R Bar – Classy Classics
30 Jul 2011 Leave a Comment
in cocktails, food Tags: classic, cocktails, kansas city, r bar, speakeasy
We finally made it to Kansas City’s R Bar last night and it was a nice change of pace. We haven’t been going out much over the last year, so when we do go out these days we’re always looking for something quality and different than the usual. We had purchased a Groupon for R Bar a while back and it was about to expire, so we headed here to have some libations and dessert (we couldn’t get a dinner reservation until 9:15 and didn’t want to eat that late).
R Bar is set up to be like a speakeasy, and it’s down in the West Bottoms, right across the street from the Golden Ox. The decor is cool… brick walls, old tile floors that were evidently common for the West Bottoms back in the heyday, and a huge, gorgeous mirrored bar. The decor is simple, but it works great for this narrow space. It was PACKED when we showed up on a Friday night around 9:30, but we surprisingly got a table right away. There was a great swing-jazzy band playing (think Squirrel Nut Zippers and you’re in the genre) and it was a super fun atmosphere.
The beer list was overpriced, and we’d had dinner at the Beer Kitchen, so I went straight to the cocktail menu. The cocktail menu is expansive (see the “Menus” on R Bar’s website for a list and details) and features a lot of classics, some simple and others very complicated. I started off with a Negroni because I’m a sucker for this drink. They made it with Campari, an unknown gin, and Lillet Rouge (no mention of vermouth on the menu, but I could taste it in there). I had a choice of on the rocks or “up” so I had it “up” (shaken on ice, but served neat without ice). It came in a martini glass and, as is the case with any Campari-based drink, it was gorgeous to look at with it’s simple orange wedge garnish (strange they don’t do a nice orange peel twist, which would work great in a martini glass…).
The Negroni was good, just like it’s supposed to taste. My fiancee had an Old Fashion and they unfortunately made it the “bar” way rather than the traditional original way, so it had a bunch of orange and cherries in the bottom and was topped off with soda water. I prefer my own, as you readers already know, which are made with just rye whiskey, Angostura bitters, a small piece of orange peel and a dash of simple syrup. It still tasted good, though.
My second and last drink was a Sazerac, which is a classic cocktail that R Bar made with rye whiskey, absinthe, Peychaud’s bitters, a lemon twist and poured over a sugar cube. The lemon aroma was intense on this cocktail, and I was originally disappointed to see it only filled about 3/4″ of my double old-fashioned glass, but keeping in mind that the drink it 100% liquor, it was PLENTY and it lasted me a long time. I enjoyed it a lot, but it’s definitely a sipper.
We had a goat cheese tart, which was goat cheese with sugar cut in (think of rich cheese cake) in a little tiny pie crust cup with a scoop of concord grape sorbet on top and mint sauce dribbled around the plate. Weird-sounding combination, but very good! The grape sorbet was a little overpowering, but an unusual and nicely-done dessert all the same.
R Bar is on the pricey side, but it’s a classy place with good food and drinks and we had a great time, so we’ll definitely be back. The speakeasy-like charm isn’t overplayed here, particularly since there are still REAL speakeasies (think jazz, people smoking, illegal card games and not just cigarette smoke in the air) operating in the West Bottoms that I’ve been lucky enough to be invited to!
Templeton Rye
24 May 2011 3 Comments
in cocktails Tags: iowa, rye, templeton, whiskey
I was up in Iowa visiting family recently and I mentioned to my brother that I still hadn’t found a bottle of Templeton Rye. He had an extra one a friend had given him in exchange for some Hawkeyes football tickets (Templeton is easier to find in Chicago than in its home state of Iowa, but even then, it’s tough to get your hands on it). He let me have it for $40 (what are brothers for? LOL). I had a small sip but just a nip. I will try to do a side by side with my rye whiskey of choice, Rittenhouse (which is very good for the $22 or so it costs). I think the Templeton will probably be for sipping while the Rittenhouse will continue to be my go-to whiskey for Old Fashioneds.
Speaking of Old Fashioneds, I finally found a place that makes them the RIGHT WAY! Westport Cafe! Still hard to swallow (haha) an $8 drink for something I can make at home for a couple dollars, but at least it was the real deal and not a bunch of orange slices, cherries and club soda (yuck!).
Candy Cane Swirl Martini
28 Dec 2010 Leave a Comment
in cocktails Tags: christmas, froo froo, holiday, martini, peppermint, raspberry
Yes, it has finally happened… I’m doing a review of a froo-froo “martini” cocktail drink. Why? Well, because I drank it. Why not? For the holidays, my sister wanted us to each come up with a fun drink to share. I would’ve done my über-classic Old Fashioned, but when it comes to rye whiskey, a bit of orange peel, a squirt of simple syrup, and a dash of bitters (no cherries, orange slices, muddling or soda water for this classic cocktail), not everyone is a fan. So, to appeal to my sister and the rest of the family who would be drinking, I thought this Candy Can Swirl Martini would be a fun drink.
I found the recipe at What to Drink and it isn’t too bad, really, although it’s hardly a session drink due to the sweetness. It’s 3 oz of cranberry juice, 1 oz of raspberry vodka (I used Smirnoff and it was tasty), 0.5 oz each of Rose’s grenadine and peppermint schnapps. All of it goes with ice into a shaker, then pour into martini glass. Top with lemon-lime soda.
I crushed a bunch of candy canes to rim the glasses as the recipe called for, but no one wanted to go through the trouble, so we ditched that part.
The mint is pretty strong on the drink, and the coolness of the mint as well as the slight astringency of the cranberry does lend a little balance to the raspberry vodka and grenadine, so this isn’t tooth-painfully sweet like you might think, but one or two of these is plenty. Not a bad flavor combination, as the fruit and mint seem to complement one another, but again, these types of froo-froo drinks have never been too high on my list.
Flavored Simple Syrups
20 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in cocktails, coffee, food, Non-alcoholic Tags: cocktails, flavors, food, simple syrup
I’ve been on a kick recently of making flavored simple syrups. The inspiration comes from our local queen of artisanal snow cones (yes, I said artisanal and I meant it!), Lindsay Laricks and her company, Fresher Than Fresh. Anytime I see that sweet Shasta trailer parked in front of Hammerpress (during most First Fridays in the Crossroads) or on Sundays at the delightful little park at 17th and Summit close to Blue Bird Bistro, the West Local, etc., it brings a smile to my face. I need to thank FTF for helping me discover how cool that little up-and-coming neighborhood is, too. The lure of the snow cone helped me discover something I hadn’t experienced about Kansas City yet! lol
So, um, if you haven’t gotten off your butt and tried FTF yet, you need to before she closes up for the season, which is FAST approaching its end. To have to wait until next year is a travesty. She also makes freezer pops that are the same stuff, just in the classic shape we all know and love from our childhoods.
My inspiration to try to make some more of my own flavored syrups comes from Lindsay’s Espresso with Mexican Cane Sugar flavor. When you get this flavor (and you should!), they drizzle a little sweetened condensed milk on it, too. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but trust me.
The espresso flavor is to die for, but what was really intriguing was the subtle hint of warm spice in the background… was that cinnamon? Nutmeg? Allspice? All of the above??? I asked Lindsay and she confirmed it was cinnamon, so in preparation for the cold season ahead, I decided to give making my own version of this syrup a shot (no pun intended) so I could add it to my morning coffee when I wanted something a little different. Linday’s snow cone syrup also has a nice hint of carmelized sugar flavors, which I tried to reproduce, and maybe a little hint of molasses or something.
Making simple syrup is, well, simple. You take a cup of sugar and a cup of water, put them in a pan and boil until dissolved. They keep pretty well, although I read somewhere that making a more sugary syrup will keep longer, so to use a 2:1 sugar to water ratio in that case. I did just that about a year ago to have simple syrup on hand for Old Fashioned’s, and it kept unrefrigerated for all that time with no problem at all.
About a week ago I had some strawberries about to go bad and I made a 1:1 simple syrup with them, but didn’t refrigerate it, and the syrup had mold growing on it within a couple days. Word to the wise.
To make fruit-based syrups, like the strawberry one I just mentioned, which would work for any fruit as far as I can tell, simply add the 1:1 ratio of sugar and water to your pan, as well as chopped up fruit, and boil the lot until the sugar dissolves and fruit starts to break up and everything thickens. Remember, fruits have a lot of water in them, so boiling off some won’t be a problem. Once the syrup started cooking nicely I mashed the fruit up with a potato masher and kept on trucking. When I felt like it was done, I simply strained it through a fine wire mesh colander to get the seeds and stuff out. Worked like a charm and it was delicious, the one time I got to use it!
For the coffee-flavored syrup, I just made a small batch and decided to use the richer solution, so I did one cup sugar to 1/2 cup water. I wasn’t sure which type of sugar to use, as a trip down the cooking aisle of Whole Foods showed all kinds of possibilities. I also spotted “vegan sugar” which is truly the lowest form of manipulation of those poor souls, as there is no meat in sugar to begin with. So, vegans who fall for that ploy get to spend an extra dollar for the same sugar. Duh.
Anyway, I chose turbinado sugar, which is evaporated cane juice that still has some molasses in it. Basically chunky brown sugar, but a little “drier” and not as molasses-y. It’s that fancy big-crystal brown-colored sugar you see in the coffee shops. I thought it would have some caramel notes and etc.
So, I did one cup of turbinado, 1/2 cup water and for the coffee flavor itself, I used a few demitasse-spoonfuls of instant espresso. Cooked it up and then added a cinnamon stick to get some cinnamon notes like Lindsay had. I was surprised to see that the sugar dissolved completely very quickly, so I’m guessing that because the crystals are so large, that maybe there isn’t as much density, so one cup of turbinado is less sugar than a cup of regular white refined sugar. That said, it still tasted great. I wasn’t sure how long to leave the cinnamon in, so I probably let it boil with the sugar solution for a couple minutes. I was afraid of making a REALLY cinnamon-y concoction, which wasn’t what I was going for.
Once I figured it was done, I tossed the cinnamon stick and let it cool and poured it into my squirt bottle. The syrup is really dark and nice and thick. It may be a little strong on the coffee flavor, so next time I’ll back off the amount of instant espresso by about 50% I think. I don’t pick up the caramelized flavors I loved so much in Lindsay’s, so I’m thinking maybe cook it longer to cause some caramelization and add water back in, or maybe the flavors are there and are overpowered by the instant espresso/fact that I’m using the solution in a big cup of strong coffee. I wonder about adding a hint of vanilla after the solution cools, too. I could also be using the totally wrong sugar, so this is a work in progress, but a very acceptable first try and it tastes great in coffee. I got almost zero cinnamon flavor in mine, too, so the cinnamon sticks I bought at the grocery store are pretty weak and require a lot more cooking to get into the mix. I wonder if maybe using ground cinnamon would be the way to go.
This will give me something to do this winter! lol
Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy
17 Jul 2010 Leave a Comment
in beer, cocktails Tags: leinenkugel, radler, shandy
No, I haven’t gone crazy and decided to only review a lower tier of beers. I somehow acquired a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy in my cooler from a recent pool party and gave it a go yesterday. It was what you would expect from a shandy/radler (which I posted more about a short time ago)… it’s unoffensive, bubbly and refreshing, blurring the lines between beer and soda.
That said, if this type of “beer cocktail” interests you (and on days where it is in the 90′s and humid as hell, they should!), then I’d encourage you to make your own. By having a little more control over the beer and the lemonade you choose to mix, you can turn a pretty pedestrian pre-mix like the Leinenkugel into something tastier and quite a bit more enjoyable, if not downright gourmet!
In Praise of the Shandy/Radler/Alster
24 Jun 2010 2 Comments
in beer, cocktails Tags: lemonade, radler, shandy, yard beer
Now that summer is REALLY upon us, it’s time to look at what’s available in the beer world to drink that quenches thirst and cools as much as it lends a little buzz. This is the perfect time of year for pilseners, wheat beers, kölsch, etc, but there is also an easy-to-make and even easier to enjoy beer “cocktail” called the Shandy.
Originally, the Shandy was a combination of beer and ginger beer or ginger ale, but there are variations using lemon soda or lemonade that are really good, too. The radler is a popular variation of this in Germany, consisting of beer and lemon soda. I use yard beer and cans of sugar-free lemonade (technically, an alster). Carbonated lemonade would work well, too, and I suppose some of the flavored lemonade drinks would be nice, as well, assuming there are no flavors to clash (which is why I use a beer like Miller Lite, which has no flavor to begin with). There are other variations using a little grenadine in the mix, or Angostura bitters. I haven’t tried either of these yet, but the Angostura bitters addition sounds great!
With a little experimentation with ginger beers, let me tell you that the key to this recipe is the quality of your ginger beer. Some of them are really sweet, which I didn’t like, so for me, the trick is finding a good, dry ginger beer to use. I haven’t tried ginger ale yet.
I ended up with some friend’s cans of Miller Lite in my cooler a couple weekends back, and not liking to drink that beer at all, but having a few cans of lemonade on hand, I made a couple “shandies” and I liked them just fine! There is no magic to the recipe. I simply open a can of each and pour 1:1, but tip the lemonade more if you want more lemonade or use a heavier pour on the beer if you want more beer. It ain’t rocket science!
Any of the yard beers will work great for these drinks, and it’s a good way to turn a barely palatable product into something actually enjoyable. I wouldn’t take a Bell’s Oberon, for example, and make a radler out of it, although I’ll bet it would taste good. I can hardly imagine any beers outside of the pilsener/yard beer spectrum being good, but experimentation is always available to you. There are plenty of great pilsners on the market today, that aren’t yard beers, and again, I’d hate to dilute a beer like Prima Pils with lemonade, so for me these drinks are usually only resorted to when I don’t have something better to drink.
I would avoid the pre-mixed shandies, like Leinenkugel’s Summer Shandy. They are really diluted with way too much soda/lemonade relative to the beer.
Let me know if you have a favorite recipe.
Bacardi Torched Cherry Rum & Jazzoo
03 Jun 2010 1 Comment
in cocktails Tags: bacardi, cherry, rum, torch aloe, torched
I believe this is my first liquor review for The Liquid Diet blog, but it’s worth mentioning. As some of you readers may know, I volunteer as a bartender every year at Jazzoo, the amazingly fun and worthwhile fundraiser for the Kansas City Zoo. One of the biggest sponsors of this event is Major Brands, a distributor of premium alcohol in the Kansas City area. For the past couple years, Major Brands has been rolling out new liquors at Jazzoo, and one of the biggies this year is definitely going to be Bacardi Tocrhed Cherry Rum. We got to sample this, and more, at our bartenders’ meeting hosted by the very gracious Boulevard Brewing (another major sponsor) a couple days ago, along with Effen Black Cherry Vodka and Three Olives Rangtang Vodka.
At Jazzoo, some of the bars will be making Effen Black Cherry Limeades, which are sure to be a hit. The one I had was pretty yummy. I had a Rangtang and soda, too, which didn’t do anything for me. Tasted like cheap orange vodka and soda, but maybe there is more there with some additional experimentation (oh, and the vodka is Fiesta-ware, nuclear orange in color).
But, for me, the best liquor Major Brands supplied us with is the Bacardi Torched Cherry. A simple rum and Coke made with this stuff is just like a Cherry Coke out of the fountain, with maybe a little less sweetness and a little more complexity to the flavors. An adult Cherry Coke, if you will. My girlfriend and I both looked at each other and said, “We’ll be needing a bottle of this for the pool this year…”
I’m generally not much of a sweet drink fan, but I do like rum and Cokes, although I rarely drink them. I really like the popular twist on rum and Coke, which is a Cuba Libre, basically a rum and Coke with a twist of lime. But, then again, sometimes I don’t want a complex drink, or something that requires time and effort to make. This Torched Cherry fits the bill. At 35%ABV, you do have to be careful with it, though.
Bacardi rolled this rum out a couple months ago, and it’s a rum infused with Barbados Cherry and Torch Aloe. Barbados cherry is a large shrub that grows up to 20′ in height and width, and is native to the Caribbean region and northern South America. It commonly grows in yards in the Bahamas and Bermuda (I think I’ll need to take a trip down there for fact-checking purposes).
In the 1940′s, the popularity of the plant took off because the fruit was found to be very high in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C complex). Commercial farms started cultivated and using it as a food soon after, even though in its native region the Barbados cherry had long been eaten.
Torch aloe is a type of aloe plant that produces a lot of nectar. I have no idea how it is used in this liquor, and I really don’t have the palate to “find it” when I drink the rum, but it’s in there. See you at Jazzoo!
Slow Posting
14 Dec 2009 Leave a Comment
Sheesh, I have been so busy the Liquid Diet has been much neglected! I have a review coming soon of McCoy’s imperial California Common, as well as a story on why I think the Old Fashioned is the perfect long holiday party drink, as well as tons more beer to drink and review. I’m coming up on some vacation, so I will be back at it soon, so stay patient!
Brewpub Visit: New Holland Brewing Company
26 Aug 2009 Leave a Comment
in beer, cocktails Tags: brewpub, imperial stout, mint julep, new holland brewing company, night tripper, smoked lager, whiskey, zeppelin bend
I was in Michigan for a few days for vacation and visiting old friends, and we spent one day up in Holland seeing my old digs, trying to make a beer run, and visiting New Holland Brewing Company. The beer run wasn’t as good as I had hoped, and the weather was horrible the day we went up there, but NHBC was lively and I had some good beers.
When you visit the brewpub, which occupies the former Vogelzang Hardware store on 8th St. in downtown Holland, there are always three sets of beers
to choose from: Mainstays, High Gravity and Specialties. The mainstay choices are things the brewery makes year-round, like Mad Hatter IPA and The Poet stout. The high gravity series are the big beers, a lot of which are also made all year long, like Night Tripper, Existential (double IPA) and The Pilgrim’s Dole (wheat wine). The specialty beers are seasonals or one-offs that change frequently. On this visit there were 4-5, and I wish I had snapped a photo as I can’t remember them all, but one was a smoked lager, which I had, while there was a helles and a couple more beers to choose from. Thanks to NHBC’s Facebook page, I can now fill in these blanks. The specialty beers on tap while I was there were Copper Pot (Vienna Lager), Smokey Joe (smoked lager), House Lager (style unknown) and there was a helles whose name wasn’t available, either.
I tend not to like smoked beers, as the smoke can be way too overpowering for me, but I decided to try the smoked lager and see what I thought. I didn’t take tasting notes, so my recollections are the best I could do, but I really enjoyed this beer. The beer itself was a regular lager, basically in this case a vehicle to carry the smoke flavor, but the smoke was subtle and delicious. It would have paired really well with food, I think. I can’t remember a whole lot about the beer other than I liked it a lot and it was probably the best smoked beer I’ve had.
I also enjoyed a Night Tripper, which was $5.00 in a 10-ounce flute type of glass. The beer was served way too cold, in my opinion, off the tap, but it warmed up very fast after having my hands cupped around the glass for a few minutes. Again, I didn’t take tasting notes, but this is a nice imperial IPA. The carbonation is low, it is pitch black, and there are lots of nice roasty flavors along with dark fruits and quite a kick of alcohol on in the aroma and flavor. I enjoyed this beer a lot, but I found 10 ounces to be a bit much for me. I was going to do a mix of samples from the High Gravity series and while I enjoyed the Night Tripped very much, afterward I had wished that I’d done that instead of a full glass of just one.
My girlfriend wanted to have a Dark & Stormy, but they were out of ginger beer, so she had a mint julep, instead, made from NHBC’s artisanal Zeppelin Bend whiskey instead. The whiskey sells for something like $75/bottle, and their whiskey cocktails are $16 each! It seemed like an OK drink, but I think their bartenders are very much beer servers first and mixologists a distant second. It was not a $16 cocktail, in my opinion, although they did give her a nice hit of whiskey and can’t be accused of underpouring it.
They had a lot of liquor infusing in big jugs behind the bar, and I was tempted to try the cucumber-infused gin, but I passed. My stomach was so-so that day, and I just wasn’t in much of a drinking mood. New Holland started distilling their own liquors about 3.5 years ago or so, and when they first started making them available I had a “gin and tonic” there. Unfortunately, the “gin” was brandy with flavorings in it to make it taste gin-like, so it was AWFUL in a drink. That abomination liquor is now called Jumpin’ Juniper, and they do make a real gin now, but I was afraid to try it, even though I am a huge fan of Hendrick’s very cucumber-ish gin. Maybe next time!
Michigan Beer Run: Disappointing
26 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer, cocktails Tags: beer, butch's dry dock, michigan, mint julep, new holland brewing company
I was pumped for my trip to Michigan because I thought I would return with tons of great beers that I can’t get around here, but unfortunately, the bottle shop I had planned to hit has gone in the wrong direction with its selection since I was last there. I could have made an epic run to Grand Rapids, about an hour north of where I was, but my focus was being on vacation, not driving all over the state looking for a good beer store, so I made due with what I had access to. All I decided to buy was a mixed 6-pack. Lame, I know, but I wasn’t going to spend money on stuff I can get right here in KC! My selections:
- Short’s Brewing Company Soft Parade – a high gravity ale made with blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and blackberries
- Short’s Brewing Company Huma Lupa Licious – “a complex malt and hop theme park in your mouth.”
- Bell’s Cherry Stout – I know, you can get that here, but not for $1.99
- Lagunitas Maximus IPA – 72 IBU’s and 7.5%ABV
- Great Lakes Dortmunder Gold – probably the only Great Lakes beer I haven’t had yet, I was hoping to score a 6-pack but this is all they had left
I also got the chance to sit at New Holland Brewing Company for a little while, but the weather was cold and pouring sheets of rain, so I found myself not really in the mood to drink much. I had a smoked lager and a glass of Night Tripper, their imperial stout, both of which I will review later. My GF had a $16 mint julep (more on that later, too) and I was highly tempted to try their cucumber-infused gin, but I was a little gun shy because of previous bad experiences with their gin, so I passed.
