Cocktails

Modern Classics: Trinidad Sour

By Jonathan Laurel • October 25, 2018 • Cocktails

For those who know how to read a cocktail menu but have never had a Trinidad Sour, the cocktail’s description clearly sticks out as odd, if not straight up frightening. It’s certainly one of the most surprising and memorable cocktails you’re likely to have at any bar. Bartender Giuseppe Gonzalez created this cocktail in 2009 for the Angostura cocktail competition. It follows in a line of Angostura cocktails that starts with the Trinidad Especial (crafted… Read More

Modern Classics: Paper Plane

By Jonathan Laurel • October 23, 2018 • Cocktails

As far as “modern classics” go, it may be difficult to find one more ubiquitous than the Paper Plane, created by Sam Ross in 2007. Allegedly named after the M.I.A. song (which is an amazing story, though unconfirmed by its creator), the Paper Plane was created for the opening menu of Violet Hour with bourbon, Campari, Amaro Nonino, and lemon. It seems Ross changed the Campari to Aperol once he started working on Milk &… Read More

Modern Classics: White Negroni

By Jonathan Laurel • October 19, 2018 • Cocktails

The White Negroni found its way onto our flight of Modern Classics because it’s beautiful and because it so perfectly translates the profile of its ancestor, the famous Negroni. British bartender Wayne Collins created this cocktail for Plymouth Gin in 2001 at an expo in France when, allegedly, neither Campari nor sweet vermouth were available. Each of the elements of the original Negroni are repeated in this cocktail, but to a more floral, lighter note. Read More

Modern Classics

By Jonathan Laurel • October 18, 2018 • Cocktails

While we do embrace the traditional style of Golden Age cocktails, the craft cocktail renaissance of the last fifteen years has contributed many memorable drinks. These modern-day “classics” are every bit as enjoyable as those cocktails we dig out too the dusty, dog-eared books behind the bar. For Volume #3, we’ve featured (from left to right): the White Negroni, with London dry gin, Salers gentian liqueur, and cocci americano; the Paper Plane, with… Read More

Paloma

By Jonathan Laurel • September 14, 2018 • Cocktails

We turned to the much-mythified Paloma to feature at West Main for the weekend of Mexican Independence Day, along with our Mexican spirits flight (tequila, mescal, sotol). We, like many, believed the vague but popular myth that the Paloma was an old school Mexican cocktail that had found its way onto the menu of the occasional modern cocktail bar, and, per usual, we were curious to find out its history. It was only then that… Read More