The Brown Palace Hotel

The Brown Palace in Denver, Colorado has been open since 1892 and every U.S. President since Theodore Roosevelt has visited (except Calvin Coolidge). The Brown is truly one of Denver's treasures, and there is much to experience within beside the wonderful accommodations.

My wife and I will be staying at the Brown this evening for Halloween (we don't get any trick-or-treaters up in the mountains, unfortunately).  We'll be taking part in a tour of the Brown featuring a medium, who will provide us all the spooky details of ghosts haunting the Brown and other odd occurrences.

The hotel is spacious, and within presents a huge atrium where they serve cocktails as well as host High Tea daily.

There is also Sunday Brunch--and while I don't normally enjoy buffet-style dining--the food served at this brunch is excellent and much of it is prepared to order.  It also doesn't hurt that it's a Champagne Brunch with the option of choosing Dom Perignon!

But there is more, they have a small coffee shop, Ship's Tavern (a down-to-earth pub), The Palace Arms (where we'll be eating dinner this evening before the ghost tour), Elyngton's for breakfast and lunch, and Churchill--a club where one can sip whisky and smoke a cigar.

Oh, and they have a spa, too!

Vintage Spirits, A Drunken Botanist, And A Legendary Writer

We own more than a couple books on cocktails. None of them are what I'd call modern books with cocktail recipes such as Sex On The Beach.  No, I'm more of a purist, and would much rather stick with the old standards and even discover some drinks that have been forgotten--drinks with names like The 20th Century or Satan's Whiskers Cocktail--those drinks create images in your mind, get your imagination flowing. I'm sure most people don't think of the famous beach scene in From Here To Eternity when they order the rather pedestrian Sex On The Beach.

Here is a quick roundup of some of the books we use here at The Book House--my wife adores David Lynch, and is quite a fan of Twin Peaks, and I'm quite taken with the series as well.

Perhaps one of these books will entice you into the world of interesting and complex cocktails--a world beyond the low-hanging fruit of pedestrian libations swill.

• Hollywood Cocktails - Tobias Steed & Ben Reed

This book doesn't have a ton of recipes, but what I do enjoy are the bits of cocktail and movie trivia thrown in with each recipe. So, not only does this book serve as a wonderful resource of classic cocktails, but also movie recommendations--CLASSIC movie recommendations with the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age. Oh, there's Bogart and Bacall, William Powell and Myrna Loy, along with Monroe, Gable, and Garbo. Frank Sinatra makes an appearance along with Rita Hayworth. There are a bunch of stars and a bunch of great movies the authors pair the cocktails with. I wish I'd thought of creating this book!

• The Savoy Cocktail Book

I think I mentioned this book recently, but this is quite possibly the granddaddy of all cocktail books. The original edition was printed in 1930 and is a document of the Jazz Age and the Lost Generation. The drinks in this book were all served at the famous American Bar at The Savoy hotel in London. As in the Hollywood Cocktails book, you'll find recipes for Rickeys, Slings, Shrubs, Smashes, Fizzes, and so many other wonderful concoctions you've never heard of or perhaps only read about or seen one of the Golden Age stars sip, like the photo of David Niven above.

• Vintage Spirits And Forgotten Cocktails - Ted Haigh
  

This is truly a book of a bygone era. There are cocktails in there that have been long forgotten! But what I love about this book is the history behind each and every recipe within. There are ingredients for some of these drinks that I've never heard of, and are either difficult to track down or impossible since they're no longer made. But there is good news and some bad news: the book explains how to make some of these long lost ingredients (like very specific types of bitters, for instance), but there are a few that really aren't able to be substituted with something else. The book valiantly offers some suggestions to get the cocktail in the vicinity of what it must have tasted like say back in the late 1800s or early 1900s. This is a book for someone who wants to really learn the history of and how to mix some truly unique cocktails.

• To Have And Have Another - Philip Greene
  

This book is billed as--A Hemingway Cocktail Companion, and is a delight to read. The author is a Hemingway enthusiast and cocktail connoisseur. There are many recipes and most of them are the way Papa would have mixed them, or at least the way he preferred them.

You'll learn a lot about Hemingway in this book--especially his drinking habits, but you'll also learn quite a bit about the history of cocktails. If you enjoy a good cocktail, and enjoy reading anecdotes about Hemingway, then you'll love this book--I enjoyed every spirit-soaked anecdote and recipe.

All right, these last two books are for those of you who want to do a deep dive into the world of cocktails.

• The Drunken Botanist - Amy Stewart

There are recipes in this book, but really, the strength of this title are the herbs, flowers, fruits, and fungi humans have bent to the creation of alcoholic substances. This book explains the chemistry and biology, and then goes on to provide recipes as well as growing tips if you want to do a little gardening and eventually use these plants for your homemade alcohol.

The author and her husband own an antiquarian bookstore in California called Eureka Books. I'd love to check it out someday!

• Bitters - Brad Thomas Parsons
  

This is a recent edition to the collection, and is called--A Spirited History Of A Classic Cure-All.  Bitters are often what make a drink, but even I thought when I first picked this up that the topic would be so narrow in scope as to make a potentially boring read. But I was wrong. This book explains how important bitters were to classic cocktails and also how bitters nearly disappeared during the dark days of the cocktail (dark decades, really--from the mid-1960s all the way up to the year 2000). The only bitters you've probably ever seen are Angostura Bitters, but today, there are many, many options. This book sheds light on Bitters, and also where to get them and how to make your own!  Huzzah!

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There you have it, six books--look them up online, or find them at your local bookseller.  Get outside your comfort zone and your standard go-to drink and give classic cocktails a chance!

The French 75 Cocktail

It's no secret my wife and I enjoy love champagne, and while we usually drink it unadulterated, there are exceptions...

The French 75 cocktail is one such exception.

I first tried the French 75 during a trip to New Orleans when I found a small, but classic bar in the French Quarter adjacent to Arnaud's main dining room, named--yep, the French 75 Bar. How could I not try the cocktail responsible for the bar's name?

The French 75 Bar, pictured above, has everything I look for when sizing up a joint to sip cocktails and relax: sharply dressed bartenders and wait staff, a clean and well-kept bar, well-dressed and civilized patrons, and ambience befitting a throwback sort of establishment, and not a hangout for hipsters wearing trilby hats, jeans, and t-shirts. A bonus for me is the selection of fine cigars on hand at this particular bar. 

Back to the cocktail: the French 75 got the name from its kick, like a piece of artillery--specifically, and I'm thinking you'll guess this one--the French 75-millimeter field artillery used in World War I.  Legend has it the drink was was a favorite of the Lost Generation, and first created by Harry MacElhone, bartender of Harry's New York Bar in Paris, France.

For those who know me well, how could I not love a cocktail created in Paris and enjoyed by the Lost Generation?

There are a few recipes floating around out there, and I prefer the one listed in the Savoy Cocktail Book which can be purchased at Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and likely many independent book shops. The book has been in print since forever, well since 1930. I, however, deviate a tiny bit from the method in that book, but only in the preparation and the type of glass.

Glorious, isn't it? All right, it doesn't look all that special, but here is what comprises this delicious concoction:

• 4 cl (1.35 oz) Gin
• 2 cl (.67 oz) Lemon Juice
• 1 teaspoon powdered sugar

Put those ingredients (and only those, don't add any champagne yet) into a cocktail shaker or glass. Now, rigorously stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Okay, most of the instructions I've seen have you pouring the ingredients into a tumbler or collins glass, but please use a champagne flute or a champagne coupe (or saucer as they're called in the United States) like the one pictured above (from a set of Art Deco period Baccarat champagne coupes we bought in Georgetown back when we lived in the D.C. area). I think sipping champagne or any drink with champagne as an ingredient needs to be sipped from a flute or saucer.

All right, the initial ingredients are in the flute or coupe, now top off with champagne (if you want to cheat and use sparkling wine, go ahead, but I'm a purist and stick to champagne).

Enjoy!

Do you have a favorite champagne?  Or favorite cocktail with champagne as an ingredient?  My wife adores the standard champagne cocktails (angostura bitter-soaked sugar cube topped with champagne).

Where To Start: Entertaining Guests Part I

I tried posting this last week, and somehow it didn't work out and got lost. *shrug*

This series of post is for those of you who'd love to entertain, but don't know where to begin. Do you ever watch classic films and simply love the way they have their place setup and how they always have the proper libations at hand?

This post's focus will be setting up and stocking a home bar. A small aside--when I was a kid, I'd go to some people's homes and all they had was water and milk. Come to think of it, even as an adult I've been faced with that exact choice.

First rule of having guests--you must have an assortment of things to drink.

But how do you go about setting up a home bar?

Bar tools:  cocktail shaker (just go with an all metal type if you're uncomfortable with the Boston shaker --glass and metal), jigger, bar spoon, strainer, and maybe a muddler. These are the basics. You don't have to be fancy here and you could make do with some kitchen items you already have, but you can get these things in a kit from places like Williams Sonoma or World Market.

Glassware:  

A Nice Autumn Cocktail: The Manhattan

Autumn has definitely set in up in the Rocky Mountains and there is nothing like a nice cocktail to warm one's insides. 

Here is the Manhattan, another classic cocktail that is simple to mix. There are many variations, but it's hard to go wrong with the traditional ingredients. 

Below is a photo I took just before dinner last night:

              Manhattan In The Mountains

Notice the pleasant amber color. It reminds me of leaves turning in the fall.

This is a strong drink, and as I mentioned, there are many variations. Some of the variations soften it up a bit, but try to stick with the original first and adjust from there. 

Here is how to mix a basic Manhattan.

Ingredients: 

• 2 parts rye (if you must, you can substitute bourbon or whatever whiskey you happen to have.
• 1 part sweet red vermouth
• 2 dashes Angostura bitters
• cherry

If you don't have a cocktail shaker, just use a glass to house the ingredients.  Fill the shaker/glass with ice. Add the bitters, vermouth, and rye. Stir. If you shake the concoction you'll get a layer of foam on the top.

Drop the cherry in a cocktail glass like the one I used above, and strain the liquid from the shaker/glass into the cocktail glass. Enjoy. 

One way to soften the drink is to dump in a little bit of cherry juice, or add more sweet vermouth. 

Do you have a variation on the Manhattan?