NY Barfly

Drink of the Week: Vin Brulé at SD26

What’s something we love about winter weather? Um no, not the gigantic piles of slush. Mulled wine drinks! These warm cocktails will heat you right up – if you have boots covered with snow and ice, they will even melt that, provided you have a serving big enough to bathe your feet in (a serving that big = yes please).

Italian resto SD26 is pouring – or should we say ladling out a little libation called the Vin Brulé throughout the month of February. The ditty is served hot from a ceramic bowl – the bartender uses a ladle to dish out the mix of red wine that’s spiked with cinnamon, nutmeg and clove.

The restaurant – which is located at 19 East 26^th Street – will serve the libation for Valentine’s Day if you need more than love to keep you warm. If you want to make it at home, check out the recipe for 5 servings below:

 

The Vin Brulé

 

1 bottle dry full body red wine

5 cloves

2 cinnamon sticks

½ teaspoon of fresh ground nutmeg

1 tablespoon sugar

1 whole orange peel studded with cloves

zest of 1 lemon

Directions: Pour the wine in a large pot over a medium heat, add all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes to allow the spices to infuse the wine. To serve, ladle the hot wine infusion into individual glasses or glass mugs.

Happy Thanksgiving (and a Cocktail)

We’re off to turkey land, and will return next week with more boozy fun. Of course, we just want to say thanks for reading! If it weren’t for the countless derelicts that read the site, we’d just be writing everything on index cards and storing them in boxes in preparation for our stint on Hoarders. While it would make for a great episode, it doesn’t sound much fun at all.

We’ll leave you to your holiday shenanigans with a cocktail. This Wild Turkey concoction is like Thanksgiving in a glass. When’s the last time you had a libation that involved turkey jus and breadcrumbs? Pretty swell – right?

"Pass the Turkey" created by Master Sommelier Fred Dexheimer

1.5 oz Wild Turkey 101

2 oz apple cider

1 tbs cranberry jelly

1 sprig fresh sage

1 sprig fresh thyme

Muddle sage and thyme with apple cider.  Add ice, top with Wild Turkey and cranberry jelly.  Shake well, strain over ice in a glass rimmed with turkey jus and breadcrumbs.

A Scantily Clad Cocktail

What does a lingerie-inspired cocktail look like? Stoli is working with Victoria’s Secret for the 2010 Fashion Show, set to air on CBS on November 30^th. And what better to pair with some shameless strutting than vodka? The spirits company is a sponsor of the show and (more importantly in our view) the afterparty. While those will be two truly tough tickets – no reason you shouldn’t follow along at home with a drink or three. Check out the Stoli Vanil Secret – the show is usually a shameless publicity stunt, so you should be shameless and have one too many of these.

Stoli Vanil Secret

2 parts Stoli Vanil

1 part lemongrass simple syrup

¾ part lime juice

Dusting of Kaffir lime leaf

Glassware: Rocks

Garnish: Dusting of Kaffir lime leaf with a Red Rose petal floating on top.

Cocktail for The Breeders' Cup

What is it we love about horse racing? Oh, right – the drinking and the gambling. This week, The Breeders' Cup will be held at Churchill Downs in Louisville. While those ponies are running, the crowd will be drinking a specialty cocktail designed by Grey Goose.

Check out the recipe if you want to take part in the festivities from home. And remember, The Breeders' Cup consists of 14 races that take place over two days – so pace yourself. That advice goes for both the drinking and the gambling.

DOWN THE STRETCH
1½ parts Grey Goose vodka
2 parts lemon-lime soda
2 parts cranberry juice
Splash of sweet and sour mix
Blue curacao for floating

Fill a highball glass with ice. Add vodka, lemon-lime soda, cranberry juice and sweet and sour mix. Float blue curacao. Stir well. Present with a lemon twist.

Drink of the Week: Kastel's Swizzle No. 246

The Trump SOHO has a swank drink den in the form of Kastel. The swanky space just launched a new cocktail menu for fall that features fresh ingredients like concord grapes, brandied cherries and apricot marmalade. For this week’s drink, we thought we’d go with their classic rum swizzle. In case you forgot, the libation is known as Bermuda’s National Drink. Unlike other beverages that come from the islands, this one isn’t overly saccharine. So, you can get a taste of the sunny island without going all Jimmy Buffett – sounds like a plan to us.

If you want to drop into Kastel, the Trump SOHO is located at 246 Spring Street

Swizzle  No. 246

Fill a Collins glass to the very top with crushed ice

Build the drink on top of the crushed ice

1.5 oz Atlántico Rum

1 oz blood orange puree

3/4 oz simple syrup

Splash of lemon and lime juice

Swizzle the drink (spin a spoon in the ice until the glass gets frosted), put a splash of ginger ale and top with a nice rim of Angostura Bitters, garnish with a long sprig of mint and a long straw.

Drink of the Week: The Black and Blue

Scotch cocktails can be hard to pull off, but when they succeed, it really makes you want to say shazzam. The folks over at barbecue joint Blue Smoke clearly know what they’re doing when it comes to this brown spirit, though it doesn’t hurt that they have plenty of smoky meats to pair it with.

Tinika Green, the beverage manager worked with bartender Andrew Duncan to come up with The Black and Blue. For their base, they used The Black Grouse, a blended Scotch Whisky from The Famous Grouse. The notes of smoky peat in this richly flavored spirit are perfect for this BBQ shack.

We’ve printed the recipe below and yes, we’re going to say it: shazzam.

The Black and Blue

2 ounce The Black Grouse Blended Scotch Whisky

½ ounce Calvados (apple brandy)

½ ounce Amaretto

¼ ounce Frangelico

New Cocktail Infusions From Avoce

You know it’s really fall when certain ingredients make it into your cocktail. Like apple and cinnamon, for example. Avoce’s Wine and Beverage Director Oliver Flosse has been busy coming up with some seasonally appropriate infusions, which you can enjoy at either of their two bars.

Oliver’s come up with some tequila infused with peppers, rum infused with grapefruit tea, and (most tastily) some vodka infused with apple cinnamon. That last one is used in a drink called the Apple Harvest. If this concoction is what gets harvested out in the fields, then we are so going apple picking before the season is over.

Check out the recipe if you want to make it at home:

The Apple Harvest

2 oz. apple-cinnamon infused vodka
.5 oz. Laird's Applejack Brandy
.5 oz. Stirrings Ginger Liqueur
1 oz. lemon juice
.5 oz. caramel syrup

Line martini glass with caramel, shake all ingredients and double strain into martini glass. Garnish with one piece of candied ginger

Drink of the Week: Honey Berry Sling

Labor Day is coming up sooner than you think, so you need to start thinking about the sauce for your BBQ. No, we don’t mean the sauce you’re going to slather on the meat. We’re talking about the hooch that you’ll serve at your outdoor bash.

This year, why not go with some honey? We think the Honey Berry Sling from 42Below Vodka will go well with the grilled meat. Once you overcook your burger because you’re too tipsy to operate a grill, the sweetness of this cocktail will help offset the char. Check out this very easy to make libation:

Honey Berry Sling

2 ounces 42Below Honey

1.5 ounces Chambord

3.5 ounces Cranberry Juice

Lime Wedges

Fill a highball with ice and squeeze in a lime wedge. Add spirits, top with cranberry juice, and stir. While you mix, be sure to monitor that meat so it doesn’t burn!

A Sweet Tea Vodka, With a Twist

Since the launch of Firefly, sweet-tea flavored vodka has been all the rage. Phillips Distilling is looking to get in on the action with a twist on the tea craze. For their flavor, they reached for the green tea leaves. The result is UV Sweet Green Tea Vodka, which is great if you like a shade of green in your glass.

According to their marketing campaign, “this is not your grandmother’s sweet tea.” Well, we hope your grandmother's tea wasn’t 80 proof, but we think they are referencing the libation’s hue.

The recommended retail is $12.99 for 750 ml – making this tea only slightly more expensive than the non-boozy variety. Look for it at your local liquor store.

Mini Chill - The Happiest Buzz of Your Life?

Here’s something curious from the inbox. We just received a note from  Mini Chill, an “alcohol enhancer” that promises to increase relaxation, mental focus and boost serotonin. The product seeks to balance the depressive effects of alcohol and give you “the happiest buzz of your life.”

It’s made from herbs and amino acids, and you’re supposed to mix it right into your drink. Hmmm – last time we heard anyone talk about a buzz enhancer, they had just come back from the bathroom and were wiping some white powder off their nose. Just sayin’.

Want to decide for yourself? A starter kit is available for $17.95 at their website.