Faking Amer Picon.

This one is from a few years back, but great geekery and useful until the day Picon is imported.

Jamie Boudreau, a Seattle-based bartender and long-time blogger, made a very effective substitute for Amer Picon, essential in drinks such as the Brooklyn and Picon Punch. Amer Boudreau is something you'll be delighted to find behind the bar at the Club, once we get the Campari Group to bring Ramazzotti into the state. In the meantime, you'll have to be content making your own batch at home.

The Sun King's Swizzle.

One of the more exciting things about bartending can be the R&D that goes into cocktails. There are so many combinations of this, that or the other, focusing on one ingredient or flavor is necessary when developing something new. Thankfully, to keep our palates trained, we try to participate in cocktail competitions with just that sort of focus.

This one from Louis Royer came across our desk recently and we decided to throw our hat in the ring. Our approach to these sorts of competitions is to draw inspiration from drinks, flavor combinations or ingredients that we love. Ideally, from all three.

Our entry into the Royer competition is The Sun King's Swizzle. It's inspiration comes from one of our favorite late-summer drinks, the Queen's Park Swizzle, replacing the rum with Royer's Force 53 cognac, switching the lime for lemon, and balancing the sugar and bitters to our liking.

The recipe is as follows:

2.5 ounces Louis Royer Force 53 Cognac

.75 ounces fresh squeezed lemon juice

.5 ounces rich sugar syrup (2:1)

2 dashes Angostura bitters

Combine all ingredients in a chilled pint glass. Fill glass with finely crushed ice. Swizzle drink until well mixed and glass is frosted on outside. Top glass with more finely crushed ice to form a mound of ice above the rim. Garnish with 2 further dashes of Angostura and 3 fresh mint sprigs.

The drink is at once intense and refreshing. As you raise the glass to your mouth, the mint's aroma is the first to hit you (when garnishing with mint, be sure to lightly smack the mint in your palm to release its oils). That aroma provides a cooling counter-balance to the intense flavors of over-proof cognac and bitters.

We think we have something that's a perfect remedy to a hot, late summer afternoon. Paired perfectly with a lounge chair in the sun and a good book.

Things to Read I.

In our free time, we're always scouring the Interwebs for juicy bits of ephemera, trivia, or just good knowledge. When we find (or refind) something particularly relevant to liquor, bartending and craft, we'll share it here.

Old Fashioned 101 - Brought to us by Martin Doudoroff, a cocktail enthusiast. Simple, to-the-point instructions on how to make a proper old fashioned, or as we like to call them, old-fashioned old fashioneds.

Vermouth 101 - Another site from Doudoroff discussing and listing the basics of vermouths and quinquinas, along with some familiar brands and recipes.

Identity Thoughts.

We at the Club have a very specific view on identity and creating a space that is welcoming and unique without being over the top. And in our research and travels it's always wonderful to see other ventures that take the same approach to their design, layout and interiors.

We feel that if we consider every detail of our identity, down to drink names, fonts and art on the walls, even if you don't necessarily agree with our tastes, our making a strong and informed choice on each aspect will show in the concept as a whole.

That's a convoluted way to say we do our best to think of everything and those choices will subtly influence your feelings about us and the Club, hopefully for the positive.

Here are two recent examples we've found of well-thought out identity. The one on the left comes from The Grill Room, a steakhouse-like restaurant in Portland, Maine. The one on the right from the Vergennes Laundry, a small-town coffee shop and French bakery in Vergennes, VT.