Fruit

White Sangria is something you really want in the summertime when nothing is going on and it’s hot and very humid outside. We developed this recipe about six years ago and have loved it ever since. Highly suggested for afternoon gatherings and finger foods.

This is one of our End of Prohibition party special punch recipes and it was adapted from the Philadelphia Fish House punch, which was a favorite of Generals Washington and Lafayette. We replaced the original cognac with our local Laird’s AppleJack and got something fantastic as a result. We use all seasonal fruits for this—a beautiful feature that also makes it extra tasty.

Who will have the last word? Well, obviously, the bartender! We always have the last word, because we have the goodies—the booze. So when an experienced bartender says something to you, listen, because it may well be a recommendation for this tasty cocktail. The Last Word is a mishmash of high-octane fuels, yet it comes out surprisingly balanced and delicate. Beware: have too many and this cocktail will have the last word. Allegedly this Prohibition-era cocktail’s origins are traced back to the Detroit Athletic Club, where it was invented by a gentleman named Frank Fogarty. He was said to be “a very fine monologue artist,” which is probably how the drink got its name. One thing is certain: this cocktail is now in the top five of cocktail geekdom, appearing in bars all over the country. Made properly, it is truly a wonderful concoction.

According to cocktail historians, this cocktail first appeared in print in 1895 in Modern American Drinks by George J. Kappeler. Although this drink has fallen into obscurity today, it appeared in every respectable cocktail book printed in the early twentieth century, with the same easy recipe. It seems this drink always had the favor of knowledgeable bartenders and connoisseurs, as its unique blend of flavors could be very challenging to the untrained palate of the casual drinker. In other words, this drink is best recommended for people who have moved beyond simple straightforward flavors and are looking for a carnival in the mouth. The Widow’s Kiss is a seasonal experience best enjoyed when it is cold outside. This classic cocktail is also one of the few cocktails we recommend as a digestive or an after-dinner cocktail.

This punch is simple, easy, and highly refreshing. It was born out of necessity when we opened for brunch and had to serve tons of our West Side cocktails to the girls brunching in our garden. The solution was simple and a win-win for us and the guests. We love to recommend this punch in the summertime; its flavors and crispness will freshen up the nastiest hangover. Perfect for weddings, bar mitzvahs, bridal and baby showers, and all those cute get-togethers people have.

Blood peaches are large, with dark red skin surrounding a rich, crimson, juicy flesh that is quite tart. They bruise easily, so they are frequently broken down for use in chutneys, jams, pastries, ice creams, and sorbets. We figured this would also mean that they were ideal for making cocktails. The Bellini was the obvious choice as our first guinea pig. We accentuated the bitterness of the fruit with a little Campari while also increasing the intensity of the color. The result is a refreshing eye-opener with slight bitterness and charm. Blood peaches are very rare, fresh or frozen, so if you can get your hands on them, grab them. You can also make this cocktail by blending white peach purée with EO homemade Grenadine for color.

The story of the Bellini begins during Prohibition with American playboy Harry Pickering, who drank at the Europa Hotel in Venice with bartender Giuseppe Cipriani. Pickering’s family had cut off his funds in a last-ditch effort to get him back home and quit drinking. Pickering asked Cipriani for a loan of 10,000 lire—the equivalent of $61,000 today—to get his affairs in order. Cipriani lent him his life savings, only to not hear a word from Pickering for over a year. Legend has it that when Pickering returned to the bar, he ordered a drink and paid Cipriani 50,000 lire as a show of gratitude so he could open his own bar. In 1931, Harry’s Bar in Venice opened and the Bellini cocktail was created there shortly afterward.

The Yellow Jacket cocktail was inspired by chance circumstances and a little harassment. For weeks, we had toyed with the idea of mixing together Partida Reposado tequila and St-Germain elderflower liqueur, but there was a piece of the puzzle missing. Then one evening, a bunch of obnoxious cocktail geeks came into Employees Only to stump the bartenders by ordering the Last Word cocktail. After being satisfied with that drink, they asked if we knew of another drink with Chartreuse. At that moment, Yellow Chartreuse became the ingredient needed to bind together the elderflower and tequila. So pretty and elegant, the rich yellow color grabs your attention. The true beauty of this drink, though, is the interplay of the ingredients. The light oak on the Partida Reposado tequila works so well with the St-Germain, and they in turn produce a perfect ground for Yellow Chartreuse to bring it all into balance. The orange bitters play a key role. This cocktail is similar in style to the Widow’s Kiss cocktail (page 141), as they both contain very sweet herbaceous ingredients balanced by high alcohol content. It’s named for the yellow jacket wasps that inhabit agave farms and tequila distilleries.

This cocktail is an Employees Only variation of the famous South Side cocktail (page 130), first served in the 1920s at the New York speakeasy Jack & Charlie’s—now known as the 21 Club. We replaced the gin with Meyer lemon–infused vodka to achieve a more balanced, subtler concoction. God only knows how many West Sides we have pushed over the bar in the last five years. It is by far the most popular cocktail served at Employees Only and lends itself naturally to being enjoyed in the sun. Why is this cocktail so popular? Even if we ignore the fact that it is a vodka cocktail and the fact that we are witnessing the end of the reign of vodka, the simplicity of a cocktail with just lemon and mint flavors makes it addictive and refreshing. It will definitely be a favorite at any cocktail party, served over ice or in pitchers.

Ah, Waterloo—the monarch of Employees Only long drinks. Seasonal to the core and perfect from mid-June until early September when watermelons are in their prime. This cocktail combines fresh, ripe watermelon; gin; and Campari in a taste explosion. The most important ingredient is the watermelon, as the flavor directly corresponds to the sweetness of the cocktail. Therefore we advise you to use organic watermelon with seeds rather than the genetically engineered seedless varietals. The seeds also provide a nice visual touch when the cocktail is served. This cocktail is also a great exercise in mixing and building flavors. You start with fresh fruit, add sugar to open up the natural flavors, then add sour to balance it out. Altogether, this mixture creates a pumped-up watermelon bomb with the body to stand up to even gin. The gin and Campari bring out the savoriness of the melon to make this cocktail a modern classic.

This is a cocktail that was composed by one of our bartenders, former U.S. Marine Steve Schneider. According to him, he got tired of mixing White Ladies and wanted something more exciting and powerful to offer as a gin cocktail. When asked to describe his intention, he simply said: “Alongside a beautiful lady should be a handsome man in a tux. By replacing Cointreau with a touch of simple syrup and orange bitters, you are getting an easy, yet stunning White Lady variation, which is more appealing to the modern palate.”

This Prohibition-era cocktail is not very ladylike on the surface. On paper, it looks like a Sidecar made with gin, but nothing could be farther from the truth. We tasted this cocktail at the Savoy in London where it was invented, according to Harry Craddock, author of The Savoy Cocktail Book, which was published in 1930. Three high-quality ingredients and a master technique make this cocktail a high point of everyone’s evening. We suggest you pack your freezer full of large ice cubes, squeeze a lot of fresh lemon juice, and get going. Play some slapstick movies while you drink it—it is said that this cocktail was the favorite of Laurel and Hardy.

This cocktail was first made on a Tuesday with the namesake song from the Rolling Stones playing in the background. When the drink was strained into a cocktail glass and its vibrant ruby beauty came to life, we said in unison, “Ruby Tuesday.” This cocktail combines 101-proof straight rye whiskey, Benedictine, fresh black cherry purée, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup. Rye whiskey is the native spirit of the northern United States, where rye grains grow in abundance. The spirit was traditionally matured in new American oak barrels and bottled at least 50 percent alcohol by volume (ABV) or 100-proof. Its raw nature, combined with slightly sweet overtones and the herbal infusion of Benedictine, give this cocktail a beautiful long, lingering finish. It is a perfect representative of such classy whiskey cocktails as the Frisco Sour.

Pisco became popular on the West Coast, especially in San Francisco, during the days of the Gold Rush. Many ships would bring men from the East Coast around Cape Horn, through the Strait of Magellan and up the West Coast. One of the stops for provisions was the popular port town of Pisco. There they would load up on the eponymous brandy and bring whatever was left with them to Northern California. Soon the spirit became a commodity on the trade route of the western seaboard. (This would, of course, later decline with the creation of the Panama Canal cutting Peru out of the route.) The Pisco Punch was created during the late 1800s by a barkeep named Duncan Nicol at the Bank Exchange and Billiard Saloon in San Francisco. The exact recipe was never shared with anyone but was enjoyed by the likes of Mark Twain and Jack London. After Nicol’s passing, those who knew offered up their interpretations of the Pisco Punch.

Have you ever heard the slang term “the bee’s knees”? It was used in the 1920s during the Noble Experiment to describe something really cool and hip. The cocktail itself appeared sometime during Prohibition. The recipe appears in cocktail books printed after 1936, which helps back this theory. It is fairly easy to make—the trick is to use honey syrup instead of honey itself, as honey will not dissolve when shaken with ice in a cocktail. We suggest Cadenhead’s Old Raj saffron-infused gin, at 55 percent alcohol by volume. Some authorities claim this cocktail can also be made with rum. If you’re game, we suggest the Flor de Caña four-year-old clear rum, which adds the perfect amount of grassiness and earthiness to the overall flavor profile.

This all-year-round cocktail, an Employees Only original, is a fine example of what you can do with a lessinspiring spirit like vodka. We wanted to combine traditional Mediterranean flavors such as figs, lemon, and honey. Mixing with vodka is a challenge similar to that of cooking with tofu; no matter what you do to it, it’s still tofu. All the flavor and texture comes from the other ingredients in the mixture; vodka really contributes only alcohol to the structure of the cocktail. In the case of the Mediterra, any other spirit would interfere with the clean balance of fig to honey.

The Whiskey Sour is the pinnacle of the sour cocktail family and unarguably its most famous member. In Harry Johnson’s Bartenders’ Manual, the preferred method is to stir together sugar, water, and lemon juice before shaking with whiskey. During the dark ages of the cocktail in the 1970s and ’80s, it was turned into a two-ingredient drink in which cheap blended whiskey was poured over ice with sweet-and-sour mix from a soda gun. However, the real Whiskey Sour has been resurrected and can be made in its pure form almost anywhere that has a decent cocktail menu, even by aspiring actors working as bartenders. It is a very straightforward cocktail with a strong base of whiskey mixed with simple syrup and sour, freshly squeezed lemon juice. To bring together the body, add a splash of orange juice—just realize that with more than a splash, this drink becomes a Stone Sour. It is a fairly easy drink that can help you master the balance between sweet and sour to spirit. Make sure you shake it enough so that a thin foam rests on the surface—that is the hallmark for Whiskey Sour fans.

This Grand Fashioned was the first-place winner of Grand Marnier and the New York Film Festival’s Independent Cocktail Festival in 1999, long before we ever opened Employees Only. The idea was to get two ounces of Grand Marnier into a cocktail without being cloyingly sweet. To balance this much Curaçao, we muddle fresh blood oranges with lime juice, sugar, and dashes of Angostura bitters. This cocktail looked so much like the contemporary recipe for an Old Fashioned that the name just took over. For the competition, we garnished the drink with a kumquat that had to be tediously scored and peeled to resemble a “blossom,” then stained inside with grenadine. You can imagine our surprise when, upon winning, we were told we would need to make five hundred of these cocktails at the premiere for All About My Mother by director Pedro Almodóvar. The Grand Fashioned is so rich and luscious that it can be consumed as an after-dinner drink.