five drinks to try before you die

 

Top Shelf. It's the latest festival to grace Melbourne with its presence. And it is a celebration of all things boutique and alcohol.

Hundreds of products are on display, from cider to wine, to single malt whisky, to a gin distilled in Melbourne. Entering the Royal Exhibition building was overwhelming.

But then there was the main stage and we were just in time for two guys from Belfast with their tale of passion, ambition and making it all happen.

Sean Muldoon and Jack McGarry had a successful bar in Belfast, and had the suggestion made to them that they could be even more successful in New York. So off they went with a particularly unique idea and a lot of charm and set up The Dead Rabbit down the bottom of Manhattan Island near where the ferry leaves for Staten Island.
 
The Dead Rabbit won three awards at Tales of the Cocktail 2013, including “World’s Best New Cocktail Bar.” And Jack McGarry, the bar manager, is internationally known for his extensive historically-based beverage programs. In July 2013, Jack was honoured with the prestigious Tales of the Cocktail International Bartender of the Year award. He is its youngest ever recipient.

Sean and Jack put a lot of effort into setting up The Dead Rabbit. In Belfast they both worked at The Merchant Hotel, and were proud of the drinks they poured. But they also liked drinking at the pub down the road. When they moved to New York, they wanted to combine these two aspects: fantastic cocktails and a pub. So The Dead Rabbit has a top end room with a menu of 84 cocktails, based on historical punches from Ireland, and a pub which boasts Irish whiskey and a wide variety of draught beer. Clearly this is a winning combo.

And I am sorry I missed it when I was in New York. 

Next time.

Another highlight was Jason Crawley, a bartender who began his career in London, working for the likes of Ian Schrager Hotels, before moving to Sydney. He educated us on the five drinks to try before we die. We did try them as he spoke. I hope that doesn't have ominous portent.

These are the drinks. And they were good.

1. Blood and Sand: Blood and Sand is a scotch based cocktail introduced in 1922. It was named for Rudolf Valentino's 1922 bullfighter movie, Blood and Sand. The red juice of the blood orange in the drink helped link it with the film. The recipe first appeared in the 1930 Savoy Cocktail Book. Blood and Sand is one of the few classic mixed drinks that includes scotch.

3/4 oz Scotch whisky
3/4 oz rosso vermouth
1/4 oz cherry brandy
1 1/2 oz orange juice

Shake over ice cubes, strain into a chilled cocktail glass, and serve.

2. Tommy's Margarita

• 60ml tequila
• 30ml lime juice
• 15ml agave syrup

The Tommy part of the name comes from claims that the margarita was first mixed in Tommy's Place in the El Paso Juarez region of Mexico in 1942.

3. Last Word, apparently a bartenders favourite

The Last Word is a gin-based prohibition-era cocktail originally developed at the Detroit Athletic Club.

The Last Word consists of equal amounts of gin, green Chartreuse, maraschino liqueur and freshly pressed lime juice, which are combined in a shaker with ice. After shaking the mix is poured through a cocktail strainer (sieve) into the glass, so that the ready cocktail contains no ice and is served "straight up". 

4. Mai Tai:


The Mai Tai is a cocktail based on rum, Curaço liqueur and lime juice.   

• 1 oz light rum
• 1 oz dark rum
• 1/2 oz lime juice
• 1/2 oz orange curacao 
• 1/2 oz orgeat syrup 
• Maraschino cherryfor garnish

Shake over ice.

5. Salted coconut espresso Martini

The espresso martini mythically came about because Kate Moss went into a bar in London and asked for something that "wakes me up and then fucks me up.” So Dick Bradsal who was in the bar at the time doing some work for a vodka company on the same day as some Illy coffee training was happening thought ‘caffeine + vodka… vodka espresso’. I'm not exactly sure what it did for Kate. 

The salted coconut element is just the fancy pants part, because, let's face it, if you're drinking THE five cocktails to exit the world with, why not go all out?