While visiting Tipsy's parents in the scenic Dallas area for the holidays, we were lured on a Tipsy Field Trip to Trader Vic's, located in the former Dallas Hilton, now the Palomar Hotel. It was originally opened in 1967 and operated until 1989, at which point it was bought and shuttered by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The Maharishi apparently didn't have a taste for alcohol and so was not as thrilled to have a tiki lounge in his basement as I would. However, for whatever reason he was thankfully in no hurry to use the space, and so it sat unused for the better part of twenty years. When the Palomar folks bought the place, they restored and renovated as much of the original restaurant as was possible. The addition at the front of the hotel necessitated the construction of a new entrance hallway, but it looks pretty good to me. Here are some pictures from our visit. I will refrain from posting too much information, because a very elaborate discussion thread is available at tikiroom.com, with some fabulous photos of the restored restaurant, and some from before the restoration.

Here is the new entrance, which is several yards in front of the old entrance, as far as I can tell

This entryway connects the old entrance to the new one, under an addition that the Palomar added to the old Dallas Hilton

The Tiki Bowl was probably the least favorite of the drinks that we tried, but it's hard to pass up a drink served in a big ass tiki bowl

The Fog Cutter is a tiki classic, especially served in this kitschy glass

This was the only non-classic tiki drink we tried, called Hendrick's Delight. Consisting of Hendricks, Pimms, muddled lime & orange, with a splash of lemon juice and brown sugar syrup.

We also tried the Navy Grogg and the Zombie. I don't know so much about the tiki lounge as to consider myself an expert. But I have made a lot of these drinks and I think Trader Vic's does an enjoyable job. As far as atmosphere goes, it was great. A gentleman by the name of Ricardo was our bartender, and his service was fabulous. He was somewhat new to the craft but was full of curiosity which is I think essential to someone in this business. Trader Vic's is a major international organization and as such they obviously are not going to be the most "authentic" tiki experience (they have a pimento dram, for example, but upon closer inspection I observed that it contains high fructose corn syrup); on the other hand they are one of the big names in tiki, have been doing it for decades, and this particular location and its artifacts are relics from tiki past. Despite its shortcomings, it felt like an important destination for the Tipsy Texans to investigate.

I have no idea what Ricardo served me in this coconut. But I know I drank it. And liked it.

The new issue of L Style/G Style Magazine came out this weekend. Moxy Castro's IMBIBE column features an interview about the Tipsy Texans. And for those of you who think I am the only one who likes to spout off, you will be glad to know that it was Tipsy and not myself who took part in the interview. With any luck Tipsy will become as opinionated and prone to bloviation as I am. Be sure to pick up the magazine! (At the moment the new issue is not available online but past issues are)

On Sunday we picked up the Dale/David Project with several rounds of Irish Coffee. It felt like it was at last the final day of the holiday season, and it felt like a good day to start drinking whiskey in the morning. Irish Coffee is one of those great classic drinks that is greatly abused by uninformed mixologists, professionals and amateurs alike. On the more benign end of the abuse scale is the person who makes Irish Coffee by simply spiking their coffee with whiskey, Irish or otherwise. More offensively you will find barkeeps who confusingly think that Irish Cream belongs in Irish Coffee, or who cannot resist the temptation to put green Creme de Menthe in the drink, as if to say that since it's Irish, it must be green. Right?

Wrong. The properly made drink consists of Irish Whiskey (I used the Tullamore Dew 10yr here to good effect), a simple syrup, 3-4 oz of coffee, and lightly whipped heavy cream.

In addition to a good Irish whiskey, you need the right kind of glass. The classic glass is a smallish tulip-shaped stemmed glass, often with a little "medallion" on the stem. The Irish Coffee glass is widely available at thrift stores and on sites like Ebay. There is more to it than just kitsch; the shape and size of the glass helps the mixologist ensure the right ratio of whiskey:coffee:cream. The lines on the glass indicate roughly the proportion of these ingredients. An ounce and a half of Irish Whiskey, an ounce of brown sugar syrup (some places will use a sugar cube and melt it with the coffee), 3-4 ounces of coffee, topped with freshly made whipped cream.

The cream is one of the most important ingredients and is rarely done right at public drinkeries. Under no circumstances should the aerosol variety be used. Cool Whip, no way. On Sunday, I wasn't in the mood to bust out the Kitchen Aid before enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day and so I employed some of the methodology of the "dry shake", by putting the spring of the Hawthorne strainer into the shaker with the heavy cream. The spring acts like a whisk and the cream whips up densely and nicely. You are looking for a velvety smooth consistency that is still pourable and not meringuey. The cream should float on top of the drink and look like the head on a Guinness; it is not sweetened.

The resulting beverage will leaving you thinking about it for days. You will wake up on cold mornings and not want to get out of bed, because you know you can't have this coffee. I work in the coffee business, and rarely do I advocate the adulteration of good coffee, but I'm making an exception here. And I'm making it for breakfast tomorrow. Mmm...

According to Dale, Ti Punch (short for Petite Punch) is the house drink across the French West Indies. This recipe is deceptively simple and tastes way more interesting than I thought it would on first glance. The basic recipe calls for local rum, sugar syrup, and lime juice. The Dale recipe adds Falernum, specifically nonalcoholic, though all we had was the Taylor's, which is mildly alcoholic at 11%.

The recipe calls for "local rum" so I used our Treaty Oak, produced right here in Austin

Dale says that the Ti Punch is "simple and fun, and ou can play with the recipe." So we decided to make a slightly less sweet variation, by substituting Aperol for the Falernum.

I am a confessed fan of both Stingers and anything with Galliano. However, this drink fails to satisfy either of those affinities. First of all I'm not sure where this cocktail comes from. It's not identified as a Dale DeGroff original but likewise does not feature any biographical info. Secondly, I'm not sure what the guidelines are for a drink to qualify as a Stinger, but it seems like the other nontraditional variations that I've encountered at least feature white Creme de Menthe, such as the Black Widow, made with white rum and creme de menthe. The International Stinger has Metaxa, which is by my understanding a Greek brandy liqueur, and so is somehow related to cognac, but still it seems confusing. More to the point, I didn't enjoy the taste of this cocktail. It struck me as tasting somehow like cheap scotch.

I think the only thing charming about this drink is that it uses the two most obnoxiously tall bottles behind the bar.

Following the advice of my mother ("If you don't have anything nice to say...") I'm going to shut up now about this cocktail.

On a recent Friday night we went to FINO to pay a visit to Bill Norris. Bill, you may recall, is the winner of the 42 Below Cocktail World Cup semifinals, who went on to compete in the finals in New Zealand, on a team that placed second among some truly world-class talent. On this particular evening, however, it wasn't Bill's resume that drew us to FINO, but rather his promise of a showcase of Don Julio beverages which he was working on for a special promotion. By special, I mean that the fine folks of Don Julio were paying and we were sipping.

This post will be typical of many in which I take a bunch of pictures and no notes, and therefore have to sift through my tipsy memory to figure out what the hell we were drinking. Here goes:

This drink had Don Julio reposado and St Germain. And egg white. And something else. This drink was custom made for the evening's festivities, and I cannot recall the recipe. Perhaps Mr. Norris himself will fill us in.

Bill does a drink on the winter menu called the Sunshine Port, featuring white port, Dripping Springs vodka and Q tonic with house-made NOPA bitters

There is a Gazpacho Martini on the regular cocktail menu that I know they sell a lot of at FINO. It's made with Sauza Blanco tequila that they infuse with grilled tomatoes, cucumbers, chiles & bell peppers in a big jar. I sometimes get the feeling that this is a drink that Bill would rather not make, but it's so popular they can't take it off the menu.

I believe that this is a Southside cocktail

The Mediterranean Martini 2.0, if that's what this is, consists of Charbay Ruby Red Grapefruit Vodka, Grapefruit Juice, and Grapefruit bitters.

Is this a Last Word?

Ultimately this is what we were hoping to get a taste of (no offense to your fabulous cocktail, Mr. Norris). It retails at $100+/bottle, and $30-something for a glass at a restaurant, so we had never had the pleasure. It's really a treat to partake of, very supple and buttery. Thank you, friendly Don Julio rep!

And when you've had enough cocktails and need to grub, you have two choices. The first is to eat at FINO, which has great food. But if you're on a budget, we recommend going down the street to Salvation Pizza and getting one (or two) of their bitchin' pies.

Since this particular evening, I have been back to try some brand new Bill Norris cocktails--highly recommended. I am particularly fond of the Irish Monks cocktail, which consists of Jameson, Yellow Chartreuse, and Earl Grey syrup. Go check it out during weekday happy hours and this beauty is only $7.

The Maragato, according to Dale, "was an early recipe from the famous El Floridita Bar in Havana, Cuba." DeGroff has filed this cocktail in the chapter on the Manhattan. It consists of silver rum, sweet & dry vermouths, fresh lime and orange juices, with a dash of Maraschino liqueur (we used Luxardo). We made this cocktail at our friend Joe's house (Tipsy Manor-in-Exile) and it was met with approval by all tasters--sort of citrusy rum Perfect Manhattan.

If you're looking for something to do with that bottle Apricot Brandy that you've been sitting on for years, here is an incredible opportunity to put it to good use. The Apricot Cocktail, while perhaps lacking in name originality, is a Dale DeGroff original cocktail. The author apparently came up with this drink after experimenting with the Bermuda Rose (gin, apricot, lime, grenadine.) What he came up with is this refresher which consists of gin, apricot brandy, fresh orange and lemon juice. Garnished with a cherry and a flamed orange peel. I feel like you could use peach brandy if the kids (or grandma) already finished off your apricot.

I think it's safe to say that Bobby Heugel's new Houston bar is generating the most exciting buzz of anything going on in the local cocktail community. Anvil Bar & Refuge is slated to open next month at 1424 Westheimer, in the Montrose neighborhood of Houston. In a restoration the likes of which rarely garners the attention it deserves from the preservation board, Bobby and his crew have taken a former daiquiri den with dozens of frozen drink machines and converted it in to a respectable drinking establishment. I am of course understating the case when I say 'respectable.' Anvil is going to be one of the best bars in the south-central United States. I was in Houston a couple of weeks ago participating in a photo shoot for Rebecca Rather's forthcoming book Pasty Queen Parties (we're doing some of the cocktails), and I stopped by Anvil to talk with Bobby.

The mural on the east face of the building. The awning on the left hangs over the sidewalk along Westheimer. I think the blue neon is about the only decor element that remains from Sliders, the building's former occupant.

The anvil atop this shelf is back-lit; check out the assortment of bitters on the bottom shelf. (The liquor bottles here are dummies, in place so that photographers have some back drop against which to shoot Bobby for their stories. I don't think he likes his picture taken so I didn't make him go through that.)

The entrance is on the far left; the bar is over twenty seats long. The brick walls along the back will be lined with glass shelves holding liquor bottles and vintage glassware. The space behind the bar to the right will be a walk-in beer cooler fronted by the taps themselves. Anvil intends to have a rotating menu of obscure and exotic beers on tap. If you look closely at the foot rail, you will notice that it is a section of antique train rail from a Houston area railroad salvage yard. There is no detail these boys have overlooked.

(I lifted this photo from their Web site--Thanks Morgan!) The boys will be serving many of their cocktails in vintage glasses. This is not just for nostalgic purposes. In the pre-postmodern era, cocktails were not served in giant v-shaped glasses the size of a funnel. The classical cocktail glass has a deeper bowl. More importantly it is significantly smaller than the typical cocktail glass we see today which means that cocktails stay colder for the duration of the drink; and that patrons aren't drinking grotesquely proportioned beverages. The wells they are designing will accommodate several different kinds of ice; they are using Kold-draft ice makers.

Where the old dj booth used to be in the cheeseball daiquiri bar, Anvil is installing its wine loft.

I spoke with Bobby yesterday and he said that they have received the long-awaited approval for their plumbing diagrams and should be wrapping up construction in the next 4-6 weeks. We know these guys are just itching to get shaking but we're going to give them a few weeks after opening to let the dust settle; then we're going to take a big ole Tipsy Texan Field Trip to check this destination bar. Stay tuned for details!

We pick up the Dale/David Project tonight with the Negroni, an offshoot of the Americano Highball that replaces the club soda with gin. Little biographical information is given in Dale's first book, but he elaborates in The Essential Cocktail. According to Dale, the Negroni comes from the Casoni Bar in Florence, Italy, and was developed in the 1920's. A certain Count Camilo Negroni found the Americano too tame, as it is told, and asked that the drink be spiked with a splash of gin. The original recipe called for equal parts of Campari, Gin, and Sweet Vermouth. The cocktail degenerated over the years to a glass of gin (or sometimes, godforbid, vodka) with a splash of the two aperitifs.

Dale's recipe calls for an ounce each of Campari, Sweet Vermouth (we used Vya, which is not traditional but is still delicious), and Gin (Brokers used here. We also made a version with Beefeater and M&R). Served in a rocks glass and garnished with a flamed orange peel. (Gary Regan's Joy of Mixology recipe calls for 1.5 oz of each of these)

I have been blessed with the incredible opportunity to provide the cocktails for a nonprofit event for which the sponsors have generously donated 3 cases of Peach Schnapps. Any ideas? There is also a healthy supply of (ahem) vodka.
All ideas will be enthusiastically entertained. They are also securing a donation of blanco tequila.

Note: The owners of the residence, which is apparently a gorgeous piece of modern design, have issued another challenge: since the floors are white terrazzo and the furniture white leather, they have intimated that they would 'prefer' if the beverages would be clear.

Get thee to your shakers, ladies and gentlemen, a challenge is afoot!

According to Dale, this was the official cocktail of the Vendome Club in Hollywood "ca 1930" (though that was during Prohibition.) It's one of those all-booze cocktails that requires a gentlemanly stir and is not shaken. Equal parts gin, red Dubonnet, and sweet vermouth, garnished with a lemon twist. I like it, it's like a mellow Manhattan.

The Dale/David Project continues this evening ***we interrupt this programming for an important message--damn it's cold outside! It's ice-storm-in-central-Texas cold out there so make you something nice to drink!*** with a little oddity called the Pineau Martini. The Pineau Martini is not attributed to anyone else nor does it bear the symbol that indicates it is a DDG original, so I do not know where it comes from. I first learned of Pineau de Charentes from Bill Norris of FINO restaurant; I tasted it and picked up a bottle at the Austin Wine Merchant (did you know that they will deliver to your door?). I believe that Bill was using it in a cocktail at the time but for the life of me I can't recall what, and I don't know how he learned of it.

Pineau de Charentes and Gin... mmm, two of my favorites in one convenient cocktail

I was looking through a book that I have on aperitifs and according to that source, Pineau des Charentes came into being by accident. Supposedly, a French wine maker accidentally put fresh grape must into a barrel of aging Cognac, and then forgot about it. When he revisited the barrel he discovered a beautiful golden elixir that tasted neither of wine nor of Cognac, and so a fabulous new spirit was born. If wine history is as full of bullsh!t as cocktail history, then Pineau was conceived of at a meeting of winery executives and the cutesy story was devised by their PR firm. Regardless, the stuff is great. Full bodied, fruity, and mellifluous. I love this drink. I don't, however, love it by the recipe included in Dale's book.

The recipe calls for a 2:1 ratio of P des C to Gin. I made that drink, and I drank it. Then I made one with equal parts, which I liked better. Then I made one with a ratio of 2 parts Gin to 1 part P des C, more in the mode of a traditional Gin Martini with Pineau des Charentes as the Vermouth. Needless to say these latter two versions proved more pleasant than the first, which was too Pineau-y. Robert Hess said in a seminar on the Martini that the drinker should evaluate his or her palate along the spectrum of a vermouth:gin ratio to determine what ratio is preferred; I invoke that same concept here with the Pineau Martini.

Note: I often conceive of cocktails while I'm watching movies... Sometimes, I don't even have to watch a movie before a cocktail comes to mind. Tonight,

Every once in a while I see a classic in the Dale that I can't believe we haven't done a D/DP post for yet. The Daiquiri is such an example. We are at a friend's house tonight (@edibleaustin for those of you who are tweeting tonight) and she has very rudimentary cocktail preparations so it was a real challenge to find something we could make and blog about. At least she had the ingredients for a classic Daiquiri. And since she is a publisher of Edible Austin magazine, we decided to go all-local: Treaty Oak rum, and juice from a few stragglers from the winter crop of Mexican limes.

Photo credit: Jenna Noel

The Dale/David Project continues a tour of the basics tonight with the Screwdriver. It seems like we've overlooked some of these simple drinks on our quest to make the more interesting ones. This evening the Tipsy Texans are on tour in South Austin at the residence of Jenna Noel, associate publisher of Edible Austin magazine. What Mlle Noel lacks in cocktail provisions she adequately makes up for in camera technique. So we've been shooting fabulous photos of primitive cocktails.

Photo by Jenna Noel

The Screwdriver is one of those high school level cocktails that I feel like most adults should avoid making, unless you are stirring around in the early morning looking for a simple breakfast tipple. Though Dale's book does not say as much, I believe that the Screwdriver came about in the 1960's as part of the Smirnoff Vodka Invasion of America's cocktail menus. This event represents one of the darkest periods in world history so I won't linger on it. The Screwdriver we make tonight is from local Tito's Vodka and a few stray oranges from the winter Farmer's Market. With the exception of the grapefruits, most of the citrus has disappeared from the market.

We celebrate the 100th Dale/David Project post with a tutorial on one of the great classic cocktails, the Champagne Cocktail. One of the oldest cocktails that is still regularly made, the Champagne Cocktail is attributed to "Professor" Jerry Thomas, as written in his 1862 volume How to Mix Drinks or The Bon Vivant's Companion. They don't name books like they used to, and they don't make bartenders like the Professor, who has been referred to as the "P.T. Barnum of the Bar."

We have been mixing cocktails tonight at the home of our friend Jenna Noel, of Edible Austin magazine. Jenna's grandparents reside on a sugar plantation in Louisiana. The sugar we used tonight comes from a family friend who works at the Supreme Sugar Refinery in Labadieville, Louisianna. The gentleman who provided the sugar also serves as the "nuisance alligator hunter" in the area, which is how they became acquainted. Every time Jenna's family goes back to Louisiana, they pick up a load of fresh sugar from the mill. It is raw and we put it to good use tonight.

Usually, the first step in making a Champagne Cocktail is to locate a sugar cube. If you do not have a sugar cube, but instead your grandparents own a sugar plantation, use lumps of raw sugar fresh from the mill.

Soak the sugar cubes with Angostura bitters

Fill the glass with Champagne--the coupe glass is not ideal because it doesn't show off the sexy Champagne (or, in this case, cheap sparkling) bubbles, and goes flatter faster, but it is what we have on hand tonight

Cut a nice lemon twist and garnish your Champagne Cocktail

The Champagne Cocktail

For a variation on the Champagne Cocktail, Dale DeGroff suggests that you "add a float of Cognac or Grand Marnier." I decided to add a float of locally made Paula's Texas Orange--yummy!

The Caricature Cocktail was created by Gary Regan in honor of Dale's wife Jill, who is a caricature artist. Regan admits that it is a variation of Dale's own Old Flame cocktail. The caricature consists of Gin, Campari, Sweet Vermouth and Grapefruit Juice. (The Old Flame is the same drink with orange juice instead of grapefruit, and with the addition of Cointreau.)

This week we found an off-the-beaten-path liquor store with a few treasures we've been looking for. The first is Pisco Aba, a pisco made from muscat grapes that Dale DeGroff was involved with when they were trying to make a splash in the US. I don't know much else about the history of the product except that it's not distributed in the US anymore.

Even more exciting was the find of three small bottles of Tanqueray Malacca, the long out-of-production gin that supposedly followed Tanqueray's original recipe. Unfortunately the folks at Tanqueray released this product about a decade before its time. The renaissance gin was poorly received and production was halted. Fast forward to the present and Malacca is like a holy grail for dusty bottle seekers.

The Pisco Sour is apparently like the national drink of Peru and Chile where the spirit is made. As Dale puts it, "like the Bloody Mary in this country, everybody thinks his or her recipe is the best...". Traditionally the Pisco Sour is made with Pisco, lemon juice, sugar, and egg white, then garnished with a few drops of Angostura bitters.

This is how the traditional Pisco Sour should look. Bobby Heugel in Houston uses a Misto mister to put the bitters on top, which makes for a more even flavor distribution.

If you will please indulge me a little time travel, I would like to share with you another Pisco Sour that we tasted in New Orleans last summer when we were there for the Tales of the Cocktail conference. We went to Tujague's, the classic New Orleans bar with no stools that has been there for over a hundred years. So had the bar matron, as far as we could tell, and so we assumed that we could order a classic cocktail and get the real deal, given that the bar maid pre-dated Prohibition. Oy were we wrong. We sipped through a couple of Sazeracs and Manhattans (more or less passable) and then Tipsy spotted a bottle of BarSol Pisco on the bar. He asked if she could make a Pisco Sour, and she got to work. And we watched in horror as she poured ice, Pisco, a pre-made Sweet & Sour mix from a re-purposed Arizona Iced Tea jug, bitters and a squeeze of lime. She served it up with a smile and we sort of poked at it for a moment with the straw, being not entirely sure what to do.

"Did I make it wrong?" She asked. We didn't have the heart to tell her. So I ordered a Grasshopper to-go and we were on our way.

That's me with my Grasshopper in a plastic cup. And my hippo lounge singer t-shirt. I want to be like that hippo lounge singer some day, just playing my piano. And hopefully sipping on a Grasshopper.