The Sidecar
This drink is 1 1/2 ounces cognac and 3/4 ounce each of Cointreau and lemon juice. But the star of the show is the sugared rim of the glass. Just wet about 1/4 inch of the OUTSIDE rim of the glass with an orange slice, then press the rim into a small mound of sugar and repeat around the circumference of the glass. Put the glass into the freezer for a few minutes so the wet sugar re-crystallizes.
The Sidecar is the kind of drink I think of when I hear the word “cocktail.” That and Scott “Scooter” Smith, owner of the Kwik Kopy on Indian School Road. He always used the word “cocktail” when he meant the word “drunk.” You know…”Let’s go get cocktails” meant “Let’s go get drunk by any and all means necessary.” He was also the first person I ever heard use the word as a verb, as in “I did a little too much cocktailing last night.” This was 1988 so I was still in the information-gathering phase of my serious, adult drinking career. Scott was one of those guys you hate until you know him. He was and probably still is, a blond, suntanned, golfing chauvinist who calls everybody “Bro”. He simply stunk of fraternity house. But as a business-person he was sharp and he knew that it took all kinds of people to be successful. Once you spent time with him, it didn’t matter what your social status was, or your skin color, or your predilection for long-hair music. He accepted you kind of as family. My last day at Kwik Kopy, he took me and the pressmen to the Hi-Liter strip club. His favorite strip bar, The Great Alaskan Bush Company, had been raided recently or something so we went to the nudie landmark on 12th Street instead. I stole a lot of charming shit from him…like calling people “Slick” and “Ace” and emphasizing odd syllables in the cadence of a sentence to stress or de-stress meanings. Usually that just involved stressing the word “What” instead of “doing” in the oft-used question “What are you doing?”
Back to the Sidecar. This is an elegant looking drink. The color is luminous, the rim glistens with sugar, the orange peel bobs languidly just below the surface. At first I was a bit distracted by the sugared rim. The first impression wasn’t clear until the third sip. It’s pretty tart without the sugar from the rim but ultimately it’s a tasty drink. If you use Courvoisier and Cointreau like I did, I’m betting it tastes better and packs more of an honest wallop than if you get your brandy from the bottom shelf and use triple sec. A lesson I’ve learned: If you don’t want to feel like a bag of smashed assholes in the morning, use as close to premium ingredients as you can.
The Between The Sheets
A Sidecar with Benedictine.
When you smell Benedictine you think “Why on earth would I want to drink Absorbine Jr.?” But it really adds a mysterious layer of flavor to the drink. This may actually be better than the Sidecar. It’s like cognac is saying “I want to be a bad-ass like scotch.” and then goes down to the alley behind the Frolic Room to pick fights with drunkards. But just in case, he takes his buddy Benedictine along for back-up. Nobody messes with cognac when Benedictine is standing behind him because fighting the two of them is almost like fighting with Scotchy McScotch. Only not really. Where the hell am I going with this terrible metaphor? I think it’s that this drink tastes a little bit like it has scotch in it because of the Benedictine. And there’s no alley behind the Frolic Room.
It’s disappointing though that a drink with such a sexy name is not very sexy.
