Cubano

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Peg

It’s M.O.N.D.A.Y. Get your cocktail on! My children had a sweet friend, Burke who established a Monday evening cocktail group. Just for the hell of it. Just to begin the week properly. So, today I give you yet another delicious cocktail, The Cubano. Friday found TD (the don for new readers!) and me swooping up Gray and Liam at RDU and making the baby visiting rounds in “Dash” (affectionate name for Winston-Salem). The last stop was Single Brothers, the Yelle’s favorite watering hole from their lives there, prior to the Boston move. There we met up with two other babies/toddlers and their parents, where we shared a table and libations. The new seasonal drink menu had just been established and I enjoyed this Cubano. Remember, I love champagne! So, here you have it!

1 1/2 oz 10 Cane Rum
1 oz simple syrup
4 mint leaves
1 oz fresh squeezed lime juice
Splash of champagne

Muddle mint and syrup in cocktail shaker.
Fill with ice cubes.
Add lime juice and rum.
Shake vigorously.
Strain into stemmed glass.
Top off with champagne.

The French 75

Posted on August 17, 2013 by Peg

It is S.A.T.U.R.D.A.Y! Get your cocktail on! I enjoyed this a couple of weeks ago with The Yelles at the lively Oak Long Bar at the Fairmont Hotel, Boston. I inquired about the seemingly odd name and quickly received an education of its history from our brainiac bartender. The cocktail pays homage to two powerful French icons – guns and champagne. The French 75mm field gun was a powerful weapon in WWI and the American soldiers were impressed with its power in battle. Adding a bit of muscle to solo champagne, the soldiers mixed in Brandy. Thirst Quenched. The cocktail evolved further when the American soldiers returned to the USofA and aptly named it to honor the allies. And now I present The French 75!

2 oz Brandy
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs simple syrup
2/3 cup chilled champagne

Pour Brandy, lemon juice, and simple syrup in to cocktail shaker.
Fill with ice cubes.
Shake vigorously.
Strain into 2 champagne flutes.
Top with champagne.
Garnish with lemon or orange peel.

The Old Cuban

Posted on August 4, 2013 by Peg

My Version in the Wine Glasses from Gray and Marc’s Wedding Dinner Dance

Get Your Cocktail On. It is after-all Sunday Funday! I have a new favorite cocktail. Shocking I know. My first experience with the Old Cuban was with Gray, Marc, Liam and TD this past Thursday afternoon at Drink, Boston, just voted the “world’s best cocktail bar at this year’s Spirited Awards at the Tales of the Cocktail”. (Hell yea, follow them on FB!) The bartenders are so adept at mixing that they simply ask you what tastes you prefer and then craft something specifically for you. I mumbled something akin to “well I love a proper mojito in summertime and I adore champagne”. So he comes up with this most perfect concoction. Oh yea, I’m in love, all over again. Got home yesterday morning at 9:15 and waited til 6pm to try my own version. (Nice test of self restraint!) Not quite as tasty, but damn reminiscent! So, give it a try! No disappointment here.

3/4 oz lime juice
1 oz simple syrup
6 fresh mint leaves
1 1/2 oz gold, aged rum
Dash bitters
2 to 3 oz champagne

Pour lime juice, sugar, and mint into shaker.
Muddle mint gently.
Fill shaker with ice.
Add rum and bitters.
Shake well.
Strain into wine glass.
Top off with champagne.

Grainy Pic…It is just an iPhone in a Dark Bar!

Meet You at The Bar!

Posted on July 17, 2013 by Peg

A Few of My Favorites from Last Weekend in DC…Side Note, the Reasoning Behind My Madness for THE BAR...

One Helluva Wine Cellar, Complete with Corporate Table, The Jefferson

My best Italian friend David Rocco states quite clearly in his book Made in Italy that Italians stop daily at the bar on their way home from work. In a word, decompress. I rather think American city-dwelling business folks conquer. Personally I fell in love with the bar in my mid- thirties when TD (for new readers, The Don, husband of 38 years) and I ventured in to the original Oak Bar at The Plaza. We were on a then rare (yes, in those days we

The Graham Georgetown

actually stayed home!) weekend away with truest of friends Mary Margaret and Bob (I won’t disclose the nightmare flight, yikes). The environment was just so damn civilized, and conducive to actually enjoying, as opposed to gulping, a finely prepared cocktail and calm, quiet conversation. They ended up having to boot us out so we could make our dinner reservation up the street. Then a decade or so ago, a family trip to Paris further deepened

Rye Bar, Capella Hotel

my love of the bar. We bar fooded and drank our afternoon and evening through The Loveliest of Lovely Hotel Bars. Leaving the Ritz in the rain was NBD. Our spirits could not be dampened! As Always: Drink Responsibly and Avoid Alcohol Consumption while Pregnant.

Round Robin Bar, The Willard

Putting on the Ritz

The Quintet, Nik’s Vod Box

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Peg

I warned you that I love unique and/or lovely bars…all over the world. After my father died nine years ago, the five you see pictured above coined ourselves The Quintet! We have been numerous fun/glamorous/and not so glamorous places together. Here, we were at Nik’s Vod Box in LA, December of 2007. I was still in retail art sales at the time and Mother dreamed up this venture to visit LA rather spur of the moment. I wondered how I would ever be able to take off five days in the height of the Christmas selling season…alas, it was worth all of the hoopla of getting away from the retail side of my life! Nik’s was my first Vod Box experience and it offered a huge variety of different Vodka brands to sample. We all donned their fur coats and my Mother used this picture for her quite festive Christmas card that year; please realize that she was 81 at that time! She’s still kicking up her heels these days at 87! What a spirit!

This was our Vod Box tour guide, Leopold! Then there is my bro Will. And Peg and The Don with our shots!

A Favorite Bar in London!

Posted on February 17, 2013 by Peg

I spent Thanksgiving 2009 in London with my immediate “fam of five”, as my younger daughter was living there at the time. So….on Thanksgiving evening we spent our time at the Absolute IceBar, now called IceBar London (and then went next door for an Italian Pilgrim Feast)!! The entire bar is made of ice, excluding the metal floor. The bar, the shot glasses, the walls…everything! We were issued insulated blue hooded ponchos upon entry and we had thirty minutes to consume what ever our hearts desired…Absolute of course! This was truly one of the highlights of my entire life. We had a blast. Take a look!

Bars!

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Peg

One of my very favorite things to do while travelling is to bar hop in fancy hotel bars. While in Chicago between Christmas and New Year’s Brenton, The Don and I went to several marvelous spots.

This is a solid wall of champagne (my drink of choice!) in the Sofitel. We also sampled the bars at Palmer House, Waldorf, Peninsula, Public (formerly Ambassador), and Four Seasons. We left a few for the next visit!

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Category Archives: Bars