Thurs. 6/27 – ½ price on Movie Themed cocktails + 1 brandy
1 -Casino Royale – Sir James Bond – David Nevin – The Martini (Brandy, sm. amt. of gin to balance & Vermouth). James Bond is the quintessential Martini man. In Casino Royale, agent 007 instructs a bartender shake it very well, until it’s ice-cold, then add a large thin slice of lemon peel. Bond named the cocktail the Vesper in honor of a woman he would come to love (despite her betrayal), lose and pine for. Much like the femme fatale for which it is named, a true Vesper is sadly gone from the world & impossible to resurrect today, so we have substituted an Italian herbal vermouth in lieu of usual dry.
2- The Blues Brothers – John Canady – The Orange Whip (brandy, rum, orange juice & cream). Three Orange Whips! declares John Candy’s character in the famous film The Blues Brothers, right before the major fund-raising scene. Following its film debut, the cocktail experienced a huge resurgence in popularity. Hey, if the brothers blue think it’s cool, we can’t argue with that.
3- The Big Lebowski – Jeff Bridges – White Russian (Brandy, Godiva white chocolate liqueur, cream). In the late ’90s, The Big Lebowski, starring Jeff Bridges, John Goodman, and Steve Buscemi, became an instant cult classic. “The Dude,” Jeff Bridges’ character, was defined by his shaggy sweater, long locks, dark sunglasses, and strong preference for White Russians, a velvety cocktail. If he wasn’t drinking one, he was carrying one, finishing one, or finding ways to make one in other peoples’ houses.
4- Bonfire of the Vanities – Bruce Willis – The Sidecar. A classy drink for a classy film! In the movie, a character who isn’t supposed to drink finds himself at a meeting with Bruce Willis’ character, Peter Fallow. In the absence of his wife, who would never let him drink, the man orders a Sidecar. The classic cocktail, which contains cognac, orange liqueur and lemon juice, is still one of The Brandy Bar’s most popular drinks.
5- Casablanca – World War I French Artillery Gun – French 75 (cognac, lemon juice, topped with Champagne). Three parts signature bite, one part sugar, this drink is bittersweet — just like the ending of the classic film. Named for a French field artillery gun used in World War I, this cocktail is all attitude. Think this is your cocktail of choice? “Here’s looking at you, kid!”
6- Sex And The City – Parker/Davis/Cattrall/Nixon –Cosmopolitan (Brandy, Cointreau, lime juice, cranberry juice). So many drinks were consumed during Sex and the City’s run on TV and the big screen. The long-running show charted the four main characters’ of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kristin Davis, Kim Cattrall, and Nixon’s experiences trying almost every trend in drink, dining, fashion, and men. Yet one constant remained: the cosmos.
7- Some Like It Hot – Marilyn Monroe – Manhattan. Sure, men have cross-dressed in newer movies than Some Like it Hot, but those films don’t have mobsters, jazz music, and Marilyn Monroe. This heady mixture can only be matched by the film’s standout drink, the Manhattan, with its equally stiff combination of sweet vermouth, whiskey (substitute brandy), and bitters. Top it off with a maraschino cherry for the ultimate unisex cocktail.
8- Lost In Translation – Bill Murray – Suntory Whiskey, we substitute -Clear Creek Apple Brandy neat or with ice. What time is it? “Suntory Whiskey time,” declares a mildly depressed Bob Harris (played by Bill Murray) in Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation. Harris spends a few hilarious moments doing a commercial spot for “Suntory Whiskey” during his stay at a quirky Japanese hotel. Sullen and sensitive, the gentleman seeks comfort — in the form of whiskey — at the bar while suffering from a bout of insomnia. Luckily, he meets a girl who also suffers from lack of sleep. Cheers!
Saturday 6/29/19 8:00 – 9:00 PM – The Sunlight Drive – a guitar duo of Mike Vilenski and Jim Burgard. The two players met at a Round Robin style Open Mic, hosted by Letters to Abigail. After some gentle nudging from Kelli, they decided to form their current duo, Sunlight Drive, playing a mix of Americana, Blues, Folk and Classic Rock songs spanning the 60s thru today.
Secret Hendersonville Lost Places/Curious People, an exhibition of photography by Rimas Zailskas continues through July 31st.
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1/2 Specials Thurs 6/20 and Fri 6/21 Opening Reception for “Secret Hendersonville”
Thursday, 6/20 – one-half price special on selected “animal themed cocktails + one flight. In the world of drinks, there have been some pretty weird and wacky names. Perhaps unremarkable is a drink named after a famous person or a popular place. Then there are a lot of drinks with sexually explicit names, Sex on the Beach, etc. But we have chosen 5 named after our animal friends because some days it is a toss-up as to which we like more, our animal friends or our human friends. But that’s another story. Some drinks, like the Barking Spider, bring a smile with the first sip; others, like the Moscow Mule are now classics and have become a part of the standard bar menu. Some 70’s sippers include the Greyhound and its gin counterpart the Salty Dog. The Horse’s Neck is a long drink that dates back to the colonial period (its signature comes from the long lemon curl that hangs over the lip of the glass). So here goes, things may get a bit hairy as we take a boozy cocktail tour of the animal kingdom at The Brandy Bar + Cocktails. We recommend that while sipping, you think of one of your favorite movies the drink might remind you of or inspire your selection.
Barking Spider – Basically a modified Margarita — brandy, blue curaçao, and sour mix are kicked up with rum and orange juice for extra sweetness. There isn’t much real history here because this is a modern drink. However, there is in fact a real “barking” or whistling spider in Australia that rubs its front mating organs against its jaw to make the sound. You may even bark when you drink this concoction.
Bee’s Knees – A honey-based brandy sour – Brandy, gin, honey syrup, fresh lemon juice. In the late 18th century, the “bee’s knees” meant something unimportant. By the 1920s, it became slang for something or someone really cool. History suggests that the drink itself appeared during the Prohibition era, most likely as an excuse to cover up the nasty flavor of bathtub gin with citrus and honey. Without bees, we have no honey. Without honey, we have no Bee’s Knees. On a more serious note, bees are a crucial link in the earth’s ecosystem. With bee colonies dying out around the world, we need to step back and examine what needs to be done to slow or stop the crisis. Think about some documentaries on bees, i.e. “Queen of the Sun: What are the Bees Telling Us?”, “More Than Honey,” or “Vanishing of the Bees.”
The Crow – Another sour in disguise. Well not really. A sour is simply spirit, citrus, and sweetener. Here, the grenadine stands in for the simple syrup and transforms an ordinary whiskey sour into something altogether more complex. The Crow’s provenance is murky, but it shows up in both The Savoy Cocktail Book and Boothby’s World Drinks, each book offering different proportions.
The Grasshopper – Green, green, is green they say? A minty milkshake with a shot of booze. What’s not to like? Go back to the early 1900s in New Orleans and you are likely to find a Grasshopper on offer at Tujague’s, which has been around since 1856. It was Philibert Guichet, whose family bought the spot in the early part of the 20th century, who apparently created it for a New York cocktail competition. The name most likely is derived The Grasshopper – Green, green, is green they say? A minty milkshake with a shot of booze. What’s not to like? Go back to the early 1900s in New Orleans and you are likely to find a Grasshopper on offer at Tujague’s, which has been around since 1856. It was Philibert Guichet, whose family bought the spot in the early part of the 20th century, who apparently created it for a New York cocktail competition. The name most likely is derived from the drink’s distinct green color.
The Monkey Gland – Orange flavors and absinthe are long time bedfellows. Pair them with fir brandy and the herbal quality of the absinthe shines, its anise character balanced by the sweetness of the grenadine. This drink showed up in Harry McElhone’s 1927 Barflies and Cocktails, and was a definitive ex patriot snub at Prohibition in America. The name offers us a glance into the weirdness of our medical past whereby gentlemen with virility issues would get a transplant of monkey testicles. Let’s toast Viagra and modern medicine. Planet of the Apes?
Fruit Flight (select 4 from 14)
Friday -6/21/19 6 -9 PM – Opening reception for “Secret Hendersonville,” an exhibition of photographs by Rimas Zailskas (closes July 31st). The project began as a personal exploration by Zailskas, an inveterate walker, as he navigated the streets and below-grade infrastructure of Hendersonville in search of what he calls “lost places.” Drawn to neglected vine-covered buildings, weather-beaten structures and over-grown winding paths, he encountered both friends and strangers. They also became part of the series. Zailskas used his iPhone for the majority of the images. “I always have one with me,” he says. Influenced by German Expressionist filmmaker Fritz Lang in both subject matter and style, Zailskas’ enthusiasm for noir and strange films informs the work. His arresting images, in high-contract black and white, reveal a less manicured, sometimes gritty side to the city. Some of his highly charged portraits you might even recognize.
Thurs June 13 – 1/2 price specials on Sea Breeze + other cranberry cocktails + 1 flight
Some have speculated that the Sea Breeze can actually be pinned to the post-cranberry panic of the 1960s. (That remains in question) Yep, cranberries were once controversial. In November 1959, a bunch of berries in the Pacific Northwest were found to contain traces of the herbicide “Aminotriazole,” basically a bog weed killer found to cause cancer in lab rats. The U.S. Secretary of Health at the time advised Americans to avoid cranberries unless you were absolutely sure of their origin. Of course cranberry farmers took a huge hit.
Prior to that time, a little growers’ collective formed in 1930 calling itself Ocean Spray that started publishing recipe booklets to encourage the use of cranberries in all of its solid and liquid forms.
In the 1960s, according to the archives at Ocean Spray, the company began suggesting a cranberry-centric cocktail that included vodka and grapefruit. In the archives are a recipe card and two ‘Cranberry Kitchen’ newsletters that include cranberry juice and grapefruit but not the Sea Breeze specifically,” says Christina Ferzli from Ocean Spray. “From what I can recall, there were many versions of the Sea Breeze cocktail, but Ocean Spray was the one to add cranberry to it.”
As it turns out, that simple 1-2-3 cocktail was actually a ruby-hued riff on something else. “The lack of knowledge of American bartenders meant a lot of recipes got lost or were changed to fit the ingredients on hand,” says Freddie Sarkas, the head bartender at Liquor Lab in Manhattan. “At the same time, we saw the rise of the Cranberry Growers Co-op, which later became Ocean Spray. It marketed an easy drink with gin and cranberry called the Harpoon. That drink would eventually become both the Cape Codder and the Sea Breeze.”
The cranberry-grapefruit-vodka version of the drink is likely credited to a clever marketing campaign by Ocean Spray, whereas, the real Sea Breeze is, in fact, a gin-based invention of that London denizen of cocktail sophistication, The Savoy. Several versions of the Sea Breeze have been developed, including the Cosmopolitan.
So maybe in the past you might have put the Sea Breeze down, or similar drinks, which might make it a good example of a drink that does not boast but one that stands the test of time – a refreshing example of a democratic form of drinking.
1928 Sea Breeze Cocktail – brandy, grenadine, grapefruit juice
1928 Sea Breeze Cooler – apricot brandy, gin, grenadine, lemon juice, club soda
2nd Sea Breeze Cocktail – brandy, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice
Cape Codder – brandy and cranberry juice
Cosmopolitan – brandy, Cointreau, lime juice, cranberry juice
Armagnac & Calvados Flight