How to Survive Cornell Graduation Weekend

Cocktails, brunch, cupcakes, and more cocktails

Cornell Graduation weekend is often a good reason to leave Ithaca for a few days. But assuming you’re still here, we’ve got a couple of suggestions for surviving the influx of humans and slow-moving cars:

1.  Have a drink. Obviously. Better yet, have two.

2. Don’t bother to get in your car, and for goodness sake stay far away from Wegmans and anything that resembles a hill or a bell tower. Also avoid all restaurants that offer Filet Mignon, a Finger Lakes Cheese Board, or Pommes Frites.

3.  Come to Felicia’s to eat as well as drink. You see, most graduating seniors are smart enough to NOT bring their parents here and say, “Hey Mom and Dad, you know how you just spent $95,000 on my education? This is where I spent my last year, my favorite place in the world, my home away from home, the place I DRINK ALL THE TIME. (On the other hand, the smartest ones might actually bring their parents to Felicia’s for a Fig Manhattan or Lavender Lemonade to show off their refined, grownup taste in cocktails, a strategy we highly recommend to impress imbibing parents.)

We do not expect to be crowded this weekend (except during Friday happy hour when we are hosting Miami’s finest surf band, The Gold Dust Lounge!!). Grab a flatbread pizza, or on Friday, a Drunken Hot Dog. And on Sunday, when all those Cornellians are up on the hill snoozing their way through commencement, you can enjoy Brunch at Felicia’s either inside or in the alley. We offer table service, excellent coffee, breakfast cocktails, and the most creative Brunch food menu in Ithaca.  

Here’s the link to our Brunch menu: http://www.atomicloungeithaca.com/brunchmenu.pdf  

Note: Our Sunday hours are now 11am-midnight, so you can enjoy your cocktails early and all day, but alcohol cannot be served until 12 noon.

Also currently at the Lounge: Mojitos made with mint from our garden - ditto the Lemon (Balm) Coco(nut) Martinis - and for another week or so, the much coveted Rhubarb Martini.

 We bake cupcakes daily! Our rotating cupcake menu can be found here: http://www.feliciaspeakeasy.blogspot.com/2013/04/cupcakes-at-felicias-in-ithaca-ny.html

Felicia's Fancy-Free Brunch in Ithaca

As much as we love our cocktails, we love creativity. We thrive on what's new and what's next, be it pre-prohibition cocktails, boozy cupcakes, or the next farmers market-inspired drink. And now, what's new and next is our Fancy-Free Brunch. That's right, we are serving up Brunch at Felicia's Atomic Lounge in Ithaca on both Saturday and Sunday mornings from 10:30am-2:30pm.

Frittata of the Day

Brunch-and-cocktails are as married as gin-and-tonic or scotch-and-soda, so you can bet we'll have a doozy of a cocktail list, including such classics as Mimosas (three ways), Bloody Marys (two ways), Buttered Bourbon, and Pisco Sours. Breakfast in a glass.

Pisco Sour

But most important on a Sunday morning (besides a strong cup of coffee) is the food.  We're calling it a 'Fancy-Free Brunch' because we're embracing simplicity, and preparing and eating foods that are as close to the original food source as they can be. We're serving six dishes that will please carnivores, omnivores, locavores, vegans, those who need gluten-free options, and people who require sweets. For our full Brunch menu, click here.

Photo by Margaret Bruns

We went straight to the farms: The meat and eggs are from Autumn's Harvest Farm in Romulus, most of the cheese is from New York State, and the greens are from Tree Gate Farm and Finger Lakes Fresh. We make everything from scratch. We focus on fresh. We fill it with love.

Gerry's Sticky Buns

Did I mention the Sticky Buns and cupcakes??

Chocolate Red Wine Cupcake with Red Wine Buttercream (vegan)

Doorbuster Cocktail on Black Friday

I'll need one of these if I shop like a locavore; six if I have to go to Walmart.

Thanksgiving snuck up on me this year. Fortunately, I’m eating at someone else’s house so I don’t have to prepare to do anything other than eat and drink. The gift-giving season that follows, however, leaves me feeling like I should have started shopping months ago. I need a drink, a massage, and chocolate, STAT! And a wreath! And a muffin.

Leah and I lost our minds this year and decided to open Felicia’s at 10AM on BLACK FRIDAY, November 23, with morning cocktails, breakfast sandwiches, housemade cranberry nut muffins, chair massages by Rasa Spa, chocolate tasting/sales with Preliminaires Chocolat, handmade soap and hemlock/sage wreaths made by Tree Gate Farm, and raw honey and jam from Red Tail Farm. Last year, I bought Preliminaires Chocolat for every woman on my gift list; I think the pastry chef might indeed be God if one exists. This year, everyone is getting yummy scented handmade soaps (the men, too, which they can use should they choose to bathe in the coming year). We’ll also have Felicia hoodies, martini glasses, pint glasses, T-shirts, and gift certificates for sale. 

Call me lazy, but if I can buy it all in one place then my loved ones are much more likely to find something other than brown pine needles under their Xmas trees. 

And where else can you drink mimosas, holiday spiked coffee, Cranhattans, and eggnog martinis while conveniently completing your holiday shopping?

Here's my favorite drink to have before I hit the stores: The Doorbuster.

Doorbuster

1 ounce tequila

1/2 orange wheel sprinkled with cinnamon

Drink shot. Bite cinnamon-sprinkled orange wheel. Shop 'til you drop.

The Wiggins Cocktail

I'll have a Wiggins Cocktail or three.

Congratulations to the Wiggins family, the innovative owners of La Tourelle Resort and Spa in Ithaca. This week, they received the Howard Cogan Tourism Award for their contributions to tourism in our community.

You probably haven't heard of the Wiggins family, unless you live in Ithaca. I've met them, and they are lovely. But I admit I've never visited the spa. When I have time to relax, I get as far away from town as I can. Preferably somewhere with no cell service, and no people. And lots of booze.

Howard Cogan, on the other hand, is practically famous worldwide. He's the guy who created the slogan "Ithaca is Gorges," now plastered on our cars' bumpers and across our green T-shirt chests, allowing us to find like-minded individuals when we are traveling in other parts of the country. Don't wear your "Ithaca is Gorges" T-shirt outside of this area unless you want to make friends with other displaced Ithacans who will run up to you and hug you, leaving their patchouli aura on your Ithaca clothing.

The Ithaca Visitor's Center commissioned Felicia's to make a cocktail in honor of the Wiggins family, with the only guideline being red wine as one of the ingredients. Leah created a red wine syrup with cocoa, cinnamon, mustard, and orange zest, which was slowly added to a glass of champagne. I know, mustard? Really? Really. A festive cocktail with a delightful and delicious complexity. The drink will be on our Lounge menu at least through the holiday season.

Election Day Cocktails: Vote Wisely, Drink Heavily

Felicia always says: You can't complain if you don't vote!  $1 off a drink if you come wearing your 'I Voted' sticker tonight. We'll be streaming the election results via projector starting around 7:30pm. And we're definitely going to need to drink to get through this one. Join us to celebrate with a toast, or to cry in your beer with a hug chaser. Vote wisely and we'll hope for a victory toast.

And a locavore shout out to someone who also deserves national attention because he's so awesome: The elderberry juice in the Mormon Elder is from berries that were cultivated, picked, and pressed by Amelia's dad. Thanks, Pop!

Try our election day cocktails today only: President's Punch, the Baracktail, The Nutty Fruitcake, and the Mormon Elder Cocktail!

We Bring the Bar to You: Catering Liquor

A Felicia bar at a summer wedding

We've been heading offsite quite a bit lately to do bars for weddings, barbecues, bar mitzvahs, and birthday parties. Catering is a moronic undertaking:  14 hour days consisting of packing up an entire bar at the Lounge, arriving to a location and building an entire bar, serving drinks to people for a few hours, breaking down an entire bar, and then unpacking an entire bar back onto the shelves at the Lounge. And yet we are compelled to do it, because we do it well. My heart breaks every time I attend a wedding as a guest and order a Manhattan, only to have the sixteen-year-old bartender ask, "What's a Manhattan?"

There's a lot of other good reasons to hire someone to cater the alcohol for your event, the most important one being the fact that at a wedding reception, the guests average 5 drinks each. That's the average. Grandma might not touch the stuff ('It's the devil's work'), but your college best friend Buffy sure as hell makes up for it by drinking eleven beers and four shots of whiskey. And who's going to make sure Buffy gets into a cab and not behind the wheel of a car? You think it will be you, but after your sixth glass of champagne and Buffy accidentally ripping the train off your wedding gown while doing the Electric Slide, listening to Uncle Bert's war stories is going to be much more appealing then holding Buffy's hair back while she throws up in the Deluxe Port-A-Potty. Hiring a responsible and well-trained bartender is money well spent.

Plenty going on at the Lounge lately, too. We just finished celebrating strawberry season with a slew of Strawberry Basil Cocktails. Next week will bring back the Black Cap Yap, Watermelon Envy, and a cucumber-lavender infusion of sorts. We are keeping our farmers busy at Tree Gate Farm.

Also coming up: Our next Classic Cocktail night (July 10, 8pm-1am) will include raspberry syrup, a rum punch, and something with ice cream because it has been too damn hot out. For details, follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/atomicfelicia .



 

Classic Cocktails, Coming Up

Since the 1930’s, the site of Felicia’s Atomic Lounge has been a bar. Though we looked up its history once, damned if I can remember what it was called back then. Chalk my bad memory up to aging and excessive gin consumption. Not sure anyone is still alive who can tell us about the early years of this saloon, especially given the fact that the West End was a rowdy, rough-and-tumble, what-happens-in-the-bar-stays-in-the-bar kind of neighborhood for many decades.

I love to say that history doesn’t matter, and that some cocktails are best forgotten (like most of my ex-boyfriends). But then Leah got her hands on a copy of The Savoy Cocktail Book (1930), ironically first published during Prohibition. The guide is filled with cocktails that rely on only a few basic liquors: Gin. Whiskey. Vermouth. Kirsch. Absinthe. Sherry. Lillet. Brandy. Even my old frenemy, Fernet Branca. And so our liquid exploration of cocktail history has begun.

We decided to throw a Classic Cocktail party - maybe a series of them - the first being April 17, from 7pm-10pm. The bartenders will be mixing five or six different cocktails for you to sample. If one martini usually knocks you on your ass (like me), never fear: These cocktails will be served in small martini glasses that are about half the size of today’s giant bowls of chilled alcohol, because back in the early 1900’s, drinks were simpler AND smaller. Even the martinis on Mad Men reflect a reasonable restraint, at least in the mixing, though not in the consumption. (How do you think people managed a ‘three martini lunch?’) But, in Leah’s words, “Nowadays we’re a bunch of spoiled kids consuming ridiculous, decadent overcomplicated cocktails filled with corn syrup and food coloring.”

We’ve come a long way, baby, but it ain’t all good. Let’s pay homage to the past. At the Cocktail Classic, expect to try some creative Felicia interpretations of cocktails that have been around for 100+ years, like the Corpse Reviver, an early hair-of-the-dog hangover “remedy.”

Drink your tonic, Carrie Nation. We’re coming for you, Felicia-style.

The Cocktail Classic will be held at Felicia’s Atomic Lounge from 7pm-10pm on April 17, 2012. Also stay tuned for details on the upcoming release party for our barrel-aged cocktails.

All The Gin Joints

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.

Teeny Pies

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.

AlleyArt: Stars by Laura Robert

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

AlleyArt: Beach Finds

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

Mastodons and Martinis

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.

AlleyArt: Plants Under The Influence

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.

Big Red Cocktail

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

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.

Local Lover Challenge

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.

Bitchtooth

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...

Review: Finger Lakes Distilling

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.