I'd love to know how you fit that in a fax machine

The Fruitmarket Gallery is hosting an exhibition by Alex Hartley. To celebrate, it appears that they've faxed themselves an annotated version of the building.

The Essential Collection: say what?

I may have mentioned that we've just launched a new cocktail menu at Le Monde, but it's always worth throwing out there. However while the list is pretty big, it can't cover all bases, particularly with regards to classic cocktails. Bearing that in mind, we're getting together a list of all the "essential" classics that aren't on the menu with the intention of tweaking recipes to fit the products we have in stock and getting them put on our tills. All of this, though, begs the question of which cocktails can be considered "essential"?

It can't purely be a question of age. We classified the Margarita as a classic for the menu, even though it doesn't have much heritage before the middle part of the twentieth century, whereas a Martinez* - mentioned by Jerry Thomas in his 1882 bartender's guide, and the forefather of modern Martini - is undeniably a classic cocktail, but given its popularity it is hardly an essential drink for the modern bartender to know.

I foresee a rush on dudes ordering Martinezes (Martinii?) on a Saturday night, just to shut me up.

So, the question remains. Of course, lots of the old school drinks that we couldn't put on the menu will be looked at; the Old Fashioned, the Sazerac, for example, and we'll be taking a long, hard look at the Tiki legacy; the Zombie, the Mai Tai, so on. Clearly we're also going to have to include some drinks from the dark ages of the mid-late 80s - there'll have to be a Sex On The Beach, maybe even the Alabama Slammer (damn you Cruise, damn you) - on the grounds that we will get asked to make them.

I don't have an answer yet. Surely it will lie in the middle ground between history, popularity and quality. I think I'm going to enjoy getting there more than arriving.

* Just in case I do get that rush...

Martinez Cocktail (Jerry Thomas' recipe)
(Use small bar-glass.)
Take 1 dash of Boker's bitters.
2 dashes of Maraschino.
1 pony of Old Tom gin.
1 wine glass of Vermouth.
2 small lumps of ice.

Martinez (Simon Difford's recipe)
2 shots Plymouth Gin
½ shot Cinzano Rosso vermouth
¼ shot Cointreau
¼ shot Gomme syrup
3 dashes Orange bitters (optional)

Shake all ingredients with ice and fine-strain into chilled martini glass. Garnish with a twist of orange zest.

United States of England: doomed

United States of England: because you know you can go further north than Newcastle, right?


Via Londonist.

How to get ID'd

Can I see some ID?

I am a doorman at a neighborhood bar.[...]If you've never done it before, here are some things you might not know about how to interact with guys like me...
[...]
Don't ask me what it's like inside.

I'm out here too, buddy. Your guess is as good as mine

La Rue À Paris, pt 1

The good folks at my day job are getting ready to launch a new cocktail menu for Paris Bar, one of their four bars in the bar/restaurant/nightclub/hotel thingy. The list's been in the works for a couple of months now, and ahead of the official launch on August 2nd, I thought I'd drag out a couple of recipes that almost made it into the final thirty.

Transmetropolitan
- 50ml Skyy Berry vodka
- 10ml Martini Rosso sweet vermouth
- 2 dashes Orange bitters

Stir all the ingredients with ice and strain into a chilled martini glass. Garnish with a flamed orange zest.

This was an attempt to make a slightly more female-friendly martini-style drink, taking the flavour profile of a Cosmopolitan as its inspiration. Looking back, the recipe's a little simplistic, so I had a bit of a monkey around with it...

Transmetropolitan (refit)
- 25ml Absolut Kurrant vodka
- 25ml Absolut Citron vodka
- 10ml Martini Rosso sweet vermouth
- 5ml Cointreau
- 1 dash Orange bitters

Stir all ingredients with ice and strain into chilled martini glass. Garnish with a flamed orange zest.

Keeping with the martinis, I also had a play around with something more consciously...girly, if you like.

Beijing Skyyline
- 25ml Skyy Citrus
- 12.5ml Midori
- 12.5ml Cointreau
- 25ml Apple juice
- 12.5ml Lemon juice
- 12.5ml Cranberry juice

Shake the vodka, Midori, Cointreau, apple juice and lemon juice with ice and fine-strain into a chilled martini glass. Float the cranberry juice over the back of a barspoon, and garnish with a cherry on the rim of the glass.

Unfortunately, it missed the cut because our martini section was getting mighty full. There'll be more recipes from the menu process as we get nearer to launch. Just y'know, to keep you interested...

Headlines: the Seven Wonders of this post

• Frankly, the whole New 7 Wonders is getting a little out of hand - The Scotsman's Brian Helligan offers the Seven Wonders of Edinburgh.


• Edinburgh University will finally have to cope with the dishonour of no longer being associated with famed despot, Robert Mugabe. Shame, really.


• Second Life developers Linden Labs will be represented at the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, rather disappointingly, by regular humans.


• Altogether now: karate CHOP!

Bumbo!

A couple of weeks ago, the stork from Amazon dropped a of Wayne Curtis' And A Bottle Of Rum at Dirty Old HQ (more here) and between that at Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, we got a little carried away. One thing that really jumped out was drink called bumbo (also bombo) , which Curtis describes as "a mix of rum, water, sugar, and a bit of nutmeg".

First of all, a bit of history. Curtis ascribes the name to have come from the British Admiral John Benbow, famed for having his legs blown off during the War of the Spanish Sucession, for reasons that are unknown. Wikipedia suggests that the drink's popularity during the "era of piracy" is down to the fact that it tasted "better than British Navy Grog". Bumbo is one of the original rum cocktails, from the time when a man could say "Arr, me hearties" without being in a movie or wrong in the head.

For our purposes, we decided to combine the basic flavour profile of the old-style bumbo with the slightly more refined technique of a treacle. We've opted for Mount Gay Extra Old for authenticity's sake - Barbados being the cradle of Caribbean rum and all - but any dark, aged rum will suffice.

Bridgetown Bumbo
- 50ml Mount Gay Extra Old
- 2 barspoons Molasses sugar
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 nutmeg seed
- 1 dash Angostura bitters

Dissolve the molasses in the base of a mixing glass with the bitters and a touch of water if required. Flake off some of the cinnamon into the glass and add some grated nutmeg. Add a couple of ice cubes and stir. Start adding the rum, little by little, and continue stirring, adding more ice as you go. Don't dissolve the ice completely - the whole process shouldn't take more than a minute or two. Finally, fine-strain the cocktail into an ice-filled Old-Fashioned or Rocks glass and garnish with the remainder of the cinnamon stick.