The Cunning
Kimono.
The Brain Burner.
Jesus Build My Hotrod.
The Lady from Shanghai.
You don't recognize these as drinks? Don't feel bad. These days,
cocktails are a far cry from what they use to be when The
Cosmopolitan and The Manhattan reigned as exotic concoctions.
But now, "ordering a Cosmo is like ordering a cheeseburger," said
Quy Duong, owner of Cafe Cyclo in Cameron Village. "Everybody drinks
it." That means the pressure is on not only for bars to mix a good
drink, but to come up with new and exciting creations that customers
can find nowhere else.
"Sometimes a drink can give you the identity that sets you
apart," Duong said.
But finding drinks that make you stand out from the rest is
sometimes a daunting task. Just ask Vertigo Diner owner and chief
mixologist Susan Goetcheus. "Sometimes I just sit there and think,
'I can't do this anymore,'" she said. That's certainly
understandable, since Goetcheus has been changing her list of 10
specialty cocktails once a month for the last eight years. If there
were no repeats in that time, that would be 960 creations. So what's
her secret? "I always start with the title and garnish before the
drink," she said. That's unusual, but then again, so is Vertigo.
Behind the bar and on counters, you spot Blow Pops, licorice,
rings, flags and an assortment of toys. And you guessed it --
they're for the drinks. The May menu featured selections like Jesus
Built My HotRod (tequila, creme de cassis, lime juice and ginger ale
on the rocks with a sour straw and umbrella), the Testamint
(whiskey, cherry brandy, a dash of creme de menthe, cherry juice and
cream served frozen and garnished with a Bible Verse Mint) and the
Televangelist (vanilla vodka, cinnamon schnapps and orange soda
served on the rocks in a parfait glass with a Goo Stick, a licorice
candy filled with white cream).
If you detect a theme here, that's because there always is one,
although sometimes it's a little obscure. But that's what makes it
fun for Vertigo customers. "We want to give people something to talk
about and see if they can figure it out," Goetcheus said.
June's menu includes Licenses & Taxes, Convention Center and
Revitalization. Do you detect a pattern?
One month, the theme was the election of John Edwards, and
Edwards actually stopped in to sign the drink menu.
Now that's a drink list with notoriety.
Uh, Everclear?
Most establishments don't change their specialty cocktail menu as
often as Vertigo, which means that what they do cook up must have
staying power. "We try to stay with things that have shelf life,"
Duong says of Cafe Cyclo's signature drinks. "You can't out-think
yourself."
Sure, an eccentric drink list will entertain customers, Duong
says, but that just means it takes them longer to get to the drink
that they really want -- and that's something simple. That's why
drinks like the Brain Burner, at just three ingredients (Everclear,
Triple Sec and an apple juice and sour blend), work.
If you've been around the cocktail block, you know that Everclear
doesn't make the ingredients list for signature drinks very often,
if ever.
But Duong maintains his stiff signature drinks like the Brain
Burner or the Inside the Beltline Iced Tea (limited to one per
customer if you live outside the Beltline and have to drive home)
are economical, in a way. Just two will take the place of a hefty
bar tab somewhere else, he says.
At Lantern in Chapel Hill, the story is just as intoxicating, but
in a different sense. Here, bar manager Kristen Johnson has the
advantage of using ingredients from the restaurant's Asian kitchen
to give the bar's drink menu an exotic flare. What she has come up
with is the bar's most popular signature drink -- the Late Blossom.
It's a mix of Luksusowa potato vodka, litchi juice and a splash of
Lillet Blanc, a French aperitif. It's shaken with ice and strained
into a chilled martini glass that has been washed with orange
blossom water and garnished with a litchi.
What's uncommon about the Lantern's signature drinks is that so
many of the ingredients are made on site. The Junebug uses one such
ingredient.
"It has Pimm's [a hard-to-find British liquor] and that usually
goes with ginger ale," Johnson said. "But we make our own homemade
fresh ginger and lemon soda." She steeps fresh ginger in a simple
syrup and adds fresh lemon. Another example of her ingenuity is The
Cunning Kimono. Jasmine flower vodka is made in house by infusing
plain vodka with jasmine tea. She adds a little honey and garnishes
the glass with a lemon twist to make the cocktail.
Imbibing one of Lantern's creations, you may not appreciate all
the hours that have gone on behind the scenes. Right now, lemon
rinds are soaking in a blend of simple syrup and vodka. After a
month and a half, Lantern will have an in-house version of
Limoncello. Strained and served straight up, it will replace one of
the six signature drinks on the current list.
Martinis by the gallons
Down the street from Lantern at East End Martini Bar, when the
staff replaces a drink on its list, it may be hard to spot. That's
because the bar has more martinis than you can shake a swizzle stick
at -- 101. About half of the recipes were purchased from the
previous establishment at that location, but half are original
creations.
"Anything can be a martini these days," says owner Howard
McDonald.
One creative trick is to alter the classics ever so slightly. For
example, the finishing touch of adding paper-thin slices of fresh
apples to a basic Apple Martini makes it a drink to remember.
East End's principal signature drink is another example. A
pineapple martini sounds simple enough, but in fact the staff
infuses Diamond Dole pineapple rings with Smirnoff vodka for five
days, then strains it to make the cocktail. The reaction has been so
enormous that East End sells 12 gallons of it a week.
"We're in a town where there are 50 bars in a stone's throw and
we have to separate ourselves from a bar just next door or behind
us," McDonald said. "But in Chapel Hill, if you want a martini, you
are coming here."
In Raleigh, that's just how the folks feel at Bogart's on
Glenwood South, where 16 infused vodkas and the martinis created
from them make the bar an original.
"We've created a niche as far as the martini world goes," said
Noah Barrow, Bogart's general manager. "And this is the big thing
that sets us apart." Nowhere else can you get Skyy vodka infused
with tomatoes, kalamata olives and fresh rosemary. Served with a
splash of tomato juice and called the Mediterranean, this popular
Sunday drink is a twist on the Bloody Mary.
With warm weather here, what's really hot at Bogart's are the
sweet and fruity concoctions. Just a few of the infusions --
beautifully and colorfully displayed as the bar's focal point --
combine Skyy with blueberries, raspberries, Mandarin oranges,
melons, strawberries and grapes. Many of these are served straight
up or used as the basis for one of the bar's original martinis.
The Lady from Shanghai begins with Mandarin-infused vodka. Grand
Marnier, sweet and sour mix and a splash of Sprite are added, and it
is shaken with ice and strained into a martini glass.
So how does the Triangle compare to bigger cities in terms of its
signature drink scene? It's not too far behind, according to Kevin
Wynn of Raleigh, who moved here last year from Atlanta.
"Still, it's not necessarily the drinks that are going to make me
go to a particular place," Wynn said. "But if they've got something
unique, there's a good chance I will remember it and go back the
next time I want something different."
.gif){kind=spacer}
printer friendly
version
send this story to a
friend
subscribe to our e-mail
lists
get news,
weather, movies on your PDA