Hangovers suck. We all know it. You simply have to endure it and that takes time (at least a day, depending on your age), lots of water, Berocca, bad movies, sleep and, of course, really greasy food. You can, however, stave off the pain and push it to the next day with one of the world’s most popular hangover solutions, the Bloody Mary. “What better way to kick off a new day, especially when recovering from the night before, than having a boozy, spicy (healthy) smack in the face,” says James Bradey from Sydney’s Grandma’s and Wild Rover.
Recipes
Drinks
This is an old fashioned preparation. In this day and age, with fruit being snap-frozen, shipped around the globe and available all year round, preserving fruit is an old idea. But there’s something to be said for the old ways.
Give a man a fish, and he will eat for one day; but teach him to fish, and sell that fish on and he’ll start making some money. Should he flake the fish up, adulterate it with something of a fish-like texture and then sell it on, he’ll make loads more.
No one really knows who invented the Martinez. Big shock there. Some say it’s named for a guy called Martinez who whipped together some gin and vermouth. Others credit it to the Granddaddy of all things bartending, the Professor Jerry Thomas who created it for a fella who travelled to Martinez, California every day.
Reading through the pages of most cocktail books written before the second world war can get to be a pretty dull read pretty quickly — particularly if there isn’t a well-stocked bar at one’s disposal or the hour is unsociably early. Yet Charles H. Baker Jr’s prose stands apart from the pack.
It’s January, 1986, and a young Tomas Estes — and a younger Phil Bayly — are driving around East Los Angeles.
“We were cruising in his metallic gold 55 Chevy pick-up with “Empresa Pacifico – Junta de rebusca y desarollo” painted on the side,” said Bayly. Estes made a stop at a liquor store in search of supplies, and when he came out he held a bottle that changed the way Bayly saw tequila.
When I first began in this industry and started frequenting cocktail bars I was never overly impressed with the food offering, if indeed there was one at all. Eating elsewhere and then arriving at your cocktail drinking destination was simply what was done. Over the past few years I have noticed a massive swing in venues specialising in cocktails and offering great food selections (or indeed improving upon their existing), even to the quality of top restaurants.
Well, it’s Easter — and with it comes a long weekend — and we figured…
It’s a drink that takes a long time to make, so we thought we enlist a bartender who’s been around a long time too. Veteran bartender Cristiano Beretta (The Rook, Sydney) has made his fair share of Ramos Gin Fizzes through the years, so press play below and pay attention…
I keep a file of cocktail recipes sent to me by bartenders that I deem worthy of testing. The testing, however, is becoming more and more time consuming, simply because few bartenders in this second decade of the 21st century are content to use only readily available ingredients in their drinks.
Ah, March; the start of Autumn. Leaves are falling, and so too the drinkers packing the pubs on St Patrick’s Day. On the 17th of March the Irish pubs will be full with Paddys, Guinness a-pouring, a sea of green and streams of whiskey flowing. But there won’t be a lot of cocktails.
Fortified wines seemed to have had their day not long ago. Seen as the preserve of the stuffy and old, most bars might have a bottle of port or cream sherry kicking around on their back bar, gathering cobwebs and dust. But there has been a resurgence of interest in sherry and other fortifieds, and why not?