Six Days of Mixin’ & Drinkin’ (with a little food thrown in for good measure)

Peter, Paul, Marianne, and Steve, drinking Golden El Zetes, in Connecticut.

These last six days have been a beehive of activity for us. On Thursday, we visited our friend Julie in her new Park Slope apartment she calls "The Bird Nest," a one-bedroom penthouse that has three (count them, three!) outdoor spaces. She has the entire roof and will be installing a putting green. Having an outdoor space of our own, we know that she will be spending all her time on the main terrace. So we decided to invent a cocktail for her we dubbed The Bird Nest. It's a champagne cocktail with a twist of somethin’ special. Stay tuned in the near future on Cocktail Buzz because we'll be shooting a video with Julie, pairing it with an old classic appetizer (that too will have a little somethin’ special added, but we’ve divulged too much already).

On Friday, we prepared for our next video shoot, which took place at Paul’s parents’ place in Connecticut over the weekend. The weather was perfect for an outdoor shoot. And what a video shoot it was. We invented some cocktails for Peter & Marianne for Father’s Day/Mother’s Day and will be sharing you the results, along with an incredibly flavorful, decadent, yet easy-to-make appetizer. Paul’s niece Amanda even joined in the making of the appetizer. But since it takes about a week to edit, check for the video after this coming weekend on Cocktail Buzz.

On Monday, we published the the photos and cocktail/food reminiscences of our recent Chicago trip, so check that out on our Web site, and if you’re in Chicago, please do go the The Violet Hour, an amazing cocktail lounge. We can’t speak more highly of it. Just go! In the evening, we made one of our favorite cocktails, the Manhattan, using a hard-to-find vermouth-style fortified wine called Carpano Antica. It’s a little less spiky than your usual sweet vermouths, more smooth and subtle, but makes for a beguiling, whiskey-forward cocktail. Here’s our recipe:

The Manhattan
(adapted by Cocktail Buzz)

Ingredients
2 parts Rittenhouse Rye
1 part Carpano Antica
2 dashes Fees Brothers Whiskey Barrel-Aged Bitters

Method
Stir in a pint glass half-filled with ice for 30 seconds. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass. Garnish with a Luxardo marasche cherry.

{To watch our video making a Manhattan, paired with bacon-wrapped dates, click here. }

Tuesday, last night, we drank Zen Green Tea Liqueur cocktails at the benefit for Soho Rep. for which we were a prize—to come to our home and create a signature cocktail. First off, if you haven’t tried Zen, and you like green tea, do take a swig if you get the opportunity. It is a sweet and slightly syrupy version of a freshly brewed batch of the green stuff, and it balanced nicely with the cocktails that were on offer: a Zen Margarita, a Zentini, and Zen Iced Tea. The Zen folks have a bunch of their recipes on their Web site. Secondly, we are very excited to share our secrets to create a signature cocktail with the winner, Matthew, and his delightful wife, Alexis. We chatted with them quite a bit before the raffle drawing, and found out that they live within walking distance from us in Brooklyn. Small world. We are looking forward to spending time with them and coming up with a special drink to share with you on our Web site. If you would like us to host a Create Your Signature Cocktail class, give us a shout at mail@cocktailbuzz.com, and we’d be happy to set something up.

Until our next post, bottoms up!

photo © Steve Schul, Cocktail Buzz