Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Buon Natale! Joyeux Noël!

For Christmas we will be making an Egg Nog cocktail that Jerry Thomas made famous in How to Mix Drinks (1862):

General Harrison's Egg Nog
1 1/2 tsp of sugar
4 oz of fresh pressed apple cider
1 1/2 oz of Bourbon
1 egg

Tools: Cocktail Shaker,  Hawthorne Strainer, Goblet

For individual portion: Combine ingredients in cocktail shaker, dry shake for 5 seconds to emulsify the egg. Add ice and then shake hard until well chilled. Strain into a goblet and garnish with ground cinnamon.

According to David Wondrich's Imbibe! From Absinthe Cocktail to Whiskey Smash, A Salute in Stories And Drinks to "Professor" Jerry Tomas, Pioneer of the American Bar (2007), this cocktail was named after 1840 Presidential candidate Benjamin "Old Tippecanoe" Harrison who ran on a populist "log cabin and hard cider" platform. The Bourbon addition is relatively new, I read about this version in Dale GeGroff's  The Essential Cocktail: The Art of Mixing Perfect Drinks (2008) and prefer a stiffer egg nog. We recommend Elijah Craig 12 Years Aged Bourbon which seems to go well in any bourbon drink I roll!

This one is a favorite version of the holiday cocktail and can be made virgin with none alcoholic cider.

All the best to your family and friends!

-The Loungerati Staff

Destinations: Speakeasy at 1220 Fifth Avenue Wed Aug 4th

The skinny: 

Our friends at Club Wit's End are teaming with the Museum of the City of New York to present the "Speakeasy at 1220 Fifth Avenue" from 6 until 9pm. Featuring Michael Arenella and His Dreamland Orchestra. Hot jazz! Vintage Cocktails! Dancing!  

The featured cocktail is the:

Japanese Cocktail:

2 oz Cognac

1/2 Orgeat syrup

3 dashes of Angostura bitters

Stir ingredients well with cracked ice, then strain into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a twist of lemon peel.

Spirits impresario David Wondrich calls it “Perhaps the only drink in Jerry Thomas’s "How to Mix Drinks" actually invented by him.” It’s the Japanese Cocktail, and they will be serving it to coincide with the newest museum exhibit.

The museum exhibit, “Samurai in New York,” is about the Japanese delegation to the United States in 1860, and the Japanese Cocktail was actually invented to commemorate the delegation's visit to New York City (they stayed in hotel not far from Jerry Thomas’ bar on Broadway).

Say "Wit's End" sent you, you will get in for only ten dollars and admission will include a free drink ticket. 

My word not good enough for youse? Well, Bloomberg also suggests this as a great Wednesday night Destination:

 "Tonight at the Speakeasy at 1220 Fifth Ave, say "Wit's End" sent you and get in for only $10 (includes a free cocktail)!http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-04/matisse-and-martinis-mix-well-as-n-y-museums-open-bars-after-5.html"

Click here for more information.

MCNY (1220 Fifth Avenue, NYC, NY)