile. This will allow me to do some real time posts when we are out and about. Of course, that’s if I remember.

Well, that’s all I gave for this update. Feel free to leave us a comment on whether you like the new look or things you would like to see on the site.

Cheers!

So I meant to post earlier but kept forgetting.  My bad.

Last weekend I was in NYC.  Friday night we started with a trip to Stand, mostly known for its burgers and milkshakes.  I started with a Southampton Secret Ale on draft, a beer that I’ve always enjoyed in the bottle at Lost Dog Cafe here in Arlington but didn’t like as much that night.  Then I had a Negroni made with Hendricks – a very good change to it I felt.

My friends got some various drinks – a notable one was an orange milkshake type drink made with Campari.  I thought that was quite good.

We then went to Alta.  Two of us started with Spanish Manhattans: Maker’s Mark, Oloroso Seco, port infused with cinnamon, clove and dried cherries. Those were good, not spectacular, but good.  We chowed down on a number of tapas and I ordered the Ewa en Provence which was lavender infused aquavit, dry vermouth, Cointreau, lime juice, and a dash of cassis. That was actually not as good as it sounded like, but was still good.  I ended the dinner with a Bombardier beer, the favorite of my friend Roy.

The next day was a beer day, really, after mimosas at Ed’s; after a failed attempt to go to Park Ave Liquors we went to Zum Schneider and had liters of Weihenstephan Hefeweizen and then to McSorely’s for their traditional two-beers-at-a-time.  There was a loud group of USMC at one table near us and a group of “Black Irish New York” at another table – it was really all quite entertaining.

On Sunday we did a lot of walking around; the only notable drink of that day was a Baron’s Black Wattle Superior Ale, not bad, though I was amused and annoyed to see that the bottles in my $15 six pack were only 11.2 ounces.  That’s 5.6 ounces less than a normal six pack!

After I got home on Monday I went to have a cigar.  I was quite concerned with my cigars at first, afraid they might be screwed up, but it ended up that they had just dried out.  I’m not certain what happened with my hygrometer in my humidor, but I’ve got to be careful about it (they’re fine now).

Some apple wine and Brooklyn Pennant ’55 ales over the course of the week led to a trip to Oyamel after our volunteer shift at DC Central Kitchen with the DR.com peeps.  After a Dogfish Head beer (60 Minute IPA, I believe) I went for an Oyamel – a margarita made with Jose Cuervo Tradicional, Patron Citronage, lime juice, and topped with “Salt Air”.  One of the best margaritas I’ve had in a long time!

Next up was Pina y Salvia – muddled sage, pineapple juice, herradura tequila, and triple sec.  This was almost like a tiki drink to me, probably because of the pineapple juice, but it might’ve been made a bit sweet (the waitress asked if it was made too sweet, at least).  I followed it up with a Zanahoria Borracha made from 10 Cane rum, carrot and orange juice, and agave nectar.  The last drink, recommended by the waitress since I seemed to be “an adventurous drinker”, was a Hada Verde.  St. George absinthe, Sauza Blanca tequila, Chichicapa mezcal, and pineapple juice  – whoa.  That was a drink I had to share with others.

Finally, last night I went over to Marshall’s.  After a couple of Rocktoberfests at Rock Bottom Brewery we went back for cigars and drinks.  I had a Negroni, made MUCH better by Marshall’s recommendation of adding two dashes of orange Angostura bitters and two dashes of Fee’s rhubarb bitters (damn, I need some rhubarb bitters!).  For watching Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas we made up a batch of Pisco sours, using the recipe from Drinkboy which uses lime juice instead of lemon juice.

The final drink of the night (other than Magic Hat’s fall seasonal) was a drink I was experimenting with, an attempt at a variation of a Negroni using Veev (2 ounces), 1 ounce Aperol, 1/2 ounce Cointreau, 1/2 ounce Plymouth Sloe Gin, and some Fee’s orange bitters.  Marshall declared it too sweet; I’m notorious for my sweet tooth especially after I’ve been drinking but I think that this drink might have some potential down the road.  So I will experiment with it later – maybe even later today – and see what I can do.  I’ll probably swap the Aperol for Campari, reduce the amount of Veev, and up the amount of bitters added, maybe using a combination of a spicier orange bitters and lemon bitters (or grapefruit?).

Okay – that’s all for now.  I need to find caffeine!