Ragtime!

Before I even moved up to the northern Virginia area, I knew Ragtime – it was the bar we always seemed to end up at in Courthouse around 1 AM, just before last call, with a “surprise” tray of shots and a hangover the next day. Indeed, that reputation stuck with me for a while after moving to NoVA, mostly courteous of one friend who was always giving his number to the servers.

When I moved into Courthouse, though, I discovered that it’s actually a fantastic bar – not just because it’s a WVU Mountaineers bar (which made my parents happy when we went there just after my move) but because of a great staff and a constantly improving beer selection. I’ve been there hundreds of times (according to Foursquare, nearly 400 times) and probably had just about everything on the menu.

The one thing I never really drank, though, were the mixed drinks, with just two exceptions. One was when they did a martini night, and I could get a nice big glass of cold gin with extra vermouth for cheap. The other was the infamous (to us) pomegranate martini, which despite being called a martini was based off tequila. We (we being the guys) would go to Ragtime claiming girlfriends/wives wanted the pomegranate martini, but really we’d end up drinking lots of them. They were kind of addictive.

The latest restaurant by the same owners had a more focused cocktail program and Ragtime went through a time of doing flavored liquors, but still I was surprised recently when they announced their new cocktail program, focusing on classic drinks and fresh ingredients, including squeezed to order juices and housemade syrups such as orgeat. I, of course, needed to check this out as soon as I could, on a night when I wasn’t doing something stupid like drinking two or three pitchers of Blue Point Toasted Lager.

Death in the Afternoon

Fortunately, I got my chance last night finally when I was meeting a friend there (like I’m going to drink all nine cocktails in one night!).

The first thing that really surprised me was the cost of the drinks. The most expensive drink on the menu was $10, and most were $7-$8. In this town that’s a steal! But still, I’d have to try them first. Just to note: I wasn’t sitting at the actual bar, but at a high top near it. I could see the bartenders making my drinks, but I did not notice brands being used.

Death in the Afternoon – $8 – absinthe, lemon, simple syrup, champagne. I’ve had these before and never been a huge fan, but this one hit me just right – the absinthe taste was prominent, and I’m not a fan of absinthe for the most part, but the combination worked out really well. It was served in a traditional champagne coupe (see right) and was exactly the drink I needed to start off the night.

Vieux Carre

Vieux Carre – $10 (only $10 drink on the menu) – rye, cognac, Dolin Rouge, green Chartreuse, Angostura, Peychauds, lemon. First off, I was glad to see Dolin listed! That’s my favorite vermouth. As you can see in the picture, it’s served over one large ice cube and felt like a substantial drink (I did not measure, so that’s why I said “felt like”). I sipped off the top first and wasn’t impressed but liked it more as I drank out of the straw. For me, personally, it could’ve used a bit more bitters in it, but I also know the environment they’re working in – a super-bitter drink probably ain’t gonna work in a sports bar. (Really, the fact that they’re doing this menu at all is amazing and exciting to me, and makes me even more excited about football season!)

Unfortunately, they were out of mint, so the?mint julep and the?Queen’s Park Swizzle weren’t available (the latter being my next choice). So let’s stick with Hemingway!

Hemingway Daiquiri and Pimm’s Cup No. 1

Hemingway Daiquiri – $8 – white rum, maraschino, grapefruit, lime, simple syrup. This came out well-balanced as well, with a solid taste of maraschino in the back end that I thought brought the whole thing together nicely. My companion didn’t agree, as she felt it tasted more alcohol-y, but I’ve grown an appreciation for the taste of maraschino recently. It’s very easy for maraschino to overwhelm a drink so someone newer to those flavors might be hesitant at the flavor but I think after a drink or two they would really enjoy it.

My friend got a Pimm’s Cup.

Pimm’s Cup No. 1 – $7 – Pimms, rosemary syrup, lemon, ginger beer, garden garnish. Yes, technically the “Pimm’s Cup No. 1″ is the name of the liqueur in the drink, as Pimm’s makes a few varieties (which you really can’t get any but #1 in the US). I’ve never had one with rosemary syrup in it and at first was hesitant, but I grew to like it – it gave it a dry herbaciousness (is that a word?) which I think would make it more easily drinkable in quantity on a hot summer day than a sweeter version may be, though it still had a sweetness to it.

…and with that, I switched back to Toasted Lager, because I didn’t really need more liquor.

Tomorrow (Friday, May 30th) at 7 PM in the back bar they’ll be releasing some barrel-aged cocktails: Basil Hayden Manhattans and Makers 46 Sazeracs. I’m going to try to swing by because I’d like to see how they come out, so say hi if you see me!

– ?SeanMike

Well, that’s a whole lotta sodas!

I don’t remember when I stopped mixing with sodas for the most part, but by the time we started this here site I didn’t really do it a lot. That doesn’t mean others don’t – my brother, for instance, and my dad are big fans of it. I’ve also tried to cut back on most of my sodas with the whole “diabetes” thing I’ve gotta deal with.

The other night one of my friends I play Borderlands 2 with online asked about what to mix with his bottles of Bulleit and Eagle Rare. “Don’t mix the Bulleit!” I cried, but he pointed out that he wanted something he could drink for a while. I thought about it a bit and said, hey, this could make a post.

Let’s break them down a bit by types of soda, really.

Ginger Beer – man, I do love me some good ginger beer. Bourbon and ginger beer is a great combo, in my opinion. Obviously, the traditional however is rum and ginger beer (plus a bit of lime, and you’ve got yourself a stew a Dark and Stormy). With vodka, that’s a Moscow Mule, and if you’re a type of drinker who doesn’t dig on the taste of alcohol that might be the way to go – or use a lighter ginger beer/ale, like Q.

Cola – There are so many colas out there that this can be problematic. The Fentiman’s CherryTree cola is dying for some rye, in my opinion, but I don’t know if I’d mix their Curiousity Cola (I do like to give it to non-drinkers, as it’s quite delicious). Obviously, the “…and Coke” combo is a common one, and unless you’re still in college, I don’t want to hear about vodka and Pepsi. I would consider white whiskey and RC cola, but only if you eat a Moon Pie with it too (which I have done). Fernet and Coke is a popular South American combo.

Root Beer and Cream Soda – Spiced Rum. Or most kinds of rum.

Various specialty sodas – Now here’s where it gets fun. Vanilla bean soda? I’d do bourbon, or dark rum. Victorian lemonade? Bourbon for a riff off the “Lynchburg Lemonade”. Cola made with coffee? Spiced rum or maybe tequila or Mezcal.

Sprite or other lemon-lime sodas – Well, you can make SpriTequilas, but you better be good at your mixology game. Also try gin, Pimm’s and gin, or Calvados.

Soda water – Don’t make me punch you in the throat. Really. Asking me a question like that. Just add bitters to it, I GUESS.

What combos do you like? Comment to me on Facebook or on Twitter!

Next week I’m headed out to a pool party and one of the hosts asked me to make some punch for it. Of course I agreed, and then immediately moved to Twitter to ask for recommendations. After all, I barely make cocktails at home most of the time, much less punch. Fairly quickly I got two recommendations.

The first came from Rick aka @martinigroove.

@highwaystar Here’s a fancy one that I made that’s pretty solid: http://t.co/AtszauBgmC

? Cocktail Rick (@martinigroove) July 24, 2013

So, off I went to try it. I took it in a couple of steps.

About once a week or so I tend to have a long grilling session where I smoke cigars, listen to music, and grill up veggies and proteins for the upcoming week. Typically I do a steak for that night and chicken and pork for the upcoming week (typically they end up in taco form) along with asparagus, onions, peppers, and jalapenos. That’s honestly how I’ve been losing weight lately. This time, after finishing the other veggies but before the meats, I followed the recipe and put a thinly sliced (as best I could) lemon on the grill.

After it cooled down I threw it in a ziploc bag.

The next day Marshall and I hit Ace Beverage for supplies. The recipe called for 8 ounces of bourbon, specifying W. L. Weller, and 2 ounces of apricot liqueur (Rothman & Winter). After some hijinks I ended up with what I needed. Later that night I headed over to Marshall’s apartment for the experiment.

Now, one thing I did realize was that I only bought one bottle of W. L. Weller, so I used Four Roses (which is one of my favorite bourbons especially in terms of value). I muddled the lemons in a pitcher, added the bourbon, apricot liqueur, and simple syrup, then added ice and stirred.

A few observations from this point:

• This makes a lot less than I expected.
• And the punch is mostly booze. Both a good and bad thing.
• We had particulate matter in the drink.

Garnished with fresh mint, we sipped, and it was fairly tasty. However, after tasting, I thought about a few things, and here’s how I’ll change it when I do it next weekend.

• I’m doing a a triple batch.
• As Rick noted, it’s all about the presentation, so I’ll make it there rather than batching ahead of time. I will batch the liquor part of it, though.
• Before adding ice, I’ll stir it up. Otherwise, it’s hard to get the lemon fully incorporated it seems. Then I’ll strain it through a fine mesh strainer to get out bits of char and seeds. I might grill an additional lemon to use as garnishes.

This punch is good, but I think it could also be livened up with some spice components. I don’t know if I’ll have time to experiment ahead of time on it, but some clove could be nice in it, or even perhaps a dash of heat in terms of some hot sauce. I’d want to avoid anything else sweet, as it’s already pretty sweet despite the lemon, but at the same time bitters might be the wrong way to go. Like I said, I might think on it a bit…

The second suggestion was a Pimm’s Cup punch. While the reasoning behind suggesting it wasn’t appealing (neither I, nor my hosts, give a shit about the royal baby) the drink itself is a classic.

But which recipe?

After spending hours (okay, maybe minutes) combing the web, finding old websites that might be compromised, and craving cucumber sandwiches, I had an epiphany. Instead of a Bloody Mary bar, I’ll do a Pimms Cup bar!

A few bottles of Pimm’s, a couple of gin, lemonade, lime juice, ginger beer, 7-Up, etc.

As our friend Ed would say: “It’ll be great!”

And so I hope. This time, I will take pictures, and I’ll give you an update later. (Especially since I’ll be sober for two weeks in August, I’ll need?something to talk about!)

Unfortunately, one of the chairs broke at the party last weekend and both are still over at that house, the house light is out, and it’s been crappy weather.

Last night was milder than I expected and I was bored, so I said, you know what, I’m going to figure out a way to do this.  I grabbed the two metal folding bistro chairs we have in our kitchen to hold my “ash tray” (a plastic bowl of water) and drinks, grabbed my copy of Imbibe!, poured myself a couple of drinks, and grabbed a cigar I haven’t tried before.

The cigar was a Rocky Patel Edge.  I picked it up for a good price at Georgetown Tobacco over at Tyson’s Corner Center.  I was actually impressed with all their prices; it’d been a while since I’d been there, but it was remarkably cheaper than the Total Tobacco near my office in Rosslyn and seemed cheaper than Old Virginia over in 7 Corners.

The cigar was lighter than the RP Vintage 1990s that I’d smoked a lot of in recent times but was still an enjoyable smoke.  As I typically do in situations like this, I did smoke it a bit fast, so it was a little hot by the end, but I greatly enjoyed it.

To go along with it I made two drinks: first, a Pimm’s and Sprite Zero – a combination that worked REALLY well, I thought, and another notch in my continuing quest to figure out which diet lemon-lime soda goes best with Pimm’s (I also have some Sierra Mist Free) – as well as a double sized Winter’s Touch.  Instead of shaking it, which I had an aversion to doing last night for some bizarre reason, I made it in the glass with plenty of ice and stirred it.  It came out well, especially after I let the ice melt a bit and dilute it down.  I probably could’ve added a bit more simple syrup, too.

But that definitely hit the spot last night.  I hadn’t done that in a long time.  Imbibe! is a great read, too – I haven’t finished it yet, but once I do I’ll make sure to do a Runo Knows… on it.

I hit the liquor store today, basically for random reasons.  I picked up a bottle of Benedictine, despite the fact that it’s about $6 more in Virginia than it would be in DC (but I won’t have to hour Metro both ways to get it).  I also got a bottle of Pimm’s No. 1, since I tried that over at the Elephant and Castle this weekend and really enjoyed it.

(Currently I’m drinking a Pimm’s No. 1 and diet 7-Up.  It’s good, but I don’t think diet 7-Up does it justice.  Stupid diet!  I might make one more with more Pimm’s and less 7-Up.)

I also got a bottle of Kopper Kettle Virginia bourbon, distilled in nearby Culpepper, VA, at Belmont Farms (the distillery you see signs for on route 29 in that region if you’re so inclined – I keep meaning to stop by there).  I’ve had their Copper Fox before, and it wasn’t bad, so I figured I’d give it a shot (and that’s Yet Another Bourbon so that Mr. Macbeth can stop giving me a hard time about not having much bourbon!).

Finally, I forgot to list one bottle last time – in our freezer we have a bottle of Ketel One Citroen, untouched since the last time mom was in town and we made Cosmopolitans (which also made my brother sick somehow, he claims), but it had a good review on the book – so hey, next time I need citrus vodka, I guess…