Sauced

Rob Roy’s Alcohol-Fueled Advent Calendar

Count down to Christmas with 24 days of holiday drinks…and a little bit of fire.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 30, 2011 at 12:25PM 0 Comments

The blue blazer, being poured by legendary bar man Jerry Thomas.

Some advent calendars contain chocolate or Bible verses; others involve cups of flaming whiskey. You’ll find the latter at Rob Roy, where bartenders have organized a spirited advent calendar that starts tomorrow. Look for a different seasonal drink each day in December, leading up to Christmas Eve.

This decidedly adult advent countdown was the inspiration of Andrew Bohrer, who will be posting each day’s drink recipe on his Caskstrength blog (if you haven’t read his barman’s holiday gift guide yet, go check that out too). Rob Roy’s Bryn Lumsden set up the calendar and got everyone organized.

What’s the point of all this? Per Bohrer, it’s a chance to redeem all those holiday drinks that nobody orders because they are often poorly executed, or achingly sweet. “I wanted to give everybody a free pass for a day to order something they couldn’t ever get or order in a bar,” he says. The drinks will be a surprise each day, but Bohrer predicts a mix of holiday classics and wintry originals from him, Lumsden and Anu Apte. About a quarter of the drinks will be hot, including the Tom and Jerry, recently resurrected over at Vito’s, and a “Spanish coffee amnesty day.”

On December 24, the alcoholic equivalent of that really giant culminating piece of advent-calendar chocolate is the blue blazer, a beverage that involves flaming cups of whiskey and a high probability of setting one’s self on fire. It’s a favorite feat for Bohrer, who says the process requires only a steady hand and a tolerance for, you know, being set on fire.

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Tags: Drinking Events, Drinking Events, Rob Roy, Holiday Drinking, Holiday 2011

Vito’s Resurrects the Tom and Jerry

Sample this hot drink of decades past between Thanksgiving and the new year.

Posted by: Allecia Vermillion on Nov 17, 2011 at 03:00PM 0 Comments

The Tom and Jerry. Photo: Serious Eats

In case you missed the news reports, Twitter talk, elevator chitchat and actual contact with the outdoor air, let me bring you up to speed: It’s cold outside. And we are teetering dangerously close to the holiday season, which means hot, boozy drinks are totally acceptable, or downright encouraged. There’s always the storied eggnog over at Sun Liquor. Or a good hot toddy (just try to avoid heaving one in your companion’s face).

Delve further into the cocktail canon (with a lower-case "C") and you’ll find the Tom and Jerry. It’s a 19th century drink that was once a holiday staple but faded into obscurity about four decades back. Vito’s is resurrecting this eggnoglike concoction and will be serving it from the day after Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve. Bar manager Justin Gerardy says inspiration struck when a bunch of Tom and Jerry mugs were recently unearthed in the restaurant’s basement.

Tom and Jerry mugs, for the record, usually look something like this (and not at all like this).

The version Gerardy is serving at Vito’s uses a batter made by whipping egg whites and egg yolks separately, and folding them back together with cinnamon, allspice and cloves. Oh, and a bit of Smith and Cross Jamaica rum. He adds steamed milk, more rum (Appleton Estate this time) and a bit of rye whiskey. The result, says Gerardy, is garnished with a bit of nutmeg and has the consistency of a properly made cappuccino. He promises the result is “goddamned delicious.”

I didn’t utter any profanity when I sampled the vin brule at Mike Easton’s pasta spot Il Corvo at lunch today (hey, he’s only open at lunch…I went in the name of research). But it was still mighty enjoyable. Vin brule is the Italian term for mulled wine, also known as gluhwein or glogg. Easton’s an aperitivo and digestif guy, so he livens up his vin brule with a splash of Cocchi Americano, an Italian aperitif. And if you order one from him, you should follow suit.

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Tags: Vito's, Holiday Drinking, Justin Gerardy, Il Corvo, Mike Easton