Felicia's Speakeasy

Southern Migration

2012-01-16T18:43:00.004-05:00

I recently wrote about how much we love Imbibe Magazine’s new cocktail book, The American Cocktail, and that we were planning to “drink the book” during the month of January as we traveled South in our teardrop trailer, affectionately known as the Alligator Teardrop.

We are not following through with this promise, for a number of reasons:

One is because we didn’t find a corporate sponsor for the blog (didn’t even try to find one, actually), I’m accountable to no one but me, which makes me lazy.

Two is that camping itself makes one lazy. We landed in a campground near Jacksonville, Florida, and are spending a lot of time sitting around the fire drinking El Presidente beer (which is much cheaper in Florida than in New York; in fact, the money that we’re saving might fund our whole trip).

The third reason is that camping makes you avoid civilization. It’s so peaceful here in the woods, with the owls, the rats (!), and the El Presidente. Why leave?

We did sneak out to a roadside fruit stand boasting Florida Oranges! Florida Grapefruit! Pecan Syrup! Authentic Georgia Cane Syrup! Unsuspecting, we got sucked into their tourist marketing scheme.

We caught the “Pecan Syrup”, because it had a label listing that the only three ingredients were corn syrup, artificial pecan flavoring, and artificial color. The oranges, which the kid convinced us were called something exciting like “Honey Dreams,” turned out to be plain old navel oranges. And Authentic Georgia Cane Syrup? A fancy name for molasses.

But Leah says, when life gives you lemons (or an excess of some other citrus fruit), make cocktails. The Southern Migration may be best attempted in the South in winter, if only because of the abundance available citrus fruit (of suspicious origin) and the fresh “Florida” tomatoes we got at the stand that actually taste like fresh tomatoes.

Don’t expect to see this cocktail at the Lounge anytime soon. However, if you’ve got some molasses in your cupboard, imported grapefruits, and a local grocery store that carries tomatoes in winter that don’t taste like rocks, give it a whirl. It’s incredibly delicious. But beware tourist traps (like billboards advertising “87 more miles to South of the Border!”) and don’t drink too many of these or you’ll get a wicked headache and yet another reason to never leave the campsite.

Follow our traveling adventures at www.alligatorteardrop.com!

Southern Migration

1.5 ounces tequila

the juice from 1/2 grapefruit (fresh-squeezed)

1/4 ripe tomato, chopped

1/2 ounce molasses, also known as Georgia Cane Syrup

Muddle tequila, tomato, and molasses in a shaker. Shake with ice. Pour over ice in a rocks glass, adding grapefruit juice last.

2011 Champagne Trends Greet New Years Eve

2011-12-28T16:49:00.007-05:00

As New Years Eve approaches, Amelia Sauter looks back at a few of 2011’s trends in bubblies: Cava, rosé, and classic cocktails.

Cava is the new champagne. I heard it on NPR, so it must be true. Cava is the term for sparkling wine made in Spain the old fashioned way á la méthode champenoise, which calls for secondary fermentation in the bottle. If you find yourself staring at the selection of sparklings in a liquor or wine store, you can’t go wrong with a Cava, and you might want to buy it while it's cheap; Cava’s quality is often superior to its champagne counterparts in the $8 to $12 range.

Second, rosé is back. Up until recently, the last effervescent rosé I drank was a Bartles and Jaymes wine cooler in 1988. This year when the clock strikes midnight on December 31, I’ll be toasting the arrival of the 2012 with a local Finger Lakes sparkling wine, Goose Watch Pinot Noir Brut Rosé. A close second in my book: Dibon Rosé Cava, which we occasionally pop open at the Lounge and guzzle in the kitchen.

Lastly, classic cocktails are still center stage, and the Champagne Cocktail is one that will never die: sugar, bitters, and champagne; a perfect ménage a trois. And if you make it with a Cava or a rosé (or both), your friends will think you're the trendiest person in town.

For a locavore Champagne Cocktail recipe, check out Amelia's post on Edible Finger Lakes.

Santa Loves his Egg Nog

2011-12-21T10:18:00.004-05:00

A public service announcement brought to you by Santa.

We are open on Christmas Eve from 6pm-midnight! Spiked nog, homemade cookies, and the Festivus cocktail. Come be cheerful and/or scrooge with us.

Give the Gift of Death

2011-12-07T10:42:00.006-05:00

You may not have known this, but proprietress/bartendress/blogger-in-chief Amelia Sauter writes funny stuff and draws slightly morbid cartoons in those extremely brief periods of time between working, drinking, and sleeping (once known as "having a life").

Now you, too, can laugh in the face of Death every day. Twelve of her favorite Death cartoons have been compiled into a Year Filled with Death 2012 Wall Calendar. The Death calendar brings a morbid humor to brighten even the darkest of days, with Mr. Death taking on fashion, dating, chocolate, weather, taxes, holidays, and more.

She thanks you for supporting her Sharpie addiction, and her love of fine wines and cheap beer.

Click HERE to order your Death calendar ($15 for this priceless art), or go to:

http://www.lulu.com/product/calendar/a-year-filled-with-death-2012/18727016?productTrackingContext=search_results/search_shelf/center/1

Drinking Thanksgiving Leftovers

2011-11-23T14:02:00.005-05:00

Google “Thanksgiving cocktails,” and you’ll find oodles of recipes. But can you make a cocktail out of Thanksgiving leftovers? Read my latest blog post over at Edible Finger Lakes magazine's website to find out which of your turkey day foods can be turned into a delicious drink. (I swear it's possible.)

http://www.ediblefingerlakes.com/blog/edible-voices/how-to-drink-your-leftovers-cranberry-sauce-mimosa.htm

Reviving the Apricot Sour

2011-11-21T19:37:00.005-05:00

This month's Mixology Monday topic, Retro Redemption, kinda has me stumped. Jacob Grier at Liquidity Preference describes the 1950's-1990's as the Dark Age of Mixology, and challenges us to revive a drink from the "lost decades."

The problem is, I wasn't drinking yet. At least not anything worth reviving. Rum and cokes, Fuzzy Navels, jello shots, Budweiser. A teenage girl's best friends, until she throws them up. Today, I can't even be in the same room as Peachtree schnapps, and the dreaded rum incident got a dedicated humor column written by me on Angstgiving exactly two years ago this week.

History makes me crazy. For the love of Dale*, I can never remember where classic drinks came from, who made them, and why. Some cocktails are best forgotten, like my ex-boyfriend.

But family heritage is my notable exception. Be it stories or objects, I saved everything my parents ever gave me, like the pair of red knee socks with white hearts my mom bought for me over twenty-five years ago. Though they’ve faded and the elastic is long-gone, causing them to bunch around my ankles and slide into my shoes, I still wear them every Valentine's Day.

When Leah and I opened the Lounge, my parents passed on to us their 1974 Mr. Boston Bartenders Guide (53rd printing). I flipped through the classics, but what caught my eye were the handwritten recipes penciled inside the back cover. Tequila sunrise. Daiquiri. In my dad’s script, Margaritas: Fill a blender halfway with tequila and the rest of the way with half triple sec and half either limeade, or pop plus Rose's lime juice. And then there was my mother’s favorite drink, recorded in her slanty handwriting: the Apricot Sour.

Reading the recipe, I could taste it in my memory, its tart flavor known intimately to me from eating the liquor-soaked maraschino cherry left at the bottom of her glass. The trick to making a good one? Use fresh-squeezed lemon juice instead of sour mix, and make sure to add that splash of orange juice. Try it; I bet you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Apricot Sour

1 ½ ounce apricot brandy
1 ounce orange juice
¾ ounce lemon juice
a few drops of maraschino cherry juice
maraschino cherry

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Add brandy and juices. Stir. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

*Dale DeGroff, a master mixologist credited for the revival of "classic cocktails."

No, you're not crazy. If this blog post seems familiar, it's because portions of this column were previously published on this blog.

Visit Liquidity Preference to see the roundup of Mixology Monday cocktails worth reviving from around the world.

All The Gin Joints

2011-11-02T10:06:00.005-04:00

To celebrate the release of Michael Turback's latest book, All the Gin Joints: New Spins on Gin from America's Best Bars, Felicia's Atomic Lounge is holding a book release party on Wednesday, November 2, from 7pm-8:30pm. The two local cocktails featured in the book with both be featured *live* at the party: The Gin-Gin by Leah Houghtaling of Felicia's Atomic Lounge (gin, ginger-lemongrass syrup, champagne) and The Communist by Eric Trichon at Mercato Bar and Kitchen (gin, Cherry Heering, fresh-squeezed juice). Copies of the book with be available for sale during the event, and Michael Turback will be on hand to sign books and informally discuss his latest endeavor, over cocktails, of course.

And you're a lucky duck, because it's also Locavore Wednesday, which happens in the middle of every week. $1 off all seasonal locavore cocktails (like our Hot Spiked Cider made with cider from Kingtown Orchards in Trumansburg, and the Beet Bubbly made with beets grown at Stick and Stone Farm, only a few miles from the Lounge) and $1 off all New York State beers.

If you can't make it to the party, copies of All the Gin Joints are also available locally at Buffalo Street Books.

Buy local, drink local.

Imbibe Magazine and Felicia: BFF's

2011-10-16T19:20:00.015-04:00

Imbibe Magazine is one of Felicia's BFF's. The go-to mag for all things drinkable, Imbibe partnered with Metaxa in a cocktail contest that Leah placed third in; and they published one of Leah's drunken coffee recipes on their website. Now that coffee recipe can hang out on your coffee table like a living room whore because it is included in Imbibe's very first cocktail book, published this month: The American Cocktail. This nifty book contains 50 creative and accessible recipes collected from smart bartenders around the states. We are honored to be included.

And with the book, an idea was born at our kitchen table, over cocktails, of course: This winter, Leah and I will "Cook the Book," or as one might say in cocktail-speak, "Drink the Book." While the snow flies, we hope to drink our way through all fifty cocktails and write about them on the blog as we go. This should be particularly interesting because of my freakish allergies and my lame-o substitutions when I can't have an ingredient (or two or three).

Will we succeed in Drinking The Book? Depends. No. Maybe. Probably not. Why not? Perhaps we'll only make a few, or perhaps we'll make them all. It is entirely possible that we will get distracted by raking leaves, broken toilet handles, the carpenter ant infestation in the wall at home, shoveling snow (noooooooo!), paying the bills, holidays, weddings, Pittsburgh Steelers games, drinking, playing music, and life's other joys and woes.

But we're going to start on the right track, and at least pretend that we're going to successfully Drink the Book. So here's our first cocktail: The Verde Maria (pictured above), which revolves around avocado. I chose the Verde Maria as our first Drink the Book recipe because it is green, and because the ingredients were kinda weird but kinda mouth-watering at the same time, like guacamole in a glass.

Because we couldn't get our hands on tomatillos, and because I can't eat onions (eyes swell here for emphasis), we didn't quite get it right. However, Leah liked the texture a lot (avocado-tequila smoothie, anyone?). A pinch of salt helped bring out the flavors.

Since we can't publish the full recipes from the book, you have two choices. One is to buy a copy of The American Cocktail and follow along. The other is equally exciting: check back here in the near future and we will post a new drink created by Leah that was inspired by the Verde Maria.

Imbibing and inspiration: Yes. Bring it on. Cheers.

Teeny Pies

2011-10-13T09:58:00.004-04:00

I know it's been a few years since I made and sold pies at the Lounge, which has ruined some people's lives beyond repair, but good news: Teeny Lamothe is in town.

Teeny is traveling around the United States and studying with experienced bakers so she can start her own pie business, and she's blogging about her travels at teenypies.tumblr.com. During October, she's hanging with the Emmy's Organics people in Ithaca.

Last night, we got to sample some of Teeny's goods, and they were pretty damn good. Her pumpkin and sweet potato pies were both so creamy-dreamy that they didn't need any whipped cream on them. The crust was intensely flavorful, tasting as much like dessert as the filling. Her flour is locally grown at Farmer Ground Flour in Trumansburg, NY, and she purchased her produce at the Ithaca Farmer's Market.

On Fridays during October, Teeny will be selling her teeny pies (perfect for one person!) from 6pm-7pm at the Lounge. Later, when Teeny is famous and has published her pie memoir, you can say you knew her when. Bring your lactaid pills; these pies are not dairy-free.

For those reading this post who are not in Ithaca: keep an eye on Teeny's blog; she may be coming to a city near you.

In other Lounge-related locavore news, Wide Awake Bakery continues to drop by during most Friday happy hours with their amazing fresh-baked bread, and our farmers at Tree Gate Farm have pigs for sale this month. You can buy a whole or a half pig, and have it butchered into whatever cuts you like. We met them when they were piglets. They were so darn cute, and I bet they'll be so darn tasty.

Best of Ithaca 2011

2011-10-04T22:19:00.007-04:00

"You can't possibly be surprised," said the editor of the Ithaca Times when he called to tell me that Felicia's, once again, had been voted Best Cocktail in Ithaca by the Times' readers.

Surprised, no. Reassured, yes. We aim to please, and the votes tell us we are pleasing the people. It's always affirming to get good feedback, to know patrons like what we pour our hearts into, to hear that we're still the only ones in the region making cocktails with fresh, crazy ingredients straight from nearby farms.

Not that anyone else would want to do what we do. I spend hours picking mint, lemon balm, sage, and cherry tomatoes; visiting orchards; and popping in on our farmers at Tree Gate Farm. Leah spends a boatload of time in the kitchen, infusing, muddling, and cooking up new concoctions. Our bartenders work their butts off: For every cocktail the staff shake up, they could easily pop the tops off of ten beers.

But the end result is sooooo worth it. Thank you, Ithaca, for your confidence, and for your continued commitment to drinking the good stuff.

Flight of the Concord

2011-09-26T21:53:00.010-04:00

This month's Mixology Monday topic, hosted by Alcohol Alchemy, is Local Color. Usually I'm anal retentive about following the Mixology Monday instructions each month, so I made sure our cocktail used local ingredients, and it sure is colorful.

Except after Leah created the drink and took an awesome photo, I realized my rebel side once again shoved my straight-and-narrow side off a speeding train. I did not start with a local craft spirit as instructed. Oops.

I haven't always been this impulsive, really. Okay, maybe I have, but I'm still firmly in denial, so I'll blame Leah.

Here's the story: We belong to a most excellent local fruit CSA this year (after swearing off vegetables when the veggie CSA forced one too many parsnips upon us). In this week's basket, we received peaches, plums, pears, apples, and concord grapes.

Grapes. Yum. But they're kind of tart, and the skins get stuck in your teeth, and they have annoying seeds. No way I was going to labor to take all the seeds out and make a pie, appealing as the end result might be.

Then in came Leah. And out came the ball jar. In went the grapes and gin. Out came the muddler.

Minutes passed: The gin turned a peaceful lavender. Hours later: A ball jar full of deep bruised purple. The next day: The Concordian took flight.

[In retrospect, obviously I'd use a local gin to follow the Mixology Monday rules. The most popular gin made in the Finger Lakes region of New York (maybe the only gin? i've yet to hear of another) is Finger Lakes Distilling's Seneca Drums Gin. I've written about their gin before, in both cocktail form and via a general review. And we've showcased their cherry liqueur, which hands down is our favorite FLD product at the Lounge. You can read more about Finger Lakes Distilling HERE.]

The Concordian

1 1/2 ounces concord grape-infused gin*

tonic

lime wedge

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add grape-infused gin. Top with tonic. Garnish with a lime.

*Concord grape-infused gin:

1 lb Finger Lakes concord grapes

32 ounces gin

Muddle and let sit for 24 hours. Strain.

AlleyArt: Stars by Laura Robert

2011-09-06T12:16:00.014-04:00

Laura Robert's art installation in Felicia's Alley this year is designed to dance with the Alley lights, resulting in whimsical, dangling "stars." Like many of Laura's creations, the hanging art is crafted from found trash/treasures, usually from the beaches of Cape Cod.

This is Laura's third show at Felicia's (her first and second shows are also described on our blog with accompanying photos), and by far the one that is most intimately connected to the atmosphere in the Alley. The show will run through September 27.

Join us for a closing reception on September 27 from 5pm-6:30pm, and take some "stars" home with you.

Felicia's Atomic Lounge hosts outdoor sustainable alley art shows in the warm months, featuring a different artist every month. Artwork made with a minimum of 50% recycled/reused/repurposed materials is preferred. Proposal guidelines can be found here:

http://feliciaspeakeasy.blogspot.com/2009/06/felicias-alley.html

Beer Mimosa

2011-07-11T13:50:00.011-04:00

Maybe I'm too lazy, or maybe I'm too busy, but whatever the reason, I simply haven't jumped on the beer cocktail bandwagon yet. Leah's definitely had her hands full with incoming produce from our awesome farmer: scapes, black caps, and soon, plums.

Those black cap (black raspberry) cocktails are CRACK. We've gotten a lot of people completely addicted to them, and now they want, want, want and we sell, sell, sell. Stop by the Lounge this week for a fix.

But back to beer. Typically, I'm a purist. I like my gin on the rocks with no mixer, my wine in a glass with no spritzer, and my whiskey swigged straight out of the bottle. Beer is no exception. So when Frederic at Cocktail Virgin (Slut) announced that this month's Mixology Monday theme is beer cocktails, I knew I had some work to do.

Or not. Because the day before I read Frederic's post, I actually made a beer cocktail. It wasn't on purpose. I was just too lazy, I mean, busy, to go out and buy champagne when I had a craving for a mimosa. I opened the fridge, and next to the orange juice was a can of PBR, beckoning me to take a risk.

Ice cold PBR and orange juice. Weird, or genius? It worked for me. The recipe is complicated. so pay attention:

PBR Mimosa, aka The Lazy Girl

PBR

orange juice

champagne flute

Open the can of PBR. Take a swig from the can. Fill your champagne flute halfway with PBR. Chug some more beer from the can. Add orange juice to the PBR in a champagne flute, take a sip, and proclaim loudly, "This is the shit! It tastes just like a mimosa. Who needs champagne?"

Local Notes

2011-06-13T10:01:00.003-04:00

Hey! I forgot to tell you that about the cute little pictorial-cartoon review we got in the Cornell Daily Sun in March. A talented gal named Maggie Prendergast draws a weekly column (that's right, she draws the column) about local food joints.

You can see the Felicia's review/cartoon from March 31 here: http://fromthedeskdrawer.blogspot.com/

Bitter About Flowers

2011-05-17T09:47:00.017-04:00

Welcome to Mixology Monday! Okay, you caught me. Today is actually Tuesday. I waited until the eleventh hour to write my post, and then company showed up and we drank a bottle of 2009 Cotes Du Rhone instead. As a result, my writing skills rapidly deteriorated into giggles and yawns. Hazelnut coffee in hand, I begin my belated post a day late and a bottle of wine lighter.

Hosted by Dave at The Barman Cometh, this month's Mxmo topic is floral cocktails. Rhubarb is NOT a flower, so despite the fact that I just picked fifteen pounds of it and will start shaking up Rhubarb Martinis at the Lounge tonight, rhubarb is not what I am going to write about.

I am also not going to write about violets, though I spent an hour picking them yesterday. They are destined to become violet syrup, and eventually a blueish cocktail of some sort.

And I'm not writing about the exploding purple lilacs in my yard. Stunning and tasty as they are, for now I'm simply going to snort them, and maybe float a few in a drink as garnish.

Instead, the topic of my post is lavender bitters. Leah started making her own bitters a few summers ago: orange bitters, coffee bitters, lavender bitters and soon: rhubarb bitters. Usually I don't like lavender in my beverages because I feel like I'm drinking massage oil or lotion, but the lavender scent dances gracefully with the already floral essence of gin, turning an everyday drink into a culinary delicacy.

When it comes to the commercial stuff, I'm bitter about bitters: There is absolutely no reason to include the artificial and potentially harmful caramel color (Peychaud's, Fee Brothers, Angostura), Red #40 (Peychaud's, Fee Brothers), or Yellow #6 (Fee Brothers). And bitters that are chemically produced in a factory down the street from you are NOT "locavore." You drive me crazy when you buy a bottle of mass-produced bitters from the Super Walmart and proclaim them "locavore." You want locavore? I'll give you locavore upside your head. Bring it on.

As soon as we mow the lawn, plant mint, stack the wood, fix the windows, replace the ice machine, build new porch benches, install stair lighting, repair the brick steps, and clean out the gutters, we're going to start bottling our own bitters. Get ready: we're bitter and we can make it better.

In the meantime, you can dream about this lavender gin and tonic, but if you want to taste it, you'll have to come to Felicia's:

Lavender Gin and Tonic

1.5 ounces gin

2 dashes of lavender bitters

tonic

Fill a rocks glass with ice. Add gin and bitters. Top with tonic. I know, you don't have our lavender bitters - yet. Bookmark this page, drop by to stack some wood, and give us a few months.

Save the date! Rapture Party 5/21/11 from 6pm-close at Felicia's Atomic Lounge. I'll be live twittering the rapture, too. Follow me on twitter at @ameliasauter

Wood Pairing

2011-04-13T10:44:00.006-04:00

Dear Felicia,

I know spring is filled with all kinds of great stuff like planting herbs and watching flowers bloom, but I just got a shit-ton of firewood delivered (shit-ton [shit tuhn] - noun 1: five cords; 2: 4ft by 8 ft by 20 ft pile of wood). I'd like to know what alcohol you recommend pairing with this task.

Signed,

I Want to be Stacked

Dear Stacked,

You are definitely going to want a drink for this job. Think wood. A high-end bourbon, a smoky scotch, a nicely-oaked chardonnay, or a tannic cabernet saugivnon. Or go rugged and do a couple of shots of Jim Beam; that's one of my work boot favorites. Beer also pairs well with wood. There are some great scotch ales on the market, like Oksar Blues Old Chub. If it's raining, consider a boilermaker.

You're going to need all the help you can get.

Love,

Felicia

Mixology Monday: Tomato Zinger

2011-04-10T09:32:00.010-04:00

I am so excited that it is Spring. Please reassure me it's not going to snow again so I don't impulsively buy a plane ticket to Cancun where I can suck in tropical sun and tropical cocktails until I explode into a million droplets of warm joy.

Because Felicia's likes to use raw materials in our cocktails, Spring is a critical time of year for us and for our favorite farmers at Tree Gate Farm. This weekend, I cut back the mint and oregano, and planted a bunch of rhubarb roots to meet your unquenchable demand for Rhubarb Martinis. We transformed over 20 lbs of rhubarb from Tree Gate into martinis last May! I'm feeling piggish as I reminisce, and must confess to you that I found a pound of last summer's rhubarb in the freezer yesterday and cooked it with some sugar, then proceeded to eat it all right out of the pot. Forgive me. I'm sorry I didn't share. (Okay, I'm not sorry. If I found another pound right now, I still wouldn't share it. Seriously, Rhubarb and I are monogamous.)

As we dive face-first into Spring, Mixology Monday this month is hosted by Spirited Remix. Chris asked everyone to post about their all-time most amazing cocktail creation, and later this week he will put all of those cocktails on his website so head over there to check it out.

I'll be honest with you, I'm not a great cocktail maker. When it comes to our fresh philosophy, Leah is the one who you'll find in the kitchen making something unusual with coriander syrup or cucumbers or whole vanilla beans or fresh horseradish or wild ramps or lovage from a neighbor's garden. I'm more tame in the cocktail creativity category, and content to be her taste-tester.

But a couple of summers ago, I actually created one drink that I fell truly, madly, and drunkenly in love with: the Tomato Zinger. Since it requires fresh-picked cherry tomatoes, I tend to forget about it in the winter. Last week, however, Leah and I taught a cocktail class at Tompkins Cortland Community College and played a version of Chopped that we called Shaken. We asked the students to create cocktails using three required ingredients: cherry tomatoes, rosemary, and limes. All the resulting drinks were delicious, but I was left pining for summer and for another hot affair with the Tomato Zinger.

Don't tell Rhubarb I'm cheating on her.

Felicia's Tomato Zinger

5 small Sweet 100 cherry tomatoes
pinch of sea salt
1/2 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce honey syrup (equal parts honey and water)
1 3/4 ounces gin

Muddle four cherry tomatoes, sea salt, honey syrup and lemon juice. Add gin and shake with ice. Strain into a chilled martini glass and garnish with the remaining cherry tomato.

Craft Cocktails

2011-02-23T18:33:00.008-05:00

When I hear 'craft,' I think feathers. Beads. Pipe cleaners. Felt. Sock puppets. What the hell is a craft cocktail?

The adjective 'craft' does, in fact, refer to cocktails that are handmade, though not with a glue gun. In 2006, a smart bartender guy named Camper English made a list of some of the elements that he believed earned a drink the title 'craft cocktail' in San Francisco:

fresh juices
muddled fresh ingredients
seasonality
cocktail-food pairing
fancy shmancy mixers instead of el cheapo soda guns
infusions
homemade ingredients, like syrups or bitters
an actual drink menu

If the craft cocktail is vintage or classic, it's extra cool. If it has a good name, like the Horny Ninjarita, it's extra-extra cool. If it contains bacon, it's extra-extra-extra cool.

Beware. Like hipster fashion choices, some of those craft cocktails are overrated. Many of them can't be created at home unless you quit your day (night) job, invest in weird ingredients, build a complicated home bar, and install a commercial kitchen.

And seriously: Have you actually tasted a drink with bacon and liked it? Or even more telling, liked it enough to have seconds? The idea is fun, but in reality, not so good. Just like hipster eyeware and men with skinny jeans: Those giant eyeglass frames and teeny pants that sag in the manbutt might be interesting style concepts, but they both look pretty comical when you put them on. In twenty years, your kids will be laughing at you, not with you.

Fresh is good; handmade is awesome. Sock puppets rule. But don't go overboard. Glue guns can be addictive, and your craft obsession can quickly grow out of control and take over your life. STAY AWAY FROM PLASTIC FLOWERS. And never get so snobby about your drinks that you can't enjoy a Natural Light beer when your neighbor offers you an ice cold can.

Happy New Year: Beets and Drinks and Drunks

2011-01-01T18:35:00.006-05:00

A new floor for a new year

My mom sent me an email last week to let me know Felicia's made Rochester's daily paper again. The topic this time was drinks without alcohol.

This is a hard one for me. I find it's not possible to re-create the flavor of bourbon or gin without, well, bourbon or gin. If I'm not imbibing alcohol, I go for simplicity. Give me some plain seltzer water and I'll be happy. Leah bought me a home soda machine for Christmas and I shrieked like a little kid when I opened it. A box full of happy for only $99.

When the writer for the newspaper contacted us, Leah and I suggested substituting sparkling cider or sparkling grape juice for champagne in mimosas or mimosa-like drinks. The writer was drawn to our spiced beet bubbly, and said:

This recipe came to us by way of Amelia Sauter of Felicia's Atomic Lounge in Ithaca, where seasonal, locally grown ingredients are on the bar with the booze. In winter, that means Finger Lakes beets. Even if you are a fan of beets (which Sauter was not before her cocktail chef Leah Houghtaling changed her mind with this concoction), roasting them and then making a simple syrup with them is a lot of work. Double or triple the syrup recipe and save some for later. It will stay fresh in the refrigerator for at least a week.

I love how Leah is called "my" cocktail chef. I'm a lucky girl, aren't I? I own a cocktail chef AND a soda machine. Truth be told, Leah is the creative force behind Felicia's and I am her devoted pawn who also happens to answer all emails and media requests. But the best part is that I get to taste-test all of her concoctions. It's also true that until the spiced beet bubbly, the only beets I ever loved were the ones specially prepared by my mother.

Here's a link to the full article on non-alcoholic bevvies in the Democrat and Chronicle:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=201012280304

Happy new year and don't drink and drive like this passerby who flipped his car outside the Lounge on New Years Eve:

And to answer both of your questions:
1) No one was hurt.
2) Nobody, including the driver, seems to be able to satisfactorily explain how exactly he ended up upside down in the middle of the street.

Dog of Christmas and White Cosmopolitan

2010-12-22T10:46:00.007-05:00

We are open on Christmas eve from 4pm-midnight. If you want to mix up some holiday spirits at home to numb your nerves to the chaotic family antics, spike your eggnog, Felicia-style. Or try my friend Tony's White Christmas Cosmopolitan, as pretty as it is yummy:

White Christmas Cosmopolitan

1.5 ounces vodka
1/2 ounce triple sec or Cointreau
1/2 ounce sweetened lime juice - Don't use Rose's - our recipe is here.
1 ounce white cranberry juice
fresh cranberries

Shake all liquid ingredients with ice. Strain into a martini glass. Garnish with a few floating cranberries.

(Christmas card brought to you by Eesah the Lounge dog and Amelia's precious black Sharpie).

Mixology Monday: Like That? You'll Love This!

2010-12-13T23:13:00.012-05:00

This month's Mixology Monday is brought to you by eGullet, an online forum where people chat about culinary stuff. The theme, "Like That? You'll Love This!" sounds kind of like a game show: You could win this dishwasher, or you could win (dramatic reveal by blonde model) A BRAND NEW CAR!

I don't have a recipe for you. I'm sitting in my underwear in front of the blazing fire, drinking cheap red wine, and waiting for the lake effect snowstorm that seems to be arriving fashionably late this evening.

However, Leah, also drinking cheap red wine though more tastefully clad in a fluffy white bathrobe, would like to offer her two cents:

"You want a Midori sour? Try this shot of Bookers bourbon!"

During our particularly hair-raising psycho-busy bartending shifts this summer, doing shots of Bookers became a trend for the bartenders on duty (specifically, the Friday Happy Hour staff, but I'm not naming names), almost a game, to see who could throw it back fast and keep a normal expression as it set their mouth-throat-stomach-loins on fire. I must admit, a little Bookers certainly takes the edge off a rough shift.

A feat which a Midori sour cannot claim.

The statement, "Like Midori sours? Then you'll love a shot of Bookers!" is probably a lie, and is bound to be followed by cries and laments of angry mobs of villagers wielding torches and demanding the surrender of the monster.

Bring it on. Just give me a second to do a shot of Bookers first.

Mixology Monday: Gin Sangaree

2010-11-22T13:49:00.015-05:00

This month's Mixology Monday was a little tricky: write about a Forgotten Cocktail. Hey, wait a darn minute, Rock & Rye wiseguy. If I've forgotten a cocktail, how can I write about it? And frankly, since my brain turned 40 (which actually happened when the rest of my body turned 35), I can't even remember how to make a Sex on the Beach. Which is probably good, because those kinda suck.

Mr. Boston Deluxe Official Bartender's Guide, 1974 edition to the rescue. Because I have an aversion to books that smell like wet basements, I don't have any old cocktail books in the house except this one, which belonged to my parents and is complete with their hand-written recipe notes on the inside front and back covers.

To find a "forgotten cocktail," the re-publication of which might change the world of modern spirits forever and provide me with fame and excessive wealth, I paged through the guide. It appears that there are only eight unique recipes in the entire book of 1000+ drinks, all of which contain one or more of the following ingredients in slightly differing ratios: Mr. Boston's brandy, apricot brandy, triple sec, vermouth, scotch, gin, grenadine and lime. And many of which deserve to remain forgotten.

I found one cocktail that I had not previously heard of that included an interesting non-Mr. Boston ingredient: The Gin Sangaree.

You know my distaste for history, so I'm sure you'll appreciate the huge 45-second effort I spent researching sangaree on the internet. Sangaree comes from the latin word for blood and refers to the inclusion of port wine in the cocktail.

With the holidays approaching, this cocktail choice serves up a hint of festive, with a shy dash of nutmeg weaving together the flavors of the port and gin. Because the Gin Sangaree is light, you can savor it before dinner as the port and nutmeg stimulate your appetite. Because it's slightly sweet, it is also effective as a post-dinner sipper.

But is it memorable? Well, I remember liking it last night. Ask me again in six months and we'll see.

Gin Sangaree

2 ounces Gin
1 tablespoon port wine
1/2 teaspoon powdered sugar
1 teaspoon water
club soda
nutmeg

Dissolve sugar in water by stirring, and add gin. Pour into highball glass filled with ice. Top with club soda, and float port wine on the top.

Authors note: F*ck floating the port. I can never make sh*t float. Which is probably my fault, but I'll tell you what, that port looked to me like it weighed as much as a f*cking rock compared to the soda-gin-sugar which was half-comprised of carbonated weightless air bubbles. And if you can float the port, I hate you. I'll bet you can light lemon zest on fire, too. Showoff.

For a roundup of the "Forgotten Cocktails" posted on renowned cocktail blogs all over the world today in celebration of Mixology Monday, visit Rock & Rye.

Cherry Margarita

2010-11-15T10:26:00.011-05:00

"Where's the Grand Marnier?" I asked Leah.

"What Grand Marnier?" she said.

"The Grand Marnier you brought home last week."

Mid-margarita-fixing, I shuffled the bottles in our cramped home bar, a shelf packed with liquors, shakers and glassware, squeezed in the corner above the vacuum cleaner closet. The ice waited impatiently in the glasses on the kitchen counter, as did the tequila and lime juice. I just needed some orange liqueur.

"That was two weeks ago," Leah said.

"You drank the whole thing in a week?" I said.

"Two weeks," said Leah, as if it were less criminal than one.

Maybe ten days, I thought.

Stranded and craving a margarita, I stared at the boggle of bottles and realized we only had one liqueur in the house: Finger Lakes Distilling's Cherry Liqueur.

"Try the cherry," Leah called from the other room as I pondered the bottle in my hand.

If you've ever tasted Finger Lakes Distilling's Cherry Liqueur, you know it's not like any other cherry-flavored spirit. The flavor is incredible, like crushed, fresh-picked sour cherries, with sugar added, because that's exactly how it's made. Think fresh cherry pie.

I had my doubts, though. Cherry in a margarita? Really?

Really. One sip and I was sold. I brought the recipe into the Lounge the next day and it became an immediate patron favorite, a contender for The Drink of The Year, if such an award exists.

Accidental cocktails are the best kind, an "I-never-would-have-tried-that-combination-and-I-see-Jesus'-face-in-the-ice" miracle kind of cocktail. Cherry in a margarita? Yes, please. And I won't be mad at Leah for drinking all the Grand Marnier.

Ch-ch-ch-cherry Margarita

1.5 ounces tequila

3/4 ounce sweetened lime juice (don't be lame and use Rose's or we will insult your intelligence and make fun of you publicly to such a degree that your friends will become embarrassed to be associated with someone so lame and they will abandon you forever and you'll be lonely and drown yourself in substandard margaritas. Our fresh sweetened lime juice recipe can be found here.)

3/4 ounce Finger Lakes Distilling Cherry Liqueur

Fill a rocks glass with ice and add all ingredients. Shake. Salt rim if desired.

Impress Your Friends: Portable Ice Maker Review

2010-10-20T20:09:00.016-04:00

Like Christmas in October, the NewAir AI-100SS Portable Ice Maker arrived on our front porch, snuggied cozily in a big, fat box. I’d like to call it by its full name throughout this entire review, if that’s okay with you. The NewAir AI-100SS Portable Ice Maker. I like saying that. It makes me feel powerful.

If you need an at-home countertop ice machine, then the NewAir AI-100SS Portable Ice Maker – fine, I’ll shorten it – the NewAir is a great choice.

And you DO need an at-home countertop ice machine. Here’s why:

How many times have you come home, expecting to be greeted by your wife (yep, I have a wife) with a martini and “How was your day, dear?” only to have her greet you instead with, “Goddammit, the ice cube trays are empty again and someone didn’t refill them!” (That would be you.)

In six to fifteen minutes this cute little ice machine can pop out enough fresh ice cubes for your drink; it produced our first batch in seven minutes flat. Ah, the glorious sound of ice cubes falling into the basket: clunkity-clunkity-clunk, a precursor to drunkity-drunkity-drunk.

If you plug it in the night before a party (or the morning of the party if you are going to be home to add water and transfer ice cubes into your freezer when the basket is full), the NewAir will easily harvest enough ice for a cocktail party of ten or so of your friends, unless they are total drunks, in which case you probably don’t want them at your house in the first place. Drunk people break things and throw up on things. It takes about four hours to fill the ice basket, and the manual says it can make up to 28 pounds of ice a day.

Pros: The NewAir sits on your counter, taking up about as much space as a bread machine. Incredibly quiet. Indicator lights let you know when to add water, and when the ice basket is full. You can choose the size of your ice cubes.

Cons: Our house is about the size of an elfin tree house, with limited counter space. Also, Leah opened the box when it arrived and said the protective blue plastic required an extreme amount of patience (which she doesn't have) to remove. However, everything else about the NewAir is awesome.

Warning: Don’t let your wife try to make lemonade-flavored and wine-flavored ice cubes in your ice maker. Bad, Leah! No!

If all you drink is ice water and sugary soft drinks, you are lame and you don’t deserve an ice machine. If you want to impress your friends with generous cocktails, or if you like to have ice cubes available consistently (like if you run a Bed and Breakfast), then you should consider the NewAir AI-100SS Portable Ice Maker. There. I said it again. Owning one will make you feel powerful.

The NewAir AI-100SS Portable Ice Maker is available at Air & Water for $199.95 with free shipping.

Bibliochef Interview

2010-10-13T09:59:00.003-04:00

Bibliochef, our pal at the blog Cooking with Ideas, posted an interview with me this week. Click here to learn how the heck Leah and I ended up opening a lounge; what Leah is thinking when she concocts those crazy cocktails; the connection between mixology, writing and cartooning; and where we choose to eat when we aren't working our fannies off at the Lounge.

The interview.

Battle of the Tonics

2010-10-01T11:38:00.005-04:00

As bartenders, we often get the question, "Does the brand of tonic water matter?" That depends. Are you a fussy bitch?

I would never go into a person’s house or a bar and snub my nose at generic tonic water. I grew up with Schweppes and Canada Dry, and they taste just fine to me. I’m not implying that I was drinking gin and tonics as a child; I’m saying that when I was 21 years old, I wasn’t spending $6.69 plus a 30-cent bottle deposit on a four-pack of 12 ounce Q Tonic when a liter of Polar tonic water costs only $.89.

You get what you pay for. When you buy fancier tonics, you can revel in the fact that you are drinking hand-picked quinine, whatever that means, and no high fructose corn syrup.

That said, Leah and I did a tonic taste-test for all of you fussy bitches out there, making gin-and-tonics with the best gin we had in the house: Hendrick’s. Here’s our report:

Schweppes: So sweet and smooth, you could almost drink it without gin. Almost.

Polar: Sweet, but metallic and thinner compared to Schweppes.

Q: A hint of lemon, kind of like 7UP, with a bitter finish. Sweetened with agave syrup.

Stirrings: Lighter and cleaner. A hint of lemon rind, and also a bitter finish. Contains cane sugar.

Fever-Tree: Less lemon, not too sweet, allowing the gin’s unique personality to shine through. Cane sugar.

Our conclusion? If you are going to drink cheap booze, stick with cheap tonic. For high shelf booze, try Q or Stirrings to bring out the best in your liquor, or our favorite because it was less lemon-y, Fever-Tree. Try your own taste-test and see what you think. For the record, we found Fever-Tree at Wegmans, the Vatican of grocery stores.

AlleyArt: Beach Finds

2010-09-22T11:27:00.008-04:00

Though Fall is in the air, Laura Robert's summer beach art is gracing Felicia's alley.

Created from garbage found on the beaches of Cape Cod, Laura's works embody the phrase, "One person's trash is another person's treasure."

The show is up until Tuesday, October 5. A closing reception will be held on Tuesday, October 5 from 5:00pm-6:30pm, and visitors can take Laura's artwork home with them that day. Felicia will be providing snacky-snacks.

(I call this one, "Race you to the water...")

Read more about Laura and her last show at Felicia's here:

http://feliciaspeakeasy.blogspot.com/2009/09/alleyart-sustainable-mobiles.html

Felicia's Atomic Lounge hosts outdoor sustainable alley art shows in the warm months, featuring a different artist every month. All artwork must be made with a minimum of 50% recycled/reused/repurposed materials. Proposal guidelines can be found here:

http://feliciaspeakeasy.blogspot.com/2009/06/felicias-alley.html

Fernet Branca: The Pipe Cleaner

2010-08-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

This month's Mixology Monday, hosted by Brown, Bitter and Stirred, requires a visit to an old frenemy of mine, Fernet Branca:

A FEW DAYS AGO, I noticed a foul odor in my kitchen. My first thought was that it was emanating from the refrigerator, from one of my partner Leah’s lacto-fermentation projects, which can thrive happily and stink up the fridge for months. But when I washed my hands in the kitchen sink, a dead cabbage smell wafted up to my nose, and I realized that something was rotting in the drain.

I hoped the stank in the sink would be easy to extinguish, but Leah’s efforts proved futile. Throughout the day, she poured various substances down the drain: boiling water, dish soap, baking soda, vinegar, bleach. As a last resort, she tossed in a splash of Fernet Branca. If that didn’t improve the bouquet, she said, then she’d take apart the pipes tomorrow.

Since I wrote about Fernet Branca in an earlier column, I’ve been surprised to find how many people enjoy drinking this medicinal, menthol liqueur; One friend fondly reminisced how his great-aunt used to give him a spoonful for tummy aches when he was a child, his introduction to the healing power of liquor. Many people were shocked to hear that I, a lover of all booze, was not in love with this particular amaro.

My distaste for Fernet Branca comes from a bias: I am not a fan of cooling herbs. Perhaps it’s from having Vicks VapoRub shoved up my nostrils on a tissue torpedo when I had a cold as a child. Or maybe I used too much Ben Gay on torn ligaments when I was a cheerleader, when the coach insisted we do full splits at tournaments even when our bodies insisted we couldn’t. (It’s true. I cheered, complete with feathered hair, fringy pom poms and a short-short black and gold skirt. You can stop laughing now). Mint ice cream and mint juleps are on my most-hated list. Even toothpaste challenges me. Right after I brush my teeth, I can’t drink a glass of water without gagging. The only exception to my mint aversion is mojitos, which I can easily consume in large amounts. The muddled limes seem to castrate the mint and leave it powerless to offend me.

Which got me thinking: Maybe I’d be able to tolerate Fernet Branca in a cocktail with lime.

When I mentioned this idea to Leah, she suggested I start with a base alcohol that could compete with the menthol, like a peaty scotch. For this drink, I chose cognac. I added lime juice and sugar, and topped it with a splash of club soda, because, gosh darn it, bubbles are fun, and the Fernet needed something on its side.

The resulting cocktail was palatable and refreshing. The lime did the trick, and I felt relieved to tell my friends that I, too, had found a way to appreciate the highly regarded Fernet Branca. I don’t love it, but like any alcohol, it’s all in how you mix it.

And miraculously, when mixed with boiling water, dish soap, baking soda, vinegar, and bleach, Fernet Branca cured the drain of its malodorous ailment.

Pipe Cleaner

1 ½ ounces cognac
¼ ounce Fernet Branca
¼ ounce lime juice
1 teaspoon sugar
club soda
lime wheel

Fill a shaker with ice. Add cognac, Fernet Branca, lime juice and sugar. Shake. Strain into a double rocks glass filled with ice. Top with club soda. Garnish with a lime wheel.

Be sure to visit Brown, Bitter, and Stirred for a wrap-up of other recipes that are brown, bitter, and stirred, which probably taste better than mine.

New Amsterdam Gin

2010-08-10T21:31:00.006-04:00

About a year ago, the booze marketers found us, which meant we found lots of booze on our doorstep. When the FTC law passed last fall commanding that bloggers disclose freebies, the liquid gifts stopped.

Bring it on, booze handlers. I was already telling everyone that you sent me free booze anyway because I thought I'd seem cooler to potential new friends. Besides, drunk though I may be, I'm always polite. No negative reviews on this blog; I only review products that we like. If your product is monstrously crappy, mum's the word.

That said, when New Amsterdam gin magically showed up on our porch after a dry spring and summer, we were pleased.

For the price, New Amsterdam gin is awesome. To our palates, it is smoother than Beefeater, Tanqueray and Bombay. And it's only $17 for a one-liter bottle. Heck, we can buy that with the nickels and dimes we saved up in our great horned owl bank. (It's a decoy AND a bank. Who knew? Not even the people who sold it to us).

If you've got the money for a bottle of Hendricks gin and you're trying to get laid, for god's sake buy the Hendricks. Otherwise, I'd suggest you give New Amsterdam a try.

Mastodons and Martinis

2010-07-11T13:38:00.006-04:00

You without a cocktail in your hand on a Friday night is like a fish out of vodka.

Felicia's will be slinging cocktails at the Lounge to the jazzy tunes of Wingnut this Friday, July 16 5:30pm-8:30pm, AND Felicia's will be making drinks at the Museum of the Earth for their "Mastodons and Martinis" reception 6pm-9pm.

The Museum's current temporary exhibit, One Fish, Two Fish, Old Fish, New Fish: Exploring the Evolution of Biodiversity, will attract visitors throughout the summer and early fall, and “Mastodons and Martinis” creates an innovative way to discover the Museum in an adult social setting this Friday night.

Have a “Coelophysis Cocktail” or a “Mastodon Martini” while wandering the Museum exhibits and snacking on tasty snacky snacks from our favorite food caterer, Serendipity. Cost of attendance for this exciting event is a $25 social membership fee per person. The membership fee covers entrance to the event, your first cocktail of the evening, hors d’oeuvres and advanced notice of other social membership events to be hosted by the Museum. For more information or to purchase your social membership visit the Museum of the Earth online at www.museumoftheearth.org, or by phone at 607-273-6623 x11.

The Wingnut show at the Lounge is a free alternative, but no mastodons or coelophysis will be in attendance.

Black Raspberry Cocktail for the Fourth of July

2010-07-01T12:42:00.014-04:00

Wild black raspberries ("black caps") are ripening just in time for the Fourth of July. The creekbed by our house is filled with the juicy things, plenty enough to share with the birds and the feral children who raid the bushes, the same children who were "playing" in the creek when it was at flood level. Apparently, they have no parents.

Our fingers are stained red with berries, and our mouths are happy. Special thanks to Tree Gate Farm so we can spend more time mixing cocktails than picking berries.

Leave out the vodka to make this a virgin cocktail for wussies and kids.

Black Cap Sparkler

1 1/2 ounce vodka
1/8 cup black raspberries
1 mint leaf
1/2 lime wheel
2 teaspoons sugar
club soda
mint sprig

In a pint glass, muddle vodka, berries, mint, lime and sugar. Add ice. Top with club soda. Toss into a shaker and back once or twice to mix.

Happy Independence Day!

AlleyArt: Plants Under The Influence

2010-06-02T10:51:00.015-04:00

In the warm weather, Felicia's hosts monthly sustainable outdoor art shows in the alley. Best known for her rugby antics and her Drunken Fishbowl AlleyArt show last year, Emily Benning is back with a new show that is up through the end of June: Plants Under The Influence.

The alley has been transformed into a colorful jungle filled with flowers and plants constructed with 100% recycled and reused materials, including a boatload of packing peanuts and bubble wrap.

Come by to admire Emily's work, and drop us a line if you have a proposal for a recycled AlleyArt show. Guidelines can be found here.

Artist Emily Benning (front) smiles for the camera while patrons enjoy cocktails and snacks at the opening reception for Plants Under The Influence.

Tom Waits, Boones Farm and Taxis

2010-05-25T09:35:00.005-04:00

This month’s Mixology Monday is weird, and I’ve got a weird tale to comply with the weird task.

Andrew at Caskstrength instructs us:
Let the bawdy, lovely, peculiar and obvious late nightlife inspire you to tell a favorite drinking tale while listening to, or being inspired by Tom Waits.

Summer in Ithaca is like a fairytale when you are twenty-two years old and recently set free from dungeons of the University. The hot sun combined with red wine, late nights and skinny dipping in waterfalls makes you think you can do anything.

I had found myself a damp, basement apartment on the hill, across from my favorite pub (for drinking what at the time was housebrewed porter), The Chapter House.

My best friend Antigone lived at a nearby anarchist vegetarian coop. It was Antigone who introduced me to Boones Farm and to the boy. Skinny and effeminate, with long golden curls, he looked like a prince in tan corduroys. He drove a taxi by day, a pursuit I found so romantic that I called the taxi company and got hired on the night shift.

Late one evening not long after I met him, the boy pulled out a guitar and started playing Tom Waits’ songs.

I don’t remember his name, if I kissed him, or what songs he played. I only remember how odd it was to hear gravelly growling and choking sounds coming out of his heart-shaped pink lips which had seconds before been graced by his girlish voice.

In that moment, I knew we would never be lovers.

I quit the taxi company before my first shift, and Antigone and I spent the rest of the summer drinking Boones Farm by the waterfalls.

The hazy memories are revived only by the sound of Tom Waits’ voice, a stranger’s request for late night drinking tales, and the occasional passing of a taxi.

Got Rose's?

2010-05-09T20:36:00.006-04:00

“And please bring Rose’s lime juice. The father of the groom likes gimlets.”

This request came in an email I got about a wedding the Lounge is catering this summer. My answer is NO. Absolutely not. We will NOT bring Rose’s lime juice.

First, let’s take look at the ingredients in Rose’s: water, high fructose corn syrup, concentrated lime juice, sodium metabisulfite, Blue No. 1.

Rose’s doesn’t really taste like lime juice, and sodium metabisulfite makes my eyes swell shut. I’m not exaggerating.

Now let’s take a look at what’s in Felicia’s housemade sweetened lime juice: lime juice, sugar, water.

Which would you prefer?

To empower you to have a choice (at least at home), I’m giving you our recipe. Stop drinking crap, please. I expend way too much energy feeling sorry for you and I would much prefer to celebrate your enjoyment of quality cocktails. And take note: if you are allergic to preservatives like me, ReaLime and ReaLemon 100% juice concentrates contain sodium benzoate in addition to a couple of -ites. Squeeze juice from fresh limes (we found a great juicer at an antique market and it looks hip on the kitchen counter), or check the frozen section of your natural grocery for a preservative-free alternative.

Sweetened Lime Juice

2 cups lime juice
¾ cup sugar
½ cup water

Heat water in the microwave or on the stove until almost boiling. Remove from heat. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. (You just made simple syrup.) Let cool. Mix with lime juice. Your sweetened lime juice will keep a couple of weeks in the fridge.

For future reference, or if you want to make a smaller amount, the ratio of sugar to water in simple syrup is 3:2. In sweetened lime juice, the ratio of lime juice to simple syrup is 2:1.

Same goes for making your own sour mix. Don’t use that nasty stuff that comes pre-made in bottles unless you want to glow in the dark. Substitute lemon juice for lime juice and you’ve got homemade sour mix. It’s that easy.

Again, NO, I will not bring Rose's lime juice to your special event. I've got something much, much better for that gimlet.

Tastes Like the Finger Lakes

2010-04-30T11:12:00.004-04:00

by Amelia Sauter
Photo by Ed Dittenhoefer / FreeAirPhoto

EVERY TIME I visit Finger Lakes Distilling in Burdett, New York, I find master distiller Thomas McKenzie hard at work downstairs. Today, in the shadow of the towering, twenty-foot tall copper still and surrounded by dozens of barrels that line the walls, Thomas is coercing the juice from blueberries with a hand-cranked wooden barrel press. His hands are stained a murderous blood red, and indigo streaks mark his face and shirt. He spies the photographer with me. “Don’t shoot my britches,” says Thomas with a southern accent that curls like molasses, “cuz I got blueberry juice all over ‘em.”

The air in the building is heavy with the lingering scent of fermenting corn mash. The pervasive, permeating presence of the aroma is much like a grandmother’s house that has a distinctive, comforting smell even when nothing is in the oven. I’m particularly excited about my visit today; I don’t know if Thomas and president Brian McKenzie (who has the same last name as Thomas, but is no relation) will agree, but for me their announcement this week is one of the most exciting since I first heard the rumors of the opening last July: They finally have a date for their bourbon release.

Finger Lakes Distilling renders me giddy. It’s not just the excellent liquor, made with local berries, corn and grapes. It’s the idea of a distillery in my own neighborhood. Though they are legally producing liquor, the thought of a still near the edge of the Hector National Forest feels thrilling and naughty, like smoking in the girls’ bathroom or, I imagine, growing marijuana hidden between tomato plants in your garden.

Though Finger Lakes Distilling is a classy venture, with architecture and tasting room décor inspired by the distilleries of Scotland, I can’t stop myself from calling their product “hooch.” Their business is the first of its kind in the Finger Lakes region to focus solely on liquor. Recently relaxed restrictions on farm distilleries, which allow farms to have tasting rooms, combined with the rising popularity of craft spirits have led to a growing trend in New York State: this summer, three more distilleries are slated to open in Brooklyn alone.

As the story goes, Thomas and Brian met three years ago at a distilling conference in Louisville, Kentucky. Thomas comes from a long line of distillers, but he’s the first to legally take on the task. His thick Alabama accent conjures up visions of a dilapidated backyard shed that houses a ramshackle still. You can almost taste Thomas’ family heritage in all of the liquors here, brought to life by Brian’s entrepreneurial energy.

Initially, the distillery released vodka and gin, both made from local grapes, and both of which won Best in Class at the 2009 New York Spirits Awards. The gin, which boasts complex anise and citrus notes, has been a big hit with the public. The wild berry vodka is a perfect addition to a glass of lemonade. They produced sweet liqueurs next (I recommend cassis and raspberry), followed by rye and then grappa. Most recently, the distillery released an exquisite cherry liqueur that tastes like the juice of fresh-picked sour cherries. In my house, we went through three bottles in two weeks (for educational purposes, honest), and I’ll be taking another half case home with me today.

What I’ve been waiting for, though, is Finger Lakes Distilling’s bourbon. Like Thomas, I, too, have a history in the world of booze: I come from a long line of devoted whiskey-drinkers. My partner Leah and I have followed the progress of the bourbon with regular visits to the Distillery, as it aged in new charred oak barrels and then moved to second-hand chardonnay barrels from Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars. Our faithful visits have been rewarded with sneak-peek tastings, or perhaps I should call them teasings, since they have only served to feed our impatience. When we had our first nip eighteen months ago, the bourbon was so brilliant, smooth and rich that I asked then why they were waiting to release it. “It needs to a-yage,” Thomas answered in his drawl, speaking the word “age” with two syllables. “It’s gonna get even better.”

And it most certainly has. Sitting with Brian and Thomas on barrels that house aging spirits, I get to taste the bourbon a few weeks before its release. It’s more mellow now, rounded, with hints of butterscotch, toasted caramel and rye. This bottle will easily sit on the top shelf with Booker’s and Basil Hayden. I ask Thomas how he would describe it. “It tastes like bourbon,” he says and we all laugh. Then he elaborates. “It tastes like old-time bourbon.”

Thomas explains that in the last fifteen or twenty years, liquor has typically been distilled and aged at higher proofs than it was previously, which allowed producers to fit more in a barrel, in turn reducing storage costs. Instead of aging their bourbon at 115 or 120 proof, Finger Lakes Distilling chose to age it at 100 proof. Brian believes the way the spirit interacts with the wooden barrels is affected by the lower proof, thus resulting in a different flavor.

Thomas disappears for a minute and comes back with a tiny bottle. “Try this,” he says, pouring me a splash of the brown liquor. It tastes amazing, different than any whiskey I’ve had before, though I lack the words to describe how. “Wild Turkey,” he says. “Distilled in 1971, bottled in 1978.” I wouldn’t turn twenty-one for another thirteen years.

Finger Lakes Distilling bourbon is made with 70% corn, 20% rye and 10% malted barley. The corn is not a hybrid, nor is it genetically modified. It is local, open-pollinated corn, and organic, too, which Brian says results in a superior fermentation. Less than 300 bottles will be available, and they suspect it will sell out quickly.

I pose one more question to the guys before I leave. What, I ask, is the essence that haunts every spirit from Finger Lakes Distilling, whether the grape-based vodka and gin, the corn liquor, the rye or the bourbon? It’s a mystery, they tell me. Brian thinks it may be a flavor imparted from their still. “Terroir,” says Thomas and I make him repeat it and spell it. A term frequently used in winemaking, terroir (pronounced te-wa) is loosely translated from French as “sense of place.”

“It’s the flavor of the land,” says Thomas. I agree. Tastes like the Finger Lakes to me.

On May 1, the Distillery will release the eagerly-awaited bourbon. A 750ml bottle will cost $45. Live music will be provided by Long John and the Tights in the afternoon, and you get a free tasting if you wear a derby hat. Those who arrive unadorned can pay $2 for a tasting, which is credited back if they make a purchase. And if that’s not enough to bring you out that day, Thomas adds, “You get to talk with me.”

The tasting room at Finger Lakes Distilling is open daily from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. More information can be found at www.fingerlakesdistilling.com.

History, Valentine socks and the Apricot Sour

2010-04-07T12:24:00.005-04:00

“Is history important?” My preoccupation with this philosophical question started when a crazy ex-boyfriend hunted me down so we could “reconnect.” After I successfully avoided him for seven years, he cornered me in the periodical section of the public library, and yes, he actually cried. He argued in non-library tones that we should revisit our time together; our relationship the most beautiful year of his life, he said. Clearly, I thought, history is a construct, viewed through the biases of the reminiscer.

I politely declined his reconnection request. I’m not convinced that history is important, and my ex is a strong justification for never looking back. When I’m playing Trivial Pursuit, you won’t find a yellow pie wedge in my game piece. Geek though I am, history was my worst subject in school. In fifth grade, I failed my first test ever in world history. I bombed the American history AP exam in high school. I seem to be incapable of memorizing dates and historical events (though I remember in vivid detail Romeo’s naked buttocks in the 1968 film Romeo and Juliet, which we watched during tenth grade lit class).

My history angst stretches into the arena of cocktails. For the love of Dale*, I can never remember where classic drinks came from, who made them, and why. The elitist worship of old-school cocktails drives me crazy with its snobbery of “shoulds” and “shouldn’ts” that many bartenders try to impose on today’s drinks. I’m not interested in either shaking raw eggs into cocktails or glorifying the disgusting herbal liqueurs sold during Prohibition in pharmacies as “medicine.” Some cocktails are best forgotten, like my ex-boyfriend.

But family heritage is my notable exception. Be it stories or objects, I saved everything my parents ever gave me, like the pair of red knee socks with white hearts my mom bought for me twenty-five years ago. Though they’ve faded and the elastic is long-gone, causing them to bunch around my ankles and slide into my shoes, I still wear them every February 14th.

When Leah and I opened the Lounge, my parents passed on to us their 1974 Mr. Boston Bartenders Guide (53rd printing). I flipped through the classics, but what caught my eye were the handwritten recipes penciled inside the back cover. Tequila sunrise. Daiquiri. In my dad’s script, Margaritas: Fill a blender halfway with tequila and the rest of the way with half triple sec and half either limeade or pop. And then there was my mother’s favorite drink, recorded in her slanty handwriting: Apricot Sour. Reading the recipe, I could taste it in memory, its tart flavor known to me from eating the liquor-soaked maraschino cherry left at the bottom of her glass.

Apricot Sour

1 ½ ounce apricot brandy
1 ounce orange juice
¾ ounce lemon juice
a few drops of maraschino cherry juice
maraschino cherry

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Add brandy and juices. Stir. Garnish with maraschino cherry.

*Dale DeGroff, a master mixologist credited for the revival of classic cocktails.

Big Red Cocktail

2010-03-25T09:56:00.007-04:00

In honor of the Big Red basketball team reaching the Sweet 16, Leah created the Big Red Cocktail, including antioxidant superfood to make you Ivy League smart.

We're offering nerd specials at the Lounge this weekend: bring in a Rubik's cube for $1 off any drink; solve it in under three minutes and your drink is free. Yes, I went to Cornell. A long, long time ago. Yes, I can solve a Rubik's cube, but it usually takes me a few weeks (I majored in social work).

The New York Times gave this weekend's discounts in Ithaca some press, but they didn't mention the name of our celebratory Big Red Cocktail. Sure, we could have called it the Big Red Martini, or maybe Big Red Punch, but Big Red Cocktail has such a nice ring to it, and it will likely cause a pile of unintended hits on my blog, increasing readership and impressing publishers who will then beg to get their hands on my witty memoir and pay me a sizable advance. Go Big Red!

Big Red Cocktail

1/2 ounce Lillet
1/4 ounce Cointreau
1/2 ounce cranberry juice
1/2 ounce pomegranate juice
1 ounce champagne
orange twist

Shake Lillet, Cointreau and juices with ice. Pour into martini glass and top with champagne. Garnish with an orange twist.

Gertrude Stein Cocktail

2010-03-17T11:00:00.005-04:00

This Saturday, Felicia's is hosting its first Writers' Cafe. The theme for this curated reading, chosen by yours truly, is drink. Because I like to drink. And you like to drink, too. That's why we're friends.

Leah is working on some special cocktails for the event, including homemade chai for those writers and readers who prefer to write and read sober, strange as that sounds. I'll be spiking mine.

Because I am creative in the two-dimensional world (writing) and lame in the three-dimensional world (everything else), mixing innovative cocktails is not my forte. I leave that job to Leah who looks totally hot in 3-D.

Occasionally, though, I steal, um, borrow someone else's cocktail recipe and tweak it. The Gertrude Stein cocktail below is our take on a drink served at Cinq 01 in Toronto.

It tastes kinda like iced tea, but better. I'm going to drink one on the porch in the sunshine right now while I write something totally awesome.

Gertrude Stein Cocktail

1.5 ounces of Pimm's No. 1 Cup
3/4 ounce chamomile syrup (equal parts strong chamomile tea and sugar)
1/4 ounce fresh-squeezed lime juice
club soda
lemon-lime soda
lemon wedge

Fill a Collins glass with ice. Add Pimm's, chamomile syrup and lime juice. Top with equal parts club soda and lemon-lime soda. Garnish with a lemon wedge.

Fernet Branca: The Toronto

2010-03-09T10:17:00.005-05:00

First, you need to know that Fernet Branca is one of the scariest liquids I’ve put in my mouth in a long, long time; second, that it is a liqueur highly regarded by the cocktail community.

I warned Leah,“Only buy one bottle,” but, ever-vigilant of quantity discounts, we've got three. Fernet Branca is an amaro, which doesn't come from the Latin word for love, but rather is Italian for “bitter and tragically disgusting yet for some reason we are compelled to drink it.”

Describing Fernet Branca as medicinal and herbal with notes of eucalyptus and mint is a serious understatement; that would be like describing gasoline fumes as earthy and peppery. Think camphor meets green Nyquil. Or, have you ever used Alkalol? Alkalol is a “natural formula” brown menthol liquid that you snort into your sinuses, which both cleanses them of pollen and burns all the flesh off of your nasal passages. Alkalol and Fernet Branca: separated at birth?

If I haven’t scared you away yet, then on to the cocktails! With much trepidation, I poured our first drink: Fernet Branca and Coca-Cola, wildly popular in Argentina.

The responses from the elite panel of judges: Dad says it tastes like Vicks VapoRub meets birch beer. Leah says, "I wouldn’t dump it out," but I notice she doesn’t drink any more of it, and later, she dumps it out. I like the bitter finish, but I simply can’t stomach the menthol edge.

Take two. I mix Fernet Branca with something bolder than Coke: Finger Lakes Distilling’s McKenzie rye whiskey. The resulting drink, the Toronto, is a classic reminiscent of an Old Fashioned, but with an invigorating smack in the nostrils and a bitter finish. The three of us agree we can almost appreciate this cocktail.

Supposedly, Fernet Branca is an acquired taste that develops only with regular drinking. Stay tuned: We’ll revisit this one in a second column and see if the Fernet Branca lands on the bar beside the Campari, or on the bathroom counter next to the neti pot.

The Toronto

2 oz Finger Lakes Distilling McKenzie rye whiskey
¼ ounce Fernet Branca
¼ ounce simple syrup
twist of orange peel

Pour all ingredients over ice. Stir for twenty seconds. Garnish with a twist of orange peel.

Frequently Asked Questions

2010-03-03T17:39:00.008-05:00

People assume that bartenders know things. Facts. Stuff about life. Secrets. Today, I’ll share some answers* to a few questions frequently asked in bars:

Are you open?
Was the door unlocked?

Does bourbon have to be distilled in Kentucky to be called bourbon?
No.

Shake or stir?
Oooo, good one. When you shake a drink, the ice melts more than if you stir it, watering down the cocktail as it melts. A good rule of thumb is if a cocktail is pure liquor, stir it, and if it contains mixers, shake it (unless the mixers are carbonated).

Some people say shaking "bruises" gin. What does "bruising" mean?
It means it hurts if you press on it, or if a friend who thinks he/she is being funny presses on it.

I have a really bad cold/flu/stomach bug. What cocktail do you recommend?
I used to say “water,” but that answer surprisingly does not go over well with thirsty bar patrons who want to imbibe. Besides, alcohol kills germs, right? Personally, I recommend a hot toddy with some fresh grated ginger added. My mum suggests you could try nip of apricot brandy or blackberry liqueur.

Why do I attract so many crazy people?
Um…why do you think?

I’m wondering about that “beer before liquor” rhyme. How does that go and is it true?
Usually, the people who ask this question introduce it with “I just drank two bottles of wine and a twelve-pack of beer. Is it safe to add couple of vodka gimlets into the mix?” To my knowledge, a couple versions of the rhyme exist. My favorite, and the one I stand by, is the version that goes like this: “If you drink too much of anything, you’re probably going to throw up at some point.”

Do I drink too much?
No.

Where’s the bathroom?
Back of the bar and to the right.

Are you sure I don’t drink too much?
No.

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop™?
One…two…three....Three licks.

How do you know so much?
*I make it up. When I’m drinking.

Verjuice in a Cocktail

2010-02-25T13:01:00.007-05:00

What the hell is verjuice and what is it doing in my fridge? Well, cocktail snobs, you should know the answer already so run away with your tail between your legs. Everyone else, here's an explanation on this increasingly popular liquid used in gastronomical arts.

If you put verjuice (or verjus) in a glass and took a swig, you'd spit it out all over your nice clean white shirt and the kitchen floor. (You should know better than to wear white in the kitchen.) Verjuice is a non-alcoholic juice pressed from unripe grapes. It is best described as sour or acidic, and most commonly is used in place of vinegar or cooking wine.

We recently got our hands on a bottle of local verjuice, called Verjooz, made by Sawmill Creek Vineyards and Red Newt Winery. The flavor and mouthfeel remind me of a seriously tart picked-way-too-early apple.

On the web, there's a few cocktail recipes containing verjuice, including a video of this slick guy who accentuates the French pronunciation (ver-JOO) and shakes his cocktail shaker one-handed. Ooooo, I'm so impressed. In general, verjuice seems to be used in drinks when you want a touch of sour.

Leah and I brought some Verjooz to the Lounge and asked Lil' Claire if she could pair it with Finger Lakes Distilling's Seneca Drums gin. She came up with a cocktail that we're calling the Tropical Locavore Gin and Tonic (until someone comes up with a better name - suggestions?). Lychee juice combined with the apple-ish flavor of Verjooz complements the subtle earthy notes of Seneca Drums gin.

Now if we could just grow lychees in the Finger Lakes...

Tropical Locavore Gin and Tonic

1 and 1/2 ounces of Seneca Drums gin
3/4 ounce lychee juice (OR sub 1/2 ounce St. Germaine elderflower liqueur)
1/4 ounce of Verjooz
tonic water

Fill a rocks glass with ice and add gin, lychee and Verjooz. Top with tonic water.

Editor's note 3/9/10: We've been taste-testing at the Lounge, and we're definitely favoring the St. Germaine over the lychee juice.

Click here to find out where you can buy Verjooz and to find recipes for cooking with verjuice.

The Vesper

2010-02-17T13:39:00.006-05:00

I love the name Vesper. It sounds like a superhero. The Vesper. Or even better, the Green Vesper, though superior in name only, since the green one is made with absinthe which tastes like black licorice jellybeans. Bleh.

Last weekend, Leah and I met my parents for dinner at the Hotel Clarence in Seneca Falls, NY. We checked out my parents' room, and ooo-wee, tres chic design. A hotel room even a gay man would love.

Dinner was lovely, too, but I'm going to focus on the cocktails, or I should say, cocktail. Both Leah and I ordered a Vesper, I'm embarrassed to admit, for the first time ever.

After our rave reviews, one of our own superheroes behind the bar, Super Guy, concocted a Vesper using a ratio pleasing to Felicia's palate.

I'm going to name my first born, "Vesper."

The Vesper

1 and 1/4 ounce Stolichnaya vodka
1 and 1/4 ounce Bombay Dry gin
3/4 ounce Lillet Blanc

Stir, don't shake, all ingredients with ice. Garnish with a lemon twist.

Berry Chocolate Beer

2010-02-11T10:36:00.005-05:00

Beer cocktails are on the to-do list. We love beer. We love cocktails. We shall love beer cocktails.

Last year on Valentine's Day, one of our bartenders mixed Young's Double Chocolate Stout with Raspberry Lambic and big bang kapowey. A star was born.

When you care enough to drink the very best.

Berry Chocolate Beer

1/2 Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1/2 Lindemans Framboise Lambic

Serve in a pilsner glass.

Open thread: What are you drinking on Valentine's Day this year?

Cocktails in the Keys: Hemingway Daiquiri

2010-01-28T10:34:00.009-05:00

As I write this blog post, I am watching a blizzard take place outside my window. So much for a walk with the dog this morning. Sorry, Eesah. Maybe in June.

Our vacation to Florida seems so far away now. But, as promised, here's a little info about cocktails in the Keys:

They suck.

We probably should have driven into Miami to find some good cocktails, but it's hard to leave a room with a deck on the ocean to drive into traffic and chaos and nightlife, unless the nightlife includes snorkeling and kayaking and alligators, which it might in Miami. I'll never know.

We did drive to Key West, which felt like going to the State Fair. With bars. Maybe even like going to the Trumansburg Fair, on demolition derby night, except less teen mothers. And with bars. The drunken crowds were ten deep on the pier for the sunset which was partially blocked by a circling cruise ship.

We did finally go out in Key Largo to a tiki bar where we drank pre-made fructose-sweetened pina coladas from plastic cups, which tasted pretty good, probably because we drank them on the beach.

So I've got two things for you today: a list of awesome, hidden places to go to eat, drink and play in the Keys, and a tropical drink recipe from Leah that does not involve artificial colors, blenders or seizure-inducing sweeteners.

Drink in the Keys:
The Juice House, Key Largo (MM 103): Cuban coffee and Cuban bread
Any grocery store: A six-pack of Corona and limes

Eat in the Keys:
Puerta Vallarta, Key Largo: Mexican food
Calypso, Key Largo: Seafood
Ma's Fish Camp, Islamorada: Best fish sandwich in the world, plus amazing key lime pie
El Siboney, Key West: Cuban food and Cuban coffee; sangria

Play in the Keys:
John Pennecamp State Park, Key Largo: snorkeling and canoeing
Backcountry Cowboy Outfitters, Islamorada: kayaking
Shark Valley, Everglades: bicycling and alligators

Stay in the Keys:
The Floating Inn, Key Largo

And last, but not least, a drink recipe from Leah. For a coconutty tropical alternative, check out our recipe for a Key Largo cocktail.

Hemingway Daiquiri

2 ounces light rum
1/4 ounce cherry liqueur
juice from two limes
juice from 1/2 grapefruit
simple syrup (half water, half sugar) to taste

Shake all ingredents with ice. Serve in a rocks glass over ice. For best results, drink on the beach.

Cuban Bread

2010-01-22T10:02:00.002-05:00

I haven't written about Key Largo cocktails yet because my recently diagnosed allergy to preservatives has prevented me from the partaking of candy-colored tropical fruity goodness blender drinks. Sadly, I've yet to find a bar that squeezes fresh limes for their daiquiris. (Did I spell that right?) I'm sure Ernest Hemingway didn't drink Rose's lime juice or fake yellow #5 margarita mix.

A wonderful food find, though, in the absence of a decent bakery in Key Largo: Cuban bread. All the Cuban delis carry it. Ingredients: water, flour, lard, yeast and salt. No preservatives. And it's made with lard. Brilliant.

Sent from my iPhone.

I Found Out What I'm Missing

2010-01-20T20:50:00.002-05:00

Being in Florida is not, in fact, about eating only fresh seafood. It's about eating Mexican food. And Cuban food. The. Best. Food. Ever.

The Mexican shack down the road from our floating inn in Key Largo (recommended by the locals) served me the most amazing ceviche last night for dinner, with leftovers enough to eat it for dinner again tonight. Leah had a shrimp fajita with more grilled jumbo shrimp than she can count, and she can count pretty high. At least to twenty.

Que rico. Que sabor. Que perfecto. Voy a quedar aqui siempre.

Oh, and one other thing: Corona. With lime. And a sunset. Ya.

Virtual Friends

2010-01-17T11:06:00.007-05:00

Blogging makes the world feel cozy. One of my regular blog readers who lives in Pennsylvania came to town for a wedding this weekend and sought out Felicia's for a cocktail. We met face-to-face. Strangers become friends, through writing, the web and drinks.

Facebook instills a similar sense of connection. A friend's Facebook status recently scolded voyeurs who read and never comment, so they know everything about you, but you know nothing about them. Creepy? I kinda like it. Felicia has 1300 friends, and I don't get a chance to comment on everyone's status. You don't know me, but I'm watching you. You make me laugh. I've got your back. I know your bra color. And I'm here for you, whenever you're ready to come in for a drink.

Follow me on Facebook.

Key Largo Cocktail

2010-01-13T11:41:00.005-05:00

Nat, our good friend over at Alpha Cook and a former Felicia bartender, sent a package of goodies this year at the holidays. Cookies, her infamous homemade marshmellows, a hat for Leah, and fresh grenadine were some of the treats in the box. This week, we opened the bottle of pineapple gum syrup. Since Leah and I are about to head to Florida for a week (don't worry, the Lounge will still be open), we thought we'd start practicing for our tiki drink marathon.

No blender necessary. We're too lazy to get it out, use it, clean it and put it away. Whew. I got tired just thinking about that.

Here's a picture of Nat riding a creepy rabbit. No pineapple gum syrup in your house? You can buy it online from Small Hand Foods in San Francisco, or try substituting pineapple juice.

Key Largo Cocktail

1 and 1/2 ounces Bacardi Coco rum
3/4 ounce pineapple gum syrup
3/4 ounce fresh squeezed lime juice
lime wheel

Shake with ice. Enjoy on the rocks or straight up.

All I Want for Christmas is...

2009-12-26T12:59:00.007-05:00

After everyone left on Christmas Eve, Santa arrived at the Lounge. He always does that on Christmas Eve, shows up after everybody else is gone, probably to avoid the crowds and the fuss so he can enjoy his dirty martini in peace. No one notices the reindeer and sleigh parked in the alley now that Leah built the alley fortress doors.

Santa looked pretty healthy and happy and rosy-cheeked. Vitamin D supplements, he said, got rid of those pesky leg cramps and keeps his seasonal affective disorder at bay.

What do you want for Christmas this year, he asked as he fished the olives out of his martini and popped them in his mouth. Have you been good? I avoided the second question. World peace, I said. The elves are already working on it, said Santa, but it's gonna take awhile. I said, the only other thing I want for Christmas is a few more blog subscribers.

Santa tipped his head back and drained his martini. Done and done, he said. He gave me a big kiss (on the mouth!) and disappeared into the night.

The next day, I woke up and found an automated email waiting in my inbox:

santa.claus@gmail.com has subscribed to your blog.

Bourbon Balls

2009-12-23T12:55:00.008-05:00

(Hee-hee, I just said "balls...")

If Felicia is going to bake Christmas cookies for the Lounge Christmas eve party, which she is, then they are going to contain booze. Enter Mom. Mom first made these bourbon balls in 1983. ("We let you kids eat them - do you think that was okay? It was only a half-cup of whiskey.")

Like all bourbon and rum ball recipes, this recipe contains Nilla Wafers. (I'd love to hear your recipes if you've ever made them from scratch.) And like all good cookie recipes, it starts with a glass of wine.Bourbon Balls

6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 Tablespoons corn syrup
1/2 cup bourbon (I used Makers Mark)
2 and 1/2 cups finely crushed Nilla Wafers
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup nuts (I used pecans)
granulated sugar

1. Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler. I made a makeshift double boiler out of a pan and a metal bowl.2. Remove from heat and add corn syrup and bourbon, mixing thoroughly.

3. In a separate bowl, combine vanilla wafers, confectioners sugar and nuts.
4. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix thoroughly.5. Cover and let stand 3o minutes. Don't skip this step!

6. Form into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar.7. If you can stand waiting, let the balls season in the fridge for a few days before eating them.

Holiday Gift Ideas

2009-12-20T13:47:00.006-05:00

'Tis the Season To Be Thrifty
by Amelia Sauter, Ithaca NY

Until the root canal, my partner and I were able to buffer the effects of the recession on our checking account. Then came a second root canal. I found myself getting anxious about the holidays, and like many other Americans, wondering how I was going to buy people gifts this year.

While lying awake in the middle of the night with a hot flash, I came up with a few ideas that I thought I’d share with others who might be shaking in their Uggs at the thought of pulling out the plastic and racking up more debt:

1) Make homemade pancake mix. The people I love are getting ball jars of my famous pancake mix this year, topped with big bows and instructions to add milk and eggs. You can even use Bisquick. They’ll never know.

2) Don’t have children. They’re expensive, they’re messy, and once you let them in the house, it’s hard to get rid of them. Like stray cats. Offer a sympathy bowl of milk to a flea-infested feline who cries at your door and next thing you know it’s sleeping on your pillow. So plan ahead, since the holidays are just a few short weeks away, and don’t have children. And if it’s too late, well, you can save money this Christmas by wrapping your children up and giving them away.

3) Tell your friends you have decided to embrace the spiritual side rather than the commercial side of the holidays, and that you are lighting a votive candle in the their honor. Om shanti.

4) Send electronic holiday cards. Not only is it easier and cheaper, you also get bonus points when you proclaim that you are making a difference in the world by saving trees.

5) Give coupons for gifts you can personally fulfill, like a foot massage or babysitting. When your friends ask to redeem them, say, “I didn’t give you that coupon. I’ve never seen it before in my life.”

6) Don’t drink and shop! I’ve been known to recommend a shot of tequila to take the edge off holiday shopping, but this is to help you spend money, not save it. Alcohol helps you muster up holiday joy instead of bah humbugs so when you’re packed in Walmart, I mean, Greenstar with all the other last minute shoppers, their children running amock (see #2), you won’t feel the urge to beat anyone with a loofah.

When we owe $3K to the dentist, I just can’t justify buying Christmas lights or a plush talking Dug that doesn’t even say “Squirrel!” You’ll have to rent the movie Up if you don’t know who Dug is. Or better yet, save your money for votive candles and Bisquick.

copyright Amelia Sauter 2009

Mixology Monday: Eggnog Martini

2009-12-13T20:10:00.009-05:00

Folks, it's time for Mixology Monday again. Head on over to Beers in the Shower where a roundup will be posted in a couple of days or so.

My contribution is the Eggnog Martini, because everybody needs eggnog. We feel compelled to drink eggnog at least once a year during the holidays. Maybe it's the festive thing to do. Even if you don't love eggnog, tradition trumps taste buds.

The Eggnog Latte Martini, which adds Starbucks liquor, is a caffeine-filled alternative. Or simultaneously simplify and upgrade to a premium spirit by drinking eggnog with Jameson in your morning coffee. Like I'm doing right now.

Unrelated side note: I tried to enjoy a cachaca margarita last night. Don't drink cachaca after you've been painting your studio all day. Cachaca smells surprisingly similar to latex paint. I had no idea. But now I do. Trust me.

Related side note: Is eggnog one word, or two?

Eggnog Martini

1 and 1/2 ounces Stoli vanilla vodka
4 ounces eggnog
Dash of nutmeg

Shake all ingredients with ice and strain into a martini glass. Garnish with ground nutmeg.

Local Lover Challenge

2009-12-09T11:11:00.007-05:00

This year for Christmas, I'm giving my friends and family members a root canal. Actually, two root canals. In Leah's mouth. But if I pretend I have money leftover, then I am going gonzo for the Local Lover Challenge.

Over 70 businesses in Ithaca are involved this year (including Greenstar, Tuff Soul Clothing, Finger Lakes Reuse, Rasa Spa and Red Feet Wines). All you have to do is stop in at a participating store - like Felicia's - pick up a cute little card, then get it stamped at four more stores. Hand in your card, and you are eligible to win prizes. You get to support the local economy, have fun shopping at your favorite places, and win free stuff. Better than a root canal.

Tomorrow, December 10th, you can save 10% at more than 30 stores. For up-to-date specials, you can follow Local First Ithaca on Facebook. While you're at it, better follow Felicia on Facebook, too. And practice good oral hygiene.

Foodie Detour: Burgers

2009-11-29T13:17:00.015-05:00

I don't eat hamburgers all that often due to my fondness of happy cows combined with my somewhat reasonable fear of E coli, but a couple of months ago, I chowed on burgers twice in one week, both at new Ithaca restaurants. For a comparison, let the pictures do the talking:

Five Guys Burgers and Fries has french fries on their side, and lots of them. I'm sure the Five Guys are Nice Guys, and the extra toppings are free, but mine tasted an awful lot like a McDonald's hamburger. Total cost for a burger and fries: about $7

Northstar House cooked my fresh, local burger to order, pink and juicy in the middle. It was big and tasty, and I'm a sucker for local meat, because worse than eating a happy cow is eating an unhappy cow. The handcut fries were a generous serving. For those who prefer their cows alive, the black bean burger also rocked. Total cost for a burger and fries: $10. Add in a a microbrew for an additional $5.

You can guess where I'll probably go back to. And where I probably won't. Moooooooo.

Angstgiving

2009-11-29T12:44:00.005-05:00

My mother said it would just be the four of us. Usually on Thanksgiving, Leah and I end up at Leah’s parents’ house. Or we end up staying home and Leah makes turkey meatballs and mashes every type of root vegetable she can locate at Wegmans. This year, I wanted to spend Thanksgiving with my parents for the first time in about ten years.

I asked Leah if she was interested in joining me. “Who’s going to be there?” she asked tentatively. Leah did not like holidays, and she did not like people, which meant she only attended events where Vicodin was on the menu. My parents served wine, port and whiskey which she deemed acceptable substitutes.

Creating holiday traditions with Leah is like trying to convince a seven-year-old boy to take a bath. Okay, I have no idea what it is like to convince a kid to bathe. But I do know what it is like to try to talk my girlfriend into doing something festive that she thinks is fundamentally stupid. But with some pushy coaxing, she finally tries whatever activity I want, like carving a pumpkin or decorating a Christmas tree, and in the end she loves it. The next year we start all over again with her grumpy refusal to partake in celebrations without a kick in the ass.

On Thanksgiving day this year, an hour or two into wine-inspired conversation with my parents, the doorbell rang.

“Well, that’s a lot of ice cream for five of us,” my mom said, taking their friend Jim’s grocery bag. On cue, the phone rang. Judy had decided to come early with her husband and two young boys to have dinner at my parents instead of at her in-laws. The turkey was taking too long and the boys were getting hungry. Just the four of us was morphing into just the nine of us. I refilled Leah’s wine glass.

A few minutes later, I was sipping wine in the kitchen with my sister as her kids ran around. “I loved your memoir essays,” she said to me. “Thanks for sending them. I like your creative take on things, especially that rum incident when you were fourteen. You know, everyone remembers things differently. And you were drunk.”

My mom chimed in. “And you get to use creative license and make up stuff, since it’s your memoir.”

I was pleasantly surprised that they supported my “creative take” when it included things they had said and done, but their support also made me uneasy, because, well, I thought the memory was fact when I wrote it. I prodded my sister to share her version of the evening.

Judy recalled that she did not say she was going to tell my parents I was drunk on the night she picked me up at the roller skating rink. She claimed she never told them, that she said to me that night in the car as I threw up into a Styrofoam cup, “I’m not going to tell them, you are.”

I asked my mother how she found out. “Your sister had us paged at the movie theater,” she said. “We came home and she asked us to wait until morning to confront you. She was very protective over you.”

My sister? Protective? “I thought you wanted to see me get in trouble,” I said to Judy. “You were so competitive.”

“I was not competitive,” Judy said.

“Yes, you were,” I said.

“No, YOU were.”

“But you told me how competitive you felt in high school.”

“No, you told me YOU were competitive,” she said. “I never felt competitive. That’s so funny you remember it that way,”

“You’re kidding, right?” I said. I turned to my mother who was stirring the gravy and asked if she had ungrounded me early because she was worried about my mental health, which was what I had assumed because I was so miserable after I got caught.

She said no, that she and my father did talk to me that night while I was drunk, a conversation I have no recollection of, and in the heat of the moment they grounded me for a month “because that’s the kind of thing you do when you’re mad." They recognized later that two weeks would be sufficient and reasonable for the offense.

“What about the rum cake?” I asked my mom. Suffering from a tortuous hangover and the dry heaves, I had to serve rum cake at the church rectory the day after my drunken escapade. “Did you call the cook and tell her to make rum cake?”

That, my mother laughed, was divine intervention.

Pumpkin Martini

2009-11-25T09:43:00.004-05:00

Warning: Don't try this at home. This martini was made on a closed course with professional bartenders.

Like other annual holiday traditions (such as NPR's Susan Stamberg's Pepto Bismol pink cranberry relish), every year people ask us what goes into our Pumpkin Martini so they can imbibe autonomously on the holidays of evil (Halloween) and gluttony (Thanksgiving). And since we give thanks for you, we are reprinting the Pumpkin Martini recipe on today's blog.

In the photo above, Felicia expat Janet and visiting pal Emily dangerously attempt to make the Pumpkin Martini at home in Janet's Los Angeles kitchen.

Pumpkin Martini

1.5 ounces of pumpkin liqueur
½ ounce of Stoli vanilla vodka
1 ounce of half and half (or try hazelnut milk - my new fave dairy substitute)
dash of pumpkin pie spice (Felicia uses her grandmother's special blend)

Shake with ice then strain into a chiled martini glass. Top with whipped cream and another sprinkle of pumpkin pie spice.

Can I see your i.d., please?

2009-11-21T15:25:00.009-05:00

Most people respond with annoyance when you ask to see their i.d., unless they are over the age of 50. At that age, they get excited and think you are complementing them, though it’s obvious that they are old enough to drink and you just didn’t want to make them feel bad by only asking for their daughter’s – oops, girlfriend’s – i.d. The closer someone is to age 21, the more likely they are to be miffed that you want them to produce i.d.

The young ones roll their eyes and say, “Oh my god, don’t I look 21? Gheesh. I just turned 22.” What they will understand a decade-and-a-half from now is that at age 39, I can’t tell the difference anymore between an eighteen-year-old and a twenty-eight-year-old. They all look like teenagers, too young to be drinking. And when they reach age 39, they’ll be bumming that no one asks for their i.d. anymore.

The grad students fumble through their wallets and produce beat-up European or Iranian or Albanian or Egyptian drivers’ licenses. I apologize, but tell them in New York, I can legally only accept a passport if someone is not from the U.S. or Canada.

“But look at this,” a young man who looks like a teenager says to me. He hands me a driver’s license from a far-away country where they don’t have letters, but instead write with symbol things. Might as well be Greek to me. Maybe it is Greek. The date proclaims that he is 24 years old.

The man also hands me a document with the title, “International Identification Card.” Scotch tape attaches his picture in the top right-hand corner. “X bar accepts it,” he says. X bar also serves underage drinkers on a regular basis.

“If it helps,” the man tells me, “all of my American friends have i.d.’s.” He points to a table filled with young faces in the rear of the bar. “It helps them,” I say, but I tell him as much as I’d like to give him a drink, I still can’t serve him.

He pulls out a college i.d. Then a business card that states his role in the chemistry department at the college. "I'm sorry," I say.

It’s not that I didn’t believe him. In fact, I’m pretty sure he was over 21. But I wasn’t 100% positive, and one slip-up at the wrong time could cost us our liquor license. In a college town, you can’t be too careful about serving underage drinkers. Liquor authority goons lurk in the shadows and set up sting operations when you least expect it.

The lesson? Get old: Recede your hairline, get some wrinkles, add grey hair to your demeanor. Or, if aging quickly is not an option, bring your passport.

Drinking and Writing

2009-11-12T21:04:00.006-05:00

Writing is weird. Each time I sit down to write, the story pours out of me and leaves me achingly empty, and I wonder if I'll ever write again. I could write in my head - or on the computer - for days, waking in the middle of the night with the perfect adjectives to describe the latest drunken character or wacky bar incident, getting up at 5am to write, or staying up til 2am, and I write it all down and then nothing. Empty. I have no faith that I will find words worthy of writing again. I think, maybe I need a mentor. An inspiration. A drink.

Nothing compares to a glass of wine when one is seeking to enter the creative realms of the deepest, darkest corners of the brain. Okay, a good smokey porter compares. Or a shot of Finger Lakes Distilling rye. Or a dirty martini. What's your drink of choice to keep the words lubricated when you write? Do tell.

On a side note, Leah just made me the most amazing meatloaf (ground turkey-carrots-chard-apple-onion-chipotle-tomato glaze) in the world. It paired beautifully with a bottle of (not Sheldrake Point) Argentinian Vistalba Corte B 2005 (thanks, Adam). And now I write.

And may I add, kudos to Sister Ellen, I shall remain fully incapable for the rest of my days of using one space after a period instead of two.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-04T13:23:00.016-05:00

Of course the pictures are poor-quality, blurry action shots! I forgot my camera, and you were drunk. It's your fault. Send me better ones if you find some.Felicia's Haunted Cocktail Party extravaganza.

Look out, little girl! Behind you!

Please don't hurt happy Crabby...

Award-winning Jolly Green Giant and his pals.

Dog and dog's best frenemy

Tea bags

The jedi in classic jedi lunge position. Don't hurt your jedi groin.

Dog and Tea bag

Last but not least: Bitchtooth.

Bitchtooth

2009-10-31T19:27:00.007-04:00

Is bitchtooth one word or two? Did anyone figure that out yet? Grumpy root canal girl refused to dress up for the Lounge party this year until I suggested she go as a bitchtooth, and then she spent the entire afternoon building the perfect angry tooth. The pictures say it all. Check back tomorrow for photos of everyone else's great costumes and don't forget to change your clocks. See you at the party shortly...

Mixology Monday: Anti-Vermouth

2009-10-26T10:36:00.013-04:00

This month's Mixology Monday, hosted by Cocktailians, challenges us to post a tasty vermouth cocktail recipe. Vidiot says we can use any aromatic, fortified wine. So being the rebel she is, Leah created a cocktail, um, without vermouth.

Since Leah is in the midst of a three-week root canal with complications, she gets to be a beast and not follow the rules. You've got a "Get Out of Jail Free" card, I tell her. I don't argue with a woman who has a wild look in her eye, who is pacing the hallway like a panther, and who says it feels like someone is splitting her jaw open with a hacksaw. Vicoden is child's play, she tells me, downing a shot of whiskey and popping open a bottle of Brute. That's right, Brute with an "e."

We became acquainted with Ithaca Beer's Brute last week at a lovely beer-tasting dinner at Cornell hosted by Hotel School students and Ithaca Beer's brilliant master distiller, Jeff O'Neil. The Brute proved to be the life of the party: a citrusy sour ale the color of champagne, served in a flute, and paired with some biting cheese.

Okay, it's not even close to fortified wine, but Brute IS brewed with champagne yeast. And with a bouquet reminiscent of a barnyard, Brute certainly could be deemed "aromatic." One taste, and Leah decided Brute would make a great vermouth substitute.

The result? You can call it an Ithaca Negroni. I call it a Brutoni. Leah calls it a Bitchtooth: equal parts gin (we used Plymouth), Campari and Brute. The sour and bitter and gin blend together perfectly, and the cocktail has a tad of sparkle to it, not unlike a Sparkling Negroni that I saw on Rachel Ray's website a few minutes ago. It was an accident. I really don't hang out on Rachel Ray's site. Unless I need to find a good thirty minute meal. Leah says stop talking about Rachel Ray.

Not in Ithaca? You lose. Brute is a beer that goes beyond beer and into the realm of the extraordinary. Get yourself to the Ithaca Beer brewery to try some, or have a friend send you some. Either is a worthwhile endeavor.

Ithaca Negroni

1 ounce Plymouth gin
1 ounce Campari
1 ounce Ithaca Beer's Brute

Stir with ice. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

Zaya Rum

2009-10-21T20:36:00.005-04:00

A long, long time ago, long before silly rules existed about bloggers disclosing freebies, specifically August 2009, the folks who promote Zaya Rum sent me a bottle of, um, Zaya Rum.

We opened the Zaya at the Lounge and taste-tested it with the staff on hand, both those who were working hard and those who had stopped in to laze about and sip drinks, as so many of our staff are wont to do. Some of our staff gave this dark, Trinidad-bottled rum a thumbs up (sweet - caramelly - rich - full of flavor) and others weren't so excited about it for the same reasons. I made it into a mojito, with similar results. Love the flavor, too much flavor. Zaya is not your standard wimpy rum.

Then we forgot about it. The bottle sat on my desk with a sticky note that read "do not drink" which if there was space would have read "do not drink until I write a blog about it which I will soon and it's the least I can do since it was a freebie."

Fast forward to this week. Leah has a toothache. She's up every night at 3am or 4am to take Advil and while she's up she reads blogs, obsesses about whether or not the pulp in her tooth is dying permanently or if her nerve is just having a nervous breakdown, and she actually answers some emails so perhaps it's good use of her time though not the best timing. During the day she seeks out nips of hard liquor to dull the pain when she thinks no one is looking. I know, I know, she should see the dentist. She did. Twice. And it traumatized her and left her wondering if the poking, prodding and drilling further irritated the pulp (i.e. tooth innards), so now she is waiting, hoping to wake up one morning and find the pain simply missing.

Today, she found my bottle of Zaya Rum, stuck the "do not drink" sticky note to the bar, and pronounced the bottle her salvation. "Where did this stuff come from?" she asked me, sipping it straight, clearly not remembering our previous tasting in August. "This is good shit. Mmmm. Sweet explosion in my mouth. Kind of smoky, peaty, and full of molasses. I swear my tooth is feeling better."

So there you have it, folks. Zaya tastes great, and it cures toothaches (at least for a few hours).

Happy Anniversary, Felicia!

2009-10-14T15:10:00.005-04:00

In honor of Felicia's Atomic Lounge's fifth birthday, here's an excerpt from my upcoming bar memoir book (still looking for a publisher), which should probably have the title, What the Hell Were We Thinking?

Fortunately, the stars were on our side. Here's to you, Felicia, and to Leah for talking me into doing one of the craziest things I've ever done in my life:

“I have an idea.” Leah’s face was pressed up against the empty tavern window, hands cupping her eyes. “We should open a bar.”

Leah always had ideas. I heard the line come out of her mouth daily. “I have an idea….”, followed by an elaborate plan to start her own business and become rich. Hand-painted t-shirts. Designer cat litter boxes. Carved wooden yoga blocks. A thing that plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter and statically draws all the floating dog fur into its jaws.

“You said you never wanted to open a restaurant,” I said, peering in the window beside her.

The tavern was dark and filthy. Floor tiles were missing, and the ceiling had a hole in it where someone had fallen through from the attic. On the front of the bar where your feet would kick, wavy lines of glue were all that remained to inform us that tiles or plywood had been torn down. On top of the dusty bar, a number of gray glasses stood and others lay on their sides. The walls were covered with an almost-black wood paneling. Bob’s Tavern had stood empty for years. Until the trendy coffee shop opened next door, we had no reason to visit this rundown neighborhood.

“A bar is different,” Leah said, sipping her iced latte through the straw. “Less work, higher profit margins. And we’d have our days to ourselves.”

I was not convinced; I was never convinced. Leah told me once that if she was a kite, flying high in the sky, kept aloft by her ideas as if they were the wind, then I was the string, yanking her back to the ground.

“A bar could work,” Leah said again. We walked side-by-side to our car which was packed to the gills with camping gear, gripping our coffees that would fuel us on our eleven hour trip to Maine.

Leah would have ten days in the wilderness with me to convince me, an uptight social worker who didn’t know how to make a gin and tonic, to open a bar.

copyright Amelia Sauter 2009

Photo note: I'm the one with the little boobs. The ones you can't see. Even if Leah wasn't standing in front of me.

Pom versus Pama

2009-10-08T17:23:00.006-04:00

Recently a free box of Pom pomegranate juice arrived on our doorstep. “Taste test our new products and tell us what you think!” the enclosed letter read, meaning, please like it and tell the world you like it because you are awesome and your opinions are so well-respected and we know our sales will increase exponentially as a result of your infamously witty and widely-read blog post.

Coincidentally, I also have a small bottle of Pama Liqueur on the shelf, which I bought before I realized one could successfully grovel for free samples. Dang.

First the Pom. The company sent a bunch of tea flavors as well as some 100% juices. I must admit I am biased. Hands down, I am a 100% juice girl. When something has flavoring and corn syrup added, I’m probably not going to like it. I owned Strawberry Shortcake, Peach Blush and Apple Dumplin’ dolls in 1980 and they maxed out my tolerance for fake fruit flavors, especially peach. Let sleeping dolls lie, I say.

So I found myself pleasantly surprised when I liked the sweetened Pomegranate Lychee Green Tea. I wouldn’t mind drinking it if I was on a road trip and it’s all they sold at the Quik Fill. My first choice of the new flavors, however, is the 100% Kiwi Pomegranate juice. Good stuff. As a purist, I also like plain old Pom.

Pama Liqueur rode the coattails of the “pomegranate is good for you” movement. Though I doubt it has the health benefits of pomegranate juice, heck, it’s got my other favorite vitamin, alcohol. Pama is a great addition to a gin and tonic or to a vodka collins, and because it is more concentrated in flavor than juice, there’s more room for alcohol in the glass. Works for me.

Which do I prefer in a cocktail, Pom or Pama? Both. I think juice tastes better in a cosmo, but I like liqueur added to a mixed drink. A recent taste test of a Countrypolitan proved that both Pom or Pama complement bourbon nicely, so you can confidently use whichever one you happen to have in the house (bar). And they are both more convenient than dealing with those slimy crunchy fresh pomegranate seeds.

Countrypolitan

1 ½ ounce Knob Creek or Woodford Reserve bourbon

½ ounce sweetened lime juice

½ ounce Cointreau

½ ounce Pama or 1 ounce Pom 100% juice

lime wheel

Shake all ingredients with ice. Strain into martini glass. Garnish with lime wheel.

Road Trip! Adirondacks Again

2009-09-30T14:15:00.005-04:00

Once a year, Leah and I jump off the grid and land in the middle of nowhere in the Adirondacks for a week. The fall is a quiet time up in them there hills, with no screaming mosquitos or buzzing children to bother us.

Our adventures this year brought us into close proximity to merganzers, ruffed grouse (grouses? grice?), an angry pileated woodpecker, red squirrels, old growth pine trees and Lake Placid Ubu Ale. Rich and malty, this dark red beer tasted great with a bleu cheese burger and eggplant parm from the Adirondack Mountain Grill in Indian Lake.

Back at the cabin, we drank a lot of Heron Hill Chardonnay, plus one of Leah's birthday gifts from bartender Melissa, Westmalle Dubbel Belgian Trappist Ale, which paired delightfully with sourdough bread and cheddar cheese.

Ironically, a hike in the Finger Lakes National Forest yesterday brought us into close proximity with a moaning black bear. OK, we didn't see the bear directly and I'm not sure the park ranger believed us, but the only other thing that could have been making that hair-raising noise is a zombie, and I doubt a zombie would want to hang out in the forest since human brains are scarce. What, you don't believe me either? Go to this site on bears and scroll to the last sound clip. If what we heard wasn't a bear, then from what I can tell from my extensive (five minutes of) web research, Bigfoot is hiding out in the Hector's National Forest. You heard it here first.

Speaking of birthdays, Felicia Atomic Lounge turns 5 years old tomorrow. What is that in human years?

Bitters Make it Better

2009-09-17T23:10:00.010-04:00

Leah delved into making her own bitters earlier this summer. Her orange bitters are now available at the Lounge, most often added to Old Fashioneds and Manhattans. Her lavender bitters totally kick butt, and they made it immediately - and successfully - into a parade of delicious gin and tonics. Usually I don't like lavender in my beverages because I feel like I'm drinking massage oil or lotion, but the lavender gin and tonic is divine to imbibe, as is Felicia's non-bitter lavender lemonade. (Regarding a chocolate bar with lavender in it, I would prefer it if you melted it and rubbed it all over my back, thank you.)

The coffee bitters smell like fresh roasted coffee, but they definitely are not for the faint of heart. When I tasted them, I wanted to add sugar, cream and Monin toffee nut syrup. So far, we haven't gotten past the urge to turn the coffee bitters into a latte.

Anyone have suggestions for what kind of drink to make with coffee bitters?

Review: Finger Lakes Distilling

2009-09-09T13:45:00.011-04:00

First - get it on you calendar - Felicia's is hosting a tasting of Finger Lakes Distilling's products at the Lounge this Thursday, September 10, 2009 from 7pm-8:30pm. Prez Brian McKenzie will be there to pour the goods, and you get to meet the Master Distiller, Thomas McKenzie, who is an entertaining, story-filled deep south Alabaman with the accent to prove it.

Now let's talk booze.

Here's what we're carrying at Felicia's and some of our thoughts about tasting and mixing with Finger Lakes Distilling liquors:Vintner's Vodka - The cool thing about this vodka is that it's made from local grapes. What you'll notice when you taste it is that it is fruity and floral, almost but not quite sweet, making it great for a martini with a twist of lemon or if you're a wussy, you might like it with cranberry juice. Olive juice with this vodka is a no-no.Seneca Drums Gin - The gin has been a big seller at the Lounge. Also made from grapes, it has a bunch of subtle herbal notes that shine through any mixer. We like it with tonic, lavender lemonade, in a mojito (in place of the rum, silly, not in addition to it) or as a stand-alone sipper.Glen Thunder Corn Whiskey - Drink it as a shot. Try it in an old fashioned. Or be like Felicia and substitute it for cachaca in a caipirinha. Earthy and potent, this hooch tastes like Hector would taste if a backwoods town could turn into a liquor.Vintner's Wild Berry Vodka - Tastes like exactly what it is: vodka mashed up with local blueberries, strawberries and raspberries. Also rocks out with lavender lemonade, plus we like it in a cosmopolitan.
Felicia's is also carrying Finger Lakes Distilling's liqueurs: blueberry, raspberry, cassis and maplejack. My personal favorite, berry whore that I am, is the raspberry. I could drink it straight.Hector has long been known as the land of making hooch, and this time it's legal. Finger Lakes Distilling has gotten some great press, not only because it's unique to have liquor on the wine trail, but because they got some good hooch going on over there. Hope to see you Thursday, and if you can't make it, you'll just have to visit the distillery yourself.

Saving Basil

2009-09-03T07:00:00.000-04:00

I can't believe that it went to down to 43 degrees on Monday night. At midnight, when the thermometer hit 45 degrees, I snuck out to the garden with a lantern to harvest some basil for fear that there would be damage.

The good news is that I needed to harvest some anyway, and the even better news is that the morning revealed that the damage was minimal. Literally only a couple of leaves turned brown.

Since the basil only started producing prolifically a few weeks ago due to our cold, wet summer, I'm glad we're going to have a few more weeks of life with it.

I wonder when it's going to frost this year? Usually we have a hard frost the third week of September, but last year it was well into October before there was any significant frost. By then, we were so tired of mojitos that it was good to see the mint go.

OK, big fat LIE. The mint, hardy as ever, lived until January. But we were damn tired of muddling so we took mojitos off the menu.

For now, though, while it's still kinda sorta summer, feel free to pig out on mojitos and basil-infused vodka.

AlleyArt: Sustainable Mobiles

2009-09-01T12:58:00.009-04:00

Felicia's Atomic Lounge's September AlleyArt show is Sustainable Mobiles by Laura Robert. The opening reception (featuring Felicia bean burgers for one night only!) is Tuesday, September 1 from 5:30pm-7pm. The show will be up through the end of September.

Laura Robert was born in 1953, the oldest of nine children in an Air Force family. Her father retired when she was fifteen and the family moved to New Orleans. Laura has lived in or near Ithaca for almost 30 years.

Laura describes her inspiration, "I love the deep green of the trees, and the water which is heard before it is seen. My art is largely articulated by the materials at hand, and the environment in which it is created. I like to make the objects crowded so that they make music on their own."

Laura started making mobiles when a friend visited her on the Cape in the early 90's, creating the first one with dental floss. The Felicia show was created in the first three weeks of August 2009 while Laura was vacationing on Cape Cod.

"The campground 'pick-up' lady saves interesting stuff for me," says Laura. "Everything else is found on the beach, or just plain looking down."

Laura's mobiles are available for purchase and each will be awarded to the highest bidder. Sale proceeds will go to the Advocacy Center. The mobiles are numbered on the back; look for the bidding container in Felicia's Alley.

Felicia is currently accepting submissions for fall and spring AlleyArt. Guidelines can be read here.

Peach Basil Cocktail

2009-08-26T15:05:00.006-04:00

Peaches are one of my favorite local summer fruits. Bourbon is one of my favorite liquids of all time. Basil is one of the best herbs on the planet. Shit. Might as well whirl them all up together and stick 'em in a beverage:

Peach-Basil Cocktail

1 1/2 ounces Woodford Reserve bourbon
3 ounces peach-basil puree (see below)
splash of club soda
basil leaf

Shake bourbon and peach-basil puree with ice. Serve unstrained on the rocks with a splash of club soda. Garnish with a basil leaf.

Peach-Basil Puree

2 fresh ripe peaches (or try nectarines!)
8 fresh basil leaves, torn up
1/4 ounce lemon juice
1/2 ounce simple syrup (half sugar, half water)

Puree ingredients in the blender. Drink it straight, drink it with club soda, drink it with whiskey. Drink it.

We aren't just locavores, we're loca-whores. We can't get enough.

Review: Michael Collins Irish Whiskey

2009-08-23T13:12:00.006-04:00

The companies that send you free liquor as a marketing ploy are typically the underdogs. I don't expect anyone to show up asking me if I want to taste-test Jameson. Something about the popular kids draws excessive attention from fans and wanna-bes. Are the popular kids pretty? Do they have more money, better clothes, their own cars? Do they have sex with everyone?

Behind the popular crowd are the less recognized but often just as talented kids. Michael Collins Irish Whiskey is in this latter group. Some people - the aware ones - say, "Oh, sure, he's a pretty good guy." They know who he is even if they don't hang out with him much. The self-centered ones stare blankly. "Michael who? Is he that quiet dude in my gym class?"

What the other kids don't know is that Michael Collins is pretty smart. He's going to grow up to be a damn good Irish Whiskey, while the popular girl drops out of school pregnant, works at Dunkin' Donuts, and marries the football star who goes bald prematurely and gets really fat.

Yes, Michael Collins has something.

After we drank most of the bottle a sip at a time, Leah made good on her promise to actually create a cocktail, where Michael Collins gets to mingle with a very nice girl:

Michael and Rosemary

2 1/4 ounces Michael Collins Irish Whiskey
1 ounce rosemary-maple syrup (see recipe below)
1 orange wheel (1/4 inch thick)
3 dashes Angostura bitters
sprig of rosemary

Muddle all ingredients, using only 1/2 orange wheel. Add ice. Garnish with rosemary spring and other half of the orange wheel.

Rosemary Maple Syrup

1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup water
6 inch spring rosemary

Put maple syrup and water into a saucepan. Remove rosemary leaves from sprig and discard stem. Break leaves into pieces, and add to maple syrup mixture. Bring to a quick boil then reduce heat to low. Simmer for five minutes. Remove from heat and let cool. Strain.

Give us a week or two, and we'll have some Michael Collins stocked at the Lounge for you to try in some cocktails.

AlleyArt: Drunken Fishbowl

2009-08-17T22:45:00.013-04:00

Felicia's latest AlleyArt installation at the Lounge will convince you that trash CAN be converted to treasures. The Drunken Fishbowl by Emily Benning is an "underwater" installation of fish constructed with 99% recycled materials. Look closely and you can identify Gimme Coffee bags, bottle caps, Christmas tree ornaments, newspapers, bottles, beer cans and bubble wrap. The show is up until August 31. Here are some pics in case you are not local folk:

Mixology Monday XLI: Vodka Is Your Friend

2009-08-11T21:29:00.045-04:00

Guess I hit a nerve with this one. Blood pressures are soaring on blogs everywhere! Most of those posting a blog on this month's Mixology Monday topic, "Vodka is your Friend," took this opportunity to vent their distaste for vodka, with a "yeah, but" recipe added after their cathartic venting session. That will be $90 for your cocktail therapy. Now pass the vodka.
Thank you to everyone who participated in MxMo XLI! Before I get to the round up, as I sit and type at my friend's lake house, I have no reservations about sharing with you that I am sipping a Grey Goose orange and tonic as I write. I love the stuff. I also love bourbon. And gin. And cachaca. And scotch. Since I have been drinking, eating and swimming for three days, credit for my own Mixology Monday cocktail goes to my partner Leah Houghtaling, who created the State Street 75 a few years ago, and our bartender Lil' Claire who added some blueberries to one yesterday and modeled her drink for the photo op.

Blueberry State Street 75
1.5 ounces citrus vodka
1/4 ounce simple syrup
1/2 ounce lemon juice
8 blueberries
champagne or sparkling wine (we used Cava)

Muddle the blueberries.
Add vodka, simple syrup and lemon juice.
Top with champagne and a few more blueberries.

And now for the ROUND UP of all the excellent MIXOLOGY MONDAY vodka posts:

Chris at Urbane, Not Cosmopolitan is our first contestant on “Vodka is your Friend.” Come on down, Chris! Chris overcame his anti-vodka, anti-cosmo manifesto with a trip to his local hooch manufacturer, the Great Lakes Distillery, where Chris discovered Rehorst Citrus and Honey Vodka. He created Milwaukee Lemonade and the Fiery Citrus Cocktail. His experimentations left him humbly admitting that vodka may have earned a place in his spirit world.
MxMo newbie Daniel of Gin, Not Vodka has another "this-not-that" website name that lets you know his feelings on the “vile spirit." Lucky for him, kissing the butt of the MxMo host is not a requirement for inclusion in the Mixology Monday club. Daniel uses lapsang souchong-infused scotch with vodka to create two unique drinks, Smoke on the Water and the Lazy Cocktail.

Also new to Mixology Monday - though not so new to the pain of vodka – Herr Grau has great plans to get rich, like the rest of us cocktail bloggers already have, from his Look Alive Contest blog. He writes, “All alcohol is your friend.” He then proceeds to give the funniest explanation EVER of why vodka, in particular, is your pal. I laughed my a** off. This is my new favorite blog!
Wodka ist unser freund! Jorg (imagine two dots over the "o") at DrinkMix earns cocktail points with me for arguing that while vodka may be relatively flavorless, it can still be quality. A man after my own glass. His Legends Cocktail with elderflower liqueur, cranberry, citrus fruits and citrus vodka is a refreshing interpretation of one of Dale DeGroff's concoctions. Click “weiterlesen” for an English translation of his post.
Jon of ednbrg offers another cocktail with an elderflower-citrus theme. Almost as good as his drink recipe is his MxMo description, "Mixology Monday is billed as the monthly online cocktail party, where our host chooses a theme and we rock up a couple of hours late, stinking of cheap wine and muttering something about “consumption”."

Tiare joins us from under A Mountain of Crushed Ice to tout the Bloody Mary. Her own New Orleans-style recipe reminds us that vodka is great for breakfast. Look at this picture – it makes me want to lick the glass (and drink, of course).
Can you be classy AND drink flavored vodka? Alpha Cook says yes. While I happen to know her drink of choice is bourbon with an expensive cigar back, she is not ashamed to admit she likes a vodka collins with Blueberry Stoli and fresh squeezed lemon juice. Ask her about the infamous Nat's Peach Fuzz Bubbly, too, next time you see her. Nat, I miss you. When are you coming home? I'm out of cigars.
The Cocktail Virgin, er, Slut, gives a recipe for a Sputnik: Russian vodka with Fernet Branca and lemon juice. I have not tried it yet, but it sounds like a perfect playmate for my lake house antics and this hot weather.
Pantagruel also used vodka to tame the wild Fernet Branca, in a cocktail called the Vilnius Nastavnic. At no extra cost to you, Pantagruel threw in a second cocktail, the Surrender Monkey, because who doesn’t love a monkey?
Beers in the Shower blogger Kevin offers his Piece de Resistance: vodka, Cointreau, Benedictine and orange bitters.

The Cocktail Chronicles posted a cocktail recipe that used Benedictine as well, plus vodka and Angostura bitters. It was a big day yesterday at the Cocktail Chronicles: August 10, 2009, MxMo XLI, will now be forever remembered as the day Paul added a -gasp- vodka category to his blog.
Similarly, Stevi at Two At The Most gave us a version of the Mike Romanoff Cocktail: vodka, Cointreau, bitters and apricot liqueur. I actually have all these ingredients in my liquor cabinet and I can pronounce them. Good deal.
Let's pause for a minute to mention the vodka blog posts that, in fact, contained no vodka. Michael at My Aching Head rebelled with a Russian Pirate, a White Russian with rum replacing vodka. The Dude might not approve, though The Dood probably would.

After renouncing “vodka is your friend” as a diabolical theme, DrinkSnob at Liquor is Quicker laments that she has no vodka in the house and a bad case of F.O.M.O (Fear Of Missing Out) on MxMo. She concocts the “highly informative and well-reasoned” Churchill Martini which contains no vodka.

John the Bastard also left the vodka out. No, I’m not calling him a bastard because he has decidedly proclaimed vodka is his enemy; that’s the name of his blog. And John hates vodka. He posted a few cocktail recipes based on both rum and gin.
Speaking of The Dude, Scomorokh at ScienceOfDrink posted multiple variations of both White and Black Russians.
And speaking of The Dood, Rum Dood graciously accepted that vodka has a place in our liquor cabinets beside (behind) the rum, and posted an amazing recipe for a Coriander Kiss, which contains vodka infused with cilantro, honey and peppercorns.
Kevin from the Dallas Drinks Examiner says that while vodka is “devoid of flavor” it lets other ingredients shine. His spiffy Tuxedo Cocktail contains vermouth, absinthe, maraschino liqueur and orange bitters alongside vodka.
At Food On The Brain, Jessamyn complains that she can't work out her relationship with vodka, even with some Pernod and an orange twist, raising the universal question: why can’t we all just get along? Jessamyn gets an "A" for effort.
Vidiot at Cocktailians almost spilled a drink on the computer when the CAPTCHA for posting a MxMo comment was “Palin.” I had nothing to do with it, Vidiot, unless the other word in the CAPTCHA was “Good-bye.” Inspired by good ol' Trader Joe’s, Vidiot created a green-tea-meets-cranberry-lillet concoction.
An appreciation of vodka came from the Spirits Review blog post titled “In Praise of Vodka”, which sounds like the name of a morning-has-broken poem or an inspired symphony. Their advice? Just chill it and drink it. A second post on Spirits Review was more elaborate, making a sour drink using Bee Vodka (honey-based) from Hidden Marsh Distillery, right near me in Seneca Falls, NY. Why haven't I been there yet?
Steve and Paul at Cocktail Buzz also have nice things to say about their buddy, vodka, aka "water with a kick." The Universe cocktail includes Midori, pistachio liqueur and pineapple juice. I think I need a pink sundress and a straw hat to sip this one.
And pink can be found at Bubbly Girl. Maria mixed up a Rose Guava Pinky for this month's MxMo, a floral herbal fruity drink made with Pinky Vodka. This cocktail sounds right up my alley since I like the flavors of the garden.
Thinking of drinking? Head on over to Thinking of Drinking for a garden-based caipiroska with cucumber, lime and fresh oregano. Sonja is not ashamed to say, "Vodka still rules." I adore this cocktail.

Andrew at Cask Strength does not love vodka per se, rather he sees vodka as a teaching tool with an ulterior motive. Specifically, he recommends giving someone a bag of lemons and a zester so they can practice zesting. The rind goes into a bottle of vodka (which he has no use for otherwise), and viola! Limoncello, and you are now a zester pro.
Over on eGullet Spirits and Cocktail forum, the discussion this week centered on beets and sheets. Chris Amirault's Borsch Belt reminds us that if you can grow it, you can drink it.
eGullet alchemist Toby wins the prize for the drink with the most ingredients. His Navy Sheets has 11 separate ingredients, including berries, aperol, Lillet blond and St. Germaine.

Other attention-grabbers on eGullet include the Vice (chili-infused vodka), Gilded Cage, and Smoking Martini (vodka, Laphroig, absinthe, strawberries, and more).
My Life On The Rocks blogger Lance came in a close second with 8 intriguing ingredients in his Kingyo No Funi, such as cocoa infused vodka and Scrappy’s chocolate bitters. What the heck does Kingyo No Funi mean?

The Opinionated Alchemist has an opinion: If you want to showcase vodka, you should be able to do it without using a flavored vodka and without infusing it. The Alchemist's solution? The Nihonshu Martini, a vodka-sake martini with a dash of bitters. As sake continues to surge in popularity, interest will keep increasing in sake cocktails.
The Bar Blog/Barkeep Mister Matt G. answers the question "Is vodka your friend?" with a resounding, "Yes it is." His drink of the week is a cooler with vodka, gingerale and acai blackberry syrup.

Christian of Cocktailwelten wrote to me, "Vodka is not my friend but Cosmopolitans are OK." I’m not sure what the rest of the blog post says 'cause it’s in German, but I'll bet his drink recipe contains vodka.
Chuck at Looka!, self-proclaimed God Emperor of Procrastination, sent a late entry so as not to ruin his reputation. He implies vodka is just a phase that we’ve all gone through. However, it sounds like he is addicted to a Polish bison-grass vodka with which he made two cocktails. He wrote a wicked long blog entry, which is probably why he had to submit it late. An all-nighter and a half.
Jacob of Liquidity Preference also posted late. He took the most beautiful picture of his hibiscus tea and ginger liqueur cocktail, and while not technically a procrastinator, could be dubbed the God Emperor of Forgetfulness for posting but forgetting to let me know. Hey, I have that same coaster set.
Last but certainly not least, let us not forget to appreciate the simple vodka martini: Undertaking the Bar recommends chilled vodka with onion-stuffed olives and freshly ground black pepper. The excellent flavor of a good vodka is sure to shine through with this Peppertini.
Editor's Note 8/14/09: Late MxMo entry! A competitor for the God Emperor of Forgetfulness title, In Search of a Cocktail found a sweet drink for his girlfriend with Pinky Vodka, homemade grenadine and strawberries.
That's all, folks! Hope you were not too traumatized by this month's vodka theme. Stretching is good for you, and if you can't quite reach the vodka, there is always yoga. Everything is blurring together for me right about now, so if I missed anyone's posts, pictures or links, please let me know and I will correct it. Thanks for participating in Mixology Monday and we'll see you next month! In the in-between time, let's all follow each other on Twitter and subscribe to each others' blogs.

Now...I'm going swimming.

-amelia sauter aka Felicia

MxMo Update

2009-08-10T09:59:00.006-04:00

Mixology Monday blog posts have rolled in, theme being "Vodka is your Friend." I'm excited to review and taste-test the recipes, some of which, in rebellious MxMo fasion, don't even include any vodka.

We are unexpectedly housesitting all week for some friends who live on Cayuga Lake. It's hard work to be kicking back so intensely, but in between beers and swimming, I will work on the round up of all your great posts.

Check back here tonight to see everyone's vodka creations, including mine, which I can get away with posting incredibly late, since I am in charge. Buwahahahaha! (evil laugh). I vow to not be corrupted by all this power.

Bunny Mojitos

2009-08-05T08:48:00.007-04:00

The mint grew wildly this summer. Because it only rained once in the Northeast, a downpour that lasted about two months, the voracious four-lined plant bug used the mint leaves as umbrellas rather than dinner. We have consistently been able to harvest two pounds of mint a week for the Lounge mojitos.

But why did nothing else in the garden seem to be growing? Besides the obvious lack of sunshine, Eesah the Lounge Dog discovered the culprit while we were picking mint one day and I heard him pick up a squeaky toy. At least I thought it was a squeaky toy, until I realized that baby bunnies squeal just like squeaky toys upon finding themselves in a dog's mouth. And there it was, in the thick of the mint bed: A rabbit nest.

Because it only takes a couple of weeks for rabbits to mature into hypersexualized teenagers, a Teen Mama Bunny was small enough to get through the garden fence. She had found the perfect place to raise a family, inside a protected area full of bunny food, safe from the dog (except when we picked mint) and other hungry four-footed creatures.

Eesah uncovered two more rabbit nests this summer, one under a bush and one in the lemon balm, which has resulted in an extensive graveyard at the edge of the yard; we've buried six babies to date. I didn't have the heart to disturb the rest of the babies and even went so far as to erect a fence around one nest to keep the dog out.

Destructive, yes, but baby bunnies are so damn cute and fuzzy, even in the garden.

Upcoming Mixology Monday: Vodka Is Your Friend

2009-07-31T14:31:00.006-04:00

After an intensive recovery period from the drunken debauchery at Tales of the Cocktail, August finds us back on track with Mixology Monday, carousing with our old friend, vodka.

The theme of August 10th’s Mixology Monday is “Vodka is Your Friend.” The recent high profile bashings of vodka interspersed with a few weak “yeah, buts…” left me wondering, is vodka the axis of evil, our most dangerous enemy? While it may not be the life of the party, experts agree: Vodka’s obituary does not have to be written just yet.

A lot of people have rules when it comes to drinking cocktails. Some (underprivileged, unfashionable, unconscious) folks don’t like bourbon. Others can’t handle gin. I can’t stomach rum, thanks to my Bacardi-Rum-151-meets-roller-skating incident when I was 14. Vodka can be a “safer” spirit for those who can’t be convinced to take risks.

Vodka also offers a Zen-like simplicity. Because it is relatively flavorless, using vodka as a base of a cocktail means you get to start with a blank chalkboard. Beginner’s mind. What flavor would you like to be today?

I just glanced at our Lounge cocktail menu and realized that more than – yikes - half of our house cocktails are based on vodka. You won’t find a lot of fancy pants drinks on our menu, but you will find concoctions on our specials boards bursting with fresh, local fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices. Vodka is an excellent neutral base for our locavore infusion experimentations.

The Wall Street Journal might say vodka is passé, but the New York times counters that it ain’t dead yet. Vodka is still your friend. So what do YOU like about vodka? Why do you keep that bottle of Grey Goose on your shelf? What do your customers beg you to make with vodka? What vodka-based drink has stayed in your personal book of beloved cocktails? ‘Fess up.

Here’s how Mixology Monday works:

Find or create a cocktail that contains vodka as one of its ingredients.

Post your recipe and reasonings on your blog along with a drink photo. Make sure to include a link to Felicia’s Speakeasy (this blog) and Mixology Monday, as well as the MxMo logo.

Email me a link to your post before midnight on Monday, August 10 (amelia AT atomicloungeithaca DOT com) –or- post a link to your blog as a comment on this post.

I will post a wrap up on my blog with all of the cocktails and photos on late Tuesday or Wednesday. Za Vas!

Editor's note: It is OK to use flavored vodka, as long as your final cocktail tastes good!

Dalmore and Mount Gay

2009-07-27T17:35:00.009-04:00

Ask and the booze gods shall giveth. In a June blog post, I included Dalmore 1263 King Alexander III ($200) and Mount Gay Rum Extra Old ($45) in my Father's Day gift list and lamented that my sexy marketing pal, Sarah, did not include samples when she sent me info on these liquors. Well, Sarah just happens to be one of the three people who read my blog (my mom is the second and the third is some guy who lives in Sweden). Sarah heard my thirsty cries, and guess what I got in the mail a week later?

Let's get a few things straight about the Dalmore. Even if I did get a whole bottle of the good stuff, I probably would not share it with you. I discovered that there is a huge difference between expensive scotch and cheap scotch, and I'm keeping the good stuff for myself. But I will tell you what you are missing:

Dalmore 1263 King Alexander III is sweet and rich like butterscotch. It has a lightly toasted vanilla caramel flavor that skates smoothly across a wood undertone. Leah says that if scotch were a hard candy, she would want it to taste like Dalmore 1263. It made me - and this never happens to me - it made me want a cigar. I don't have $200 to spend today, but if I did...Oh, if I did. Mine all mine.

And in the other glass, Mount Gay Rum Extra Old. The website is annoying to navigate (Sarah, why are liquor websites so extravagantly complicated?) but Mount Gay is a damn good fruity rum swollen with the flavors of ripe banana and molasses...Hey, wait a minute, haven't we served Mount Gay at the Lounge? Why, yes we have. Time to get more on the shelf. Sorry to not remember this sooner but I have a little rum issue. My aversion to rum hearkens back to an incident at age 14 that involved a roller skating rink and Bacardi Rum 151. Oh, the 1980's. My parents punished my by making me go to work the next day, and god punished me when at work, ends up I had to serve rum cake to everybody. Thinking back on it, my mouth is watering. In a bad way. Rum, it's me, it's not you. You're OK, and I know the right person for you is out there reading this.

One last note about Mount Gay: If you come into the Lounge and think it is cool to pronounce Mount Gay with an overly dramatic French accent, like, "Can I please have some "Mow Geh" and coke?", we will laugh at you and make fun of you, unless you are actually French.

AlleyArt in the News

2009-07-22T13:44:00.009-04:00

"Already a muse for its patrons, Felicia's Atomic Lounge is blending creativity with
passion for sustainable and responsible living." Ithaca Times, July 22, 2009

Felicia's Atomic Lounge's sustainable AlleyArt got a nice write up in the Ithaca Times this week. The article highlighted owners Leah and Amelia's quiet persistence that we all need to get off our butts to recycle, reuse and reinvent resources. Felicia's composts, purchases alternative wind energy, and buys produce locally. That means drinking at Felicia's reduces your carbon footprint. Cool deal.

The photos on this blogpost feature the FarmArt of our July artist, Charlie Elrod. Felicia's August AlleyArt show will exhibit the Drunken Fishbowl shenanigans of artist Emily Benning. Her work can be seen at http://ebenning.carbonmade.com. Got art you want to show at Felicia's? Read the submission guidelines here.

Here's the link to the full Ithaca Times article:
http://www.ithacatimes.com/main.asp?SectionID=3&SubSectionID=64&ArticleID=9551

Boilermaker

2009-07-08T09:02:00.002-04:00

Hopefully by the time you read this, the sun will be shining in Ithaca. If not, we will just have to accept the latest fashion trend: Rain is the new sun.

Over the past few months, umbrellas have been accidentally and shamelessly abandoned at Felicia’s Atomic Lounge; most of them are shiny black or navy blue, with the occasional hot pink, red polka dot or blue striped umbrella intermingling with the drab. While inspiring fashionable raincoats and designer umbrellas, the rain has not been inspirational in the creation of sunny summer cocktails.

We fall back instead on one of our old standbys, the Boilermaker. A Boilermaker is a simple concept: a shot of whiskey with a beer on the side. A tradition maintained by our grandfathers and their grandfathers before them, the Boilermaker is the perfect drink to blend your mood in with the drizzly landscape.

Amelia’s tasting tip: Whiskey tastes best when drunk out of one of your dad’s old, beat up rocks glasses.

Leah’s tasting tip: Try Dogfish Head's Raison D'Etre mahogany ale with a shot of Glenlivet scotch.

Boilermaker

1 beer
1 shot of whiskey (or tequila or vodka)

Drink. Mope. Hope for sunshine.

Bacon

2009-07-08T08:00:00.000-04:00

No, we have not tried infusing bourbon with bacon yet. Yet. But we are excited to tell you we have added a BLT Panini to our Felicia menu.

Bacon rules. Period. Our BLT's are made with bacon from happy pigs who contentedly roam a nearby farm, oblivious to the fact that they are going to be lovingly slaughtered one day. Our tomatoes and lettuce are also local (and sin-free - they come from the Amish farm). The happy eggs in the aioli are local and free-range, too. The best part: Mandy has been slaving in the kitchen to make homemade foccaccia bread.

The pizza doughs are now also house-made. Our pesto pizza will have a seasonal pesto in the summer; currently it is made with arugula, spinach and basil. While we have nixed the apple walnut and fig tapenade for the time being, we will have occasional seasonal pizza specials depending on what local vegetables are capable of growing with basically no sun and all rain since that's been the weather in Ithaca since 2001.
Being that I kind of pretty much suck in the kitchen, I rolled out some of Mandy's dough too thick and had to bring the doughs home where we cooked (burnt) them on the grill. That's what you see in the picture above. We are oven-less at home, ever since the mice infested the old oven and the new oven broke immediately after the warranty expired. Curse you, Frigidaire!

The Chicken BBQ Phenomenon - Week 9

2009-07-05T13:10:00.002-04:00

Nothing happened on Father's Day weekend. No chicken BBQs. Dads apparently don't need BBQ because they are BBQ embodied.

When I started this Chicken BBQ Phenomenon blog topic, I imagined that I would find a dozen BBQs every weekend because that's what my exaggerated mind remembered from the previous summer: small town chicken BBQs everywhere.

Maybe it's the recession. Maybe it's my memory. Maybe it's the rain. (Fashion note: Rain is the new sun in the Northeast.) At any rate, if I see one chicken BBQ on any given weekend this summer, it's a good weekend.

Despite the chicken BBQ shortage, the Trumansburg Rotary was out barbecuing chicken yesterday for July 4th, but business was slow. It's a grill-at-home-with-the-family holiday. Even I was at home grilling chicken - happy, free-range chicken.

Fourth of July Cocktails

2009-07-04T16:06:00.008-04:00

This blog post is almost stupidly late, since it's Fourth of July already, and who sits inside at the computer and reads blogs on July 4th? Oh, that would be me.

My pal Ellen at Deussen Global Communications contacted me a few weeks ago and said, "Oh, Felicia, you are my hero. If you post some of my cocktail recipes on your blog, I will love you forever, ship you free samples of every booze imaginable and send you naked pictures of me wearing nothing but a Felicia knit cap."

OK, the conversation wasn't exactly like that, but the recipes look pretty darn good so here are a few:

The American Collins

1 ½ oz. Bombay Sapphire
¾ oz. Simple Syrup
½ oz. Fresh Lemon Juice
4 Bing Cherries, pitted
8 Blueberries

In a Collins glass, muddle the blueberries and cherries in the lemon juice and simple syrup.
Add Sapphire and ice and stir briefly. Top with club soda. Garnish with a bing cherry and a lemon wheel.

Firecracker

3 ounces Flor de Caña 7 Year Grand Reserve Rum (we don't have this at the lounge. in fact, i've never even tried it. but if i got an email about it, it must be good, right?... right?)
1 ounce Triple Sec
1 ounce fresh lime juice
1 ounce simple syrup (boil and cool equal parts water and sugar)
4 watermelon chunks
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Whirl all ingredients together and pour into a glass. Garnish with a lime wheel. Oops! The blender is broken. I swear it's true.

Stars and Stripes

1/4oz Lucid Absinthe
1 oz Blueberry Vodka
1/4oz Simple Syrup
Splash of Lemon Juice
Drizzle of Raspberry Liqueur
Gingerbeer
Fresh Blueberries

Muddle fresh blueberries and add syrup, Lucid juice and vodka.
Add ice and shake and pour into highball glass. Drizzle Liqueur and top with Ginger Beer. Garnish with one sugar cube.

Disclaimer: I have actually not had time to try any of these yet since I have been too busy making our latest snack at the lounge, BLT Paninis. If you want one of these drinks, print out the recipe and bring it with you in case you get to the lounge tonight before I do. And bring your own berries cause I'm sure as hell not going berry picking any time soon.

God Bless America, and God Bless Bacon.

xo
Felicia

Strawberry Cocktails

2009-06-24T12:50:00.004-04:00

Drink your strawberries while you can! Back by popular demand, Felicia is going to be serving up Strawberry-Basil Cocktails, starting today and ending really soon since strawberry season just doesn't feel long enough.

Of course, you can always buy strawberries off-season, but they are genetically altered giant mutants (that's a quarter next to the two in the above picture) who will eat your dog while you sleep.

Last week, we smashed strawberries into our mojitos, and we have also been known to sneak strawberries into everything else, too, like our State Street 75 and fresh spiked lemonade.

I can personally attest to how incredible the Strawberry-Basil Cocktail is since I drank five of them last night (Mom and Dad, I did not really drink excessively. Honest. I am exaggerating to amuse my reading audience). Seriously. Best. Drink. Ever.

Oh - one other tip - bourbon lovers should try replacing the vodka with Knob Creek, if you can get your hands on some ever-elusive Knob before the predicted outage.

Sustainable AlleyArt

2009-06-24T12:11:00.009-04:00

Sustainable AlleyArt installations invade Felicia's Atomic Lounge

by Amelia Sauter, Ithaca, NY

Felicia’s Atomic Lounge owners Leah Houghtaling and Amelia Sauter have made it clear during the past five years that they care about the community. Now these two women have taken Felicia’s commitment to do-gooding one step further: They are opening Felicia’s alley for sustainable art shows.

The premise, according to Houghtaling, is to host monthly AlleyArt installations comprised of artwork created with a minimum of 50% recycled or reused materials. Artwork must be designed to withstand - or transform with - the elements, including but not limited to rain, wind, sun, and interaction with people. Preference will be given to those artists whose pieces are created with a higher percentage of recycled materials.

“We have a long, blank blue wall in the alley,” says Houghtaling. “We are committed to being green, and we care about the arts. The AlleyArt show fuses these two passions together.”

July’s featured artist, Charlie Elrod, read Felicia’s request for proposals on the lounge’s blog earlier this month and responded immediately. Elrod started welding in 1980 when he owned a dairy farm in Georgia, and a few years ago he successfully tried his hand at metal sculpting using pieces of old farm equipment. He calls his business Springfield FarmArt.

“I try not to alter the individual parts since they have such cool, sinuous curves and angles,” explains Elrod. “I let their shape determine their placement and interaction with the other pieces. I also don’t use any finishes on the metal, but let the patina that has developed over decades say what it will of its history.”

For Felicia’s AlleyArt show, Elrod will be displaying artistic patio furniture welded from farm machinery.

Elrod adds, “The emphasis on recycled/reclaimed materials is a great opportunity for me to move away from the glass table tops I have been using and into searching for reclaimed materials that bring their own history to the pieces.” Elrod’s tabletops for the Felicia exhibit originally came from the Tompkins County Courthouse. He found them at Finger Lakes ReUse.

Houghtaling and Sauter are thrilled to be partnering with Elrod for the show. “His art work is perfect for our alley,” says Houghtaling. “It’s functional art, which to me is the best kind.”
Elrod’s FarmArt will be on display in Felicia’s alley from July 1-July 31. The opening reception on July 1 will be from 7pm to 9pm, and Felicia’s will take this opportunity to introduce a newly expanded food menu. Samplings of spring rolls, paninis, new flatbread pizzas and other food will be on hand.

Elrod’s FarmArt can be seen online at http://www.sfetech.net/farmart.html. Felicia’s Atomic Lounge is currently accepting submissions for summer and fall AlleyArt installations. Click here for guidelines.

Father's Day Gift Suggestions

2009-06-17T21:13:00.006-04:00

What should you get dear ol' Dad for Father's Day? You didn't forget, did you? You bad, bad child. Your parents deserve a better child than you. Felicia will save your ass with some last minute suggestions:

1) A bottle of Knob Creek - word on the street is that there is going to be a Knob Creek shortage this summer. Dad can probably sell that bottle of Knob on eBay for a good price after he squanders all of his retirement money at the track. Unless he drinks it all himself like the lush that he is.

2) A bottle of The Dalmore 1263 King Alexander III or Mount Gay Rum Extra Old. I have never tried either one of these, but I told some bigwig marketing broad that I would plug them for Father's Day because I thought she said she was going to send me some of both. Turns out, she said she was going to send me some information on them both. Dammit. BTW, The Dalmore is only $200. Doesn't your Dad deserve that kind of love? No, mine neither. The Mount Gay is only $50 if you're feeling thrifty. A one-and-a-half ounce bottle of Jack Daniels is only $1.99.

3) Sharpen his lawnmower blades at Agway. Of course, he'd love it! Everyone loves appliance- and tool-related presents. Why, I bought Leah a vacuum cleaner for her birthday and she was just thrilled to pieces about it.

4) Admit that when you were a teenager you drank his booze and added water to the bottle in its place. Dad, I didn't do that! I was too much of a geek. But I'll bet my sister did.

5) Buy Dad a pedicure. His toenails are probably a little funky at his age. And who doesn't like a good foot rub?

6) How the hell should I know what you should get your dad? Call him yourself and ask him what he wants. And for god's sake, don't take him to the Chinese Buffet. That's reserved for Christmas.

The Chicken BBQ Phenomenon - Week 7

2009-06-17T21:00:00.006-04:00

Hey! What happened to Weeks 5 and 6? Apparently small town Chicken BBQ's have a season. Kind of like rhubarb. They pop up in early May - specifically the weekend before Mother's Day - and then slowly peter out by the end of May when everyone has pigged out one too many weekends in a row and started to question why they are eating dry, tasteless, chewy hunks of flesh.

The above photo was a rare sighting of an Ithaca (i.e. larger town) Chicken BBQ a few weeks ago. I took this picture from the car window on my way out of town to the Big Apple, where I most certainly did not find any Big Chicken BBQ fundraisers.

Chicken BBQ's have not completely disappeared, but I am no longer seeing two or three in Trumansburg every weekend. This could change with Father's Day coming up this weekend.

I will be sure to post a Chicken BBQ update after the holiday weekend so stay tuned.

Mixology Monday: Ginger Cocktails

2009-06-15T22:52:00.010-04:00

This month’s Mixology Monday is being hosted by Rum Dood and the theme is ginger. Ha! You just mistakenly thought we would disclose the secret behind our someday-it-will-be-famous Horny Ninjarita, previously known as the Horny G*ngerita until someone trademarked the G-word so we can’t use it anymore. For those of you who are not lucky enough to live locally, the Horny G*ngerita, I mean, Ninjarita is a Felicia's Atomic Lounge margarita made with Hornitos tequila and our fresh ginger-lime elixir. Tough crap, you will have to wait until Felicia’s cocktail book comes out for that recipe, which at my current writing rate should be around 2017.

Felicia’s ginger cocktail for Mixology Monday is based on cachaca. I don’t know how to put the little tail on the last “c” in cachaca so you will just have to imagine it is there. Look it up if you don’t know what I am talking about. We tried ginger with scotch first, but ginger risks tasting medicinal when drink/drank/drunk (damn it – which is it?) with whiskey. Say, Rum Dood, does cachaca count as rum, kind of sort of maybe? I had a, ahem, rum "incident" when I was 14 so cachaca is about as close as I can get to your holy spirit.

I am a huge fan of cachaca in general and the caipirinha specifically, but we decided to skip limes today mostly because we found an orange, not a lime, staring at us from the fridge. The flavor of cachaca harmonizes perfectly with ginger and orange. We named our cocktail “Lazy Lover” after a song by the Brazilian Girls, who are neither Brazilian nor girls. OK, one girl, but I’ve never met her so whatever.

Drink and enjoy, and make sure you visit Rum Dood for other Mixology Monday ginger cocktail recipes.

Lazy Lover
1 ½ ounce cachaca
1 ounce ginger-honey syrup (see below)
1 orange wheel

Muddle all ingredients in a glass. Add ice. Shake. Serve on the rocks.

Ginger-Honey Syrup
½ cup honey
½ cup water
2 Tablespoons fresh grated ginger

Bring ingredients almost to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Let cool and strain.

Strawberry Lemonade

2009-06-10T07:00:00.001-04:00

Strawberries have made their debut at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market. Berries are an easy cocktail addition; they can be muddled up into just about any drink, like a margarita, a mojito or a gin and tonic.

Because we had a fridge full of lemons, we decided to make some fresh-squeezed lemonade with strawberries. Lemonade is easy to make; use equal parts lemon juice, water and simple syrup. Our drink turned out a little darker than usual due to using organic sugar. If you have bottled lemon juice or even a can of Country Time Lemonade mix on hand, you can use one of those, though fresh-squeezed lemon juice will bring out the best flavor of the strawberries. Shame on you if you have Country Time Lemonade mix in your house! Shame!

A great thing about Strawberry Lemonade is that you don't have to spike it if you don’t want to. Why the hell wouldn't you want to spike it? Some people are strange, underage or pregnant. Without the alcohol, Strawberry Lemonade is appropriate for kids and non-imbibing adults, too.

For an extra-refreshing drink, throw your Strawberry Lemonade in the blender with ice. We tend to skip blender drinks ourselves – there’s more to clean up. We swear, the blender is broken. It just broke. Right before you asked for that blended drink. Honest.

Strawberry Lemonade

4 medium-sized fresh strawberries
2 ounces water
2 ounces lemon juice
2 ounces simple syrup (equal parts water and sugar)
1 ½ ounces vodka

Muddle strawberries in a pint glass. Add the rest of the ingredients and shake with ice. Serve over ice. Include a long-handled spoon for digging the strawberries out of the bottom of the glass.